Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche focuses on the foundation often missed in emptiness teachings: precisely what we mean when we say things are empty, and empty of what. He opens with bodhisattva motivation—establishing that genuine compassion requires the wisdom-based ability to help, not mere intention. The teaching then examines the crucial distinction between intellectual refutation (what reasoning disproves about true existence) and direct wisdom (which eliminates the ignorance conceiving true existence). Using concrete examples—a cup, a flower, combustion—he shows how understanding the object of negation (what emptiness is empty of) is essential. Without this clarity, understanding remains vague and the path stalls. Rooted in Candrakīrti’s Entering the Middle Way, this is pitched for practitioners already familiar with Buddhist philosophy and ready for systematic philosophical analysis.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1991-05-16 – 10A – KR.mp3
UUID: 80a8d675-411b-4a51-8a30-6f2737a509f8
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Entering the Middle Way
Date: 1991-05-16
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,377
Of happiness. And increasing the forcefulness of our love and compassion to, in developing exceptional resolve, in reflecting upon that I myself will free them from their suffering, and I myself will bring them happiness. But, though having developed this exceptional resolve, seeking to take responsibility for whether one presently possesses the ability to bring this about in fact, one sees that in fact one simply has developed a kind heart but does not have the ability to bring it about. When can I achieve such an ability? By means of cultivating through meditation, wisdom and method, that is the realizing emptiness and developing the awakening heart, that one can eliminate all of one’s various faults and bring to consummation all of one’s excellent qualities.
And it is in this way that we can achieve that ability. Cultivate the motivation that in order to develop such a potential, such an ability, that I am going to listen to the teachings on the profound Dharma of the great vehicle in order to meditate upon them and to bring them to final consummation through my practice, and thereby be empowered to be able to benefit all sentient beings. The Buddha is said to have a greater love for all sentient beings than a mother does for her child. And this extends to all sentient beings regardless of any distinction, whether they’re high or low, good or bad, without any distinguishment, without making any distinguishment amongst sentient beings, extending this great love toward all of them.
And the compassion which is being referred to is embodied in the wish wish that may sentient beings be free of their suffering and the causes of their suffering. And as the means to eliminate the suffering of sentient beings along with the cause of their suffering, all of the various causes which bring about their suffering, such as the cause of ignorance, which is the root of all our suffering. To eliminate these, the means, as a means to eliminate these, the Buddha taught vast and varied methods of the Dharma. And the root of our suffering is ignorance. In order to eliminate ignorance, the Buddha taught emptiness.
The Buddha said that if we do not understand emptiness, we will continue to wander in cyclic existence, and therefore, as a means to understand emptiness, the Buddha presented hundreds of various reasonings to bring about this understanding. So how are we to understand emptiness? We can understand emptiness if we examine by way of illustration, factors the wood, which is the cause of fire, the fire, and the result of the fire, smoke, looking at these three factors. So independence in in terms of these these three factors of the wood, which is the creative cause, the fire, which is the entity which is the main entity, and the result is in the smoke which is the smoke. We can begin to understand what we mean by emptiness.
In the fact that if the entity of fire was truly existent, then its cause would have to be truly existent, and its, and its result would have to be truly existent. So, we’re going to try to understand emptiness. And the emptiness was initially set forth, the teachings by the Buddha himself, on his teachings on transcendental wisdom. Then these were commentated on by Nāgārjuna, and, for example, in his text, The Fundamental Wisdom. Then, this was again commentated on by Candrakīrti in our present text, Entering Into the Middle Way.
And then, this was again commentated on by Masters such as Tsongkhapa. So, previously we have talked about the qualities of the student to whom emptiness may be taught. And then we discussed the benefits of the teachings on emptiness, that through the understanding of emptiness, through the teachings of emptiness, one then goes on to observe one’s ethics, one goes on to develop compassion, respect for the Buddhas, and finally dedication. And the necessity to listen well. And this is talking about the benefits which were just outlined of listening to the teachings, then the student is admonished to listen with a single pointedness to the teachings in order to arrive at these various benefits which were just outlined.
And this will bring about, finally, the consummation of all of one’s excellent qualities. So, in his text, entering, Candrakīrti sets out, admonishes to listen well. Through listening well to the teachings on entering into the middle way, one will become proficient in the view of the profound and the vast. Out of that will gain mastery with respect to that, one will attain the 10 grounds, and will ultimately bring about be able to bring about the welfare of both oneself and others. Therefore, listen well.
So, Entering the Middle Way is a commentary written to Nāgārjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom. And in Fundamental Wisdom, the initial verse sets forth, though the text itself is extremely detailed and vast, the very first verse condenses all the meaning which is going to be set forth. And this verse says, There is no production from self, other, from both, or from no cause. All things are not produced in a truly existent fashion.
So, as a basis and if we explain this, if we take it as the basis of illustration of flower, a flower is not born from itself, a flower is not born from other, it is not born from both self and other, and it is not born from no cause. There is nothing which is born in any of these ways. That’s what the verse says. So, are many ways in which we can categorize emptinesses. There is divisions into eighteen, sixteen, four, and two, and in general we will look at the division of emptiness into two.
So what are these two ways of categorizing emptiness? There is the selflessness of phenomena and the selflessness of persons. By persons I mean sentient beings. So, the order of presentation in the text, Fundamental Wisdom, is that first the selflessness of phenomena is taught, and subsequent to that, the selflessness of persons. In general, the order of realization of the various of these two types of emptinesses are: First, that we will gain a prime cognition with respect to the selflessness of person subsequent to that realization of the selflessness of phenomena.
But the order of explanation as put forth by Buddha and then Nāgārjuna is that first the teachings on selflessness of phenomena are presented, subsequently the teachings on selflessness of persons. So, these four methods of production are each individually refuted. These four represent various types of assertions by various opponents. For example, with respect there are non Buddhists who assert the production from self, and in order to refute this, it was taught that it was necessary to teach production, that there is no production from self. Then amongst the Buddhists, from the Autonomy Middle Way School down, there is the assertion production from others, and this was refuted by teaching that the non production from others.
Then there was the assertion as to both the phenomena that products are produced from both self and others, and this has gone on to be refuted and then it is refuted that products can arise from no cause and then this is refuted. So, the explanation of emptiness, we must come to an understanding of what is being negated, what is the object of negation, in order to understand what we mean by emptