Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 42-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche teaches emptiness using a table as the central example: it appears to exist independently from its own side, yet actually depends entirely on causes and conditions—carpenter, wood, tools, effort. This illustration opens the way to understanding how all phenomena, including the self, lack true independent existence. He begins with a 20-minute mindfulness-of-breathing meditation infused with compassion, then walks through the philosophical reasoning, quotes Nāgārjuna on the negation of self, explains why the Buddha delayed teaching emptiness (it requires spiritual maturity), and clarifies how understanding this dependence on causes rather than true independence liberates us from suffering. The session ends with a guided meditation on the emptiness of self.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-07-26 – Meditation – KR.MP3
UUID: 9ab4b095-9c15-40e0-b195-bf5f2c32c6a5
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Emptiness
Date: 1992-07-26
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,830
Before meditating on mindfulness and breathing, we’re going to it’s necessary to adjust our motivation. And as our motivation, we should try to develop altruism. And this beneficial attitude of altruism is developed in the context of love and compassion. So, developing love and compassion, we can go on to develop a sense of benefit in others. How do we cultivate compassion?
This is we ourselves are troubled by many types of dissatisfactions. Likewise, all others are experiencing the same. And whosoever the person might be, they don’t want to suffer. So develop an attitude which, first, thinking it would be wonderful if others didn’t have suffering or the causes of suffering. And then the attitude, may others be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Then we go on to cultivate the kind hearted attitude of love. First, understanding that just as we ourselves want happiness, that we like, that it brings us great pleasure. Likewise, all sentient beings want happiness. And developing the loving attitude expressed in the thought, Wouldn’t it be wonderful if myself and all sentient beings had happiness in the causes of happiness? And then going on to cultivate and strengthen that in the sense of may all sentient beings, including myself, have happiness and the causes of happiness.
Having cultivated such an attitude, we’re going to meditate on mindfulness of breathing. We should try to associate with our mindfulness of breathing when we exhale, imagining that all the various undesirable qualities and states, various dissatisfaction, fears and anxiety going out in the aspect of a black light, going far out into the distance and disappearing. And then upon inhaling, all the various desirable qualities and states, all the various types of love and bliss and compassion, positive qualities are all drawn into oneself in the form of a brilliant white light. And imagine that oneself has actually generated all of these various qualities and associating this with the breathing process. We’re going to meditate for twenty minutes.
Quoting from the great master of the view of emptiness, Nāgārjuna, where he said, The self is neither self, nor other, nor both, nor neither, nor is it arising from any functional thing. So what is this teaching? This sets forth the reason in establishing emptiness. It is extremely important and beneficial to understand it.
It’s said that emptiness is extremely subtle. It’s very difficult to understand. But if one were to understand it, it would be of tremendous benefit. Why is it said to be so extremely difficult to understand? The Buddha meditated on emptiness for six years before he realized it.
And upon his realization of emptiness, he thought it was so subtle that others would not be able to understand it, though he would try to explain it. And therefore, he temporarily did not teach it. Why is it that the Buddha temporarily did not teach the view of emptiness? It was necessary to both have an accumulation of creative potential, merit, and wisdom. And that until that time, the explanation of emptiness would not be of any benefit.
If a student came along who had the necessary prerequisites of accumulation of wisdom and creative potential, then this teaching could be easily understood. We say that the realization of emptiness was extremely beneficial, that it had great results. If emptiness, one were to then all of the various types of suffering that we now have to undergo, the various types of suffering such as birth, old age, disease and death. Now all the peoples of the world in all their various sufferings come about through the not realizing emptiness. It is by the influence of not understanding emptiness that we have to undergo all our various dissatisfactions.
If one were to generate the wisdom realizing emptiness, then one could remove from its very root the causes of suffering. And therefore, having removed the causes, then we would not have to experience the results and that we would experience a state where there is only happiness and this is experienced as liberation, is a consummate state of happiness. Without the realization of emptiness, whatever Dharma we may study, whatever Dharma we may practice, it cannot bring us liberation. There is no other way to achieve the purest state beyond suffering without the realization of emptiness. So considering its great importance, it’s necessary that we strive for the realization of emptiness.
We have to make effort in that direction in order to develop the wisdom, understanding, and emptiness and to generate it. And we can do this through its cultivation, that is to say through a process of meditation whereby we imprint various predispositions whereby gradually we can eventually come to a realization of emptiness. So the mind can be likened to a field. And if we were not to plant the seeds in the field, then nothing would grow. And likewise with the field of the mind.
Unless we begin to plant the sprouts of the wisdom realizing emptiness, then we cannot, unless we plant the seeds of the wisdom realizing emptiness, we cannot expect this realization to develop. It’s very similar. It’s analogous. So considering that the mind is like the field, how are we to go about planting the seeds within the field of the mind? That we should again and again listen to teachings on emptiness, proceed to reflect upon it, and then meditate upon it.
And this is the way we plant the seeds of the realization of emptiness within our mind. So what is emptiness? This emptiness which is so difficult to understand. First off, there are some who assert that emptiness does not exist. That is to say, there are those who assert that true existence exists, that things are in fact true existence.
By asserting true existence, then they deny the existence of emptiness. So does emptiness exist or doesn’t exist? We can establish, in fact, that it definitely does exist. We can use a variety of valid reasonings to prove its existence, to establish its existence. Whereupon the other hand, the alternate assertion, that is, the existence of true existence, no matter how much we may try to establish this existence, we can never validly establish the existence of true existence.
It cannot be proved. It cannot be established. Fact, emptiness accords with the nature of reality and this can be established through reasoning. So those who assert the existence of true existence, how do they go about setting forth the reasons, establishing or seeking to establish true existence? Their ultimate reasoning, which they make use of, is that results arise from causes.
Because, in fact, results do arise from causes, they say that these must in fact truly exist. They say that from truly existent causes, truly existent results arise. This is their ultimate reasoning they set forth establishing the existence of true existence. Then on the other hand, those who assert the nonexistence of true existence, that is to say, those who are asserting true existence, use this very same reason to establish that true existence, in fact, does not exist. They say it is only because causes do not truly exist and results do not truly exist that, in fact, causes can generate results.
They use the very same reason to establish the opposite. So what are we to believe? Are we to believe that truly existent causes give rise to truly existent results or the fact that because causes give rise to results that they cannot in fact be truly existent? Which of these is true, which is in accordance with reality? We have to think through this clearly with our reasoning.
So let’s think about this. If true existence existed, then there would be truly existent causes and truly existent results. If a result truly exists, then its existence does not rely upon causes. Because it truly exists, there is no need for it to come into existence. There’s no need for it for a cause.
Causes would not in fact generate results because the results truly exist. So we have to, do in fact results rely upon causes or not? But we can readily see that results necessarily rely upon causes. If we don’t plant a seed, then sprouts don’t grow. If we don’t eat food, then our stomach doesn’t become full.
Without relying upon the parents, there’s no birth or child. Therefore, in order to generate a result, it’s necessary that the result have relied upon preceding causes and conditions. Without those causes and conditions, no result can arise. So what is this true existence? True existence appears to our awareness but we are not able to recognize what is this appearance of true existence.
If we were to question, well does true existence exist or not, this non-existence never appears to our mind. For example, this table appears to us all, but how does it appear to us? If we were to examine the way it’s presently appearing to us, we would see that it appears to not depend upon causes and conditions, that the existence of a table does not depend upon causes and conditions, that it does not depend upon being posited by the force of concepts and terms, that it appears to be existing from its own side. This is the way the table is presently appearing to us. Likewise, all the various phenomena appear in the same way to us.
Our body, our hand, the room, appear in the same way. That is to say, they appear to not be designated or not to be imputed by means of terms and concepts, not to rely upon cause and conditions, but appear to be existing from their own side objectively. If we were to think about this, analyze it, this is the understanding that we would come as to how things appear to us. So if we were by understanding the way in which these objects appear, that is to say that they appear to not rely upon any other factor than themselves, that they do not rely upon causes and conditions, then this way of appearing, this way of existing which appears to us, is the object of negation. That is to say, this is how true existence is appearing.
And given that all phenomena appear to us in this way, we go on to accede to this appearance. That is, thinking, Ah, this is in fact the way they exist. We adhere to that way of appearing as if they really existed that way. in dependence upon this, we begin to discriminate amongst these as good and bad. in dependence upon this discrimination, we develop attachment to those which we judge as good.
We develop aversion to those which we judge as bad. in dependence upon this development of this way of looking at these objects and relating with these objects, we then go on to create skillful and unskillful actions. And depending upon these, we go on to experience all our various types of suffering. It is the in dependence upon the root, wrong awareness which does not understand that all phenomena rely upon causes, conditions, terms and concepts for their existence. So how are we to proceed in our meditation?
If we take the table as an example, it appears to us to not rely upon causes and conditions, not to rely upon being imputed by means of terms and concepts, but in fact to exist from its own side. This way of appearing is the object negation, that is to say true existence. Objects in fact do not exist that way. Though they appear this way, this is a mistake in appearance. They in fact do not exist this way.
Why? Because we can understand that the table relies for its existence upon causes and condition. It is established by means of being designated by means of terms and concepts. Not realizing this, we accept this appearance as being true. But in fact, upon investigation, we can come to understand that though it appears this way, they do not exist this way.
And this is the way we can proceed on meditating on emptiness, that these objects are empty of that way of existing. Can take as an example the table. How does this table come into existence? How is it established? It requires a gathering together of many causes and conditions for it to come into existence.
It required a carpenter who sawed the wood. It required wood. It required various tools. It required various efforts on the part of the carpenter. So the coming together of all these various conditions, the tools, the wood, the carpenter, the tools, the making of effort, And dependence upon all these causes and conditions coming together, the table came into existence.
But the way the table appears is that it is independent of all causes and conditions, that it existed without any effort, without it ever having to be produced. This is the way the table appears to us. So the table comes into existence by relying on a variety of many causes and conditions. The table does not exist in not relying upon causes and conditions. By understanding that the table relies, that its existence is a reliant existence, it relies upon causes and conditions, then we negate, we refute the existence of a table which does not rely upon anything other than itself.
That is to say, a table which exists independently, naturally, truly from its own side. All of these are negated by understanding that the table for its existence necessarily exists in reliance upon other factors than itself. This applies equally to persons, rooms, earth, water, fire, air. All of whatsoever arises from causes and conditions exists dependent upon those causes and conditions. There is nothing whatsoever that does not rely there is no product whatsoever existence does not rely upon causes and conditions.
So it is clear through this way of reasoning that true existence does not exist. If true existence in fact did exist, then the result would not rely upon the quality of the cause. That we would not necessarily have a positive result from a positive cause. On the other hand, that we would not necessarily have a negative result from a negative cause. That factors, experiences such as happiness and pleasure would not necessarily depend upon further existence upon positive causes.
On the other hand, that experiences such as suffering would not necessarily arise from negative causes. Whatsoever is simply good or bad, if it truly existed, would not depend upon, relying upon whether the cause was good or bad, but because the result does not rely upon the cause. Therefore, the quality of the result is not determined by the quality of the cause. This is the way in which we can establish the law of cause and effect. That in fact negative outcomes arise from negative causes and positive outcomes arise from positive causes.
If there did not exist this relationship between these two, then it would not matter what we did. But we all are trying to enact various positive causes quite naturally because we want positive results and we try to avoid negative causes because we don’t want to experience the negative results which arise from these. That is to say, it is our natural understanding in seeing this relationship that we adopt various ways of acting that we reject others. And this is because that there is, in fact, a relationship between the quality of causes and the quality of results. This is the great benefit in understanding emptiness and the fact that emptiness does exist.
It is because of the fact that the results do not truly exist that by the quality of our acts we can determine the quality of the results. By acts we mean the various causes and conditions that we create and whereby we will experience a concordant type of result. So how are we to proceed in our meditation on emptiness? We can take the table as an example. We can understand that the table neither truly exists nor does it naturally exist.
Why? Because of the reason that its existence relies upon many causes and conditions. Likewise, we can apply this to one’s individual self that I do not naturally exist, I do not truly exist. Why? Because my existence relies upon many causes and conditions.
So we’re going to meditate for five minutes, and we’re going to meditate in terms of oneself, that I do not truly exist. I do not naturally exist. And why do I not truly exist? Because my existence is established dependent upon causes and conditions. Such causes and conditions as one’s parents, the sperm and ovum, the various elements earth, water, fire and air, the five aggregates that my existence depends upon, relies upon all of these various factors and therefore it does not exist independent of these factors.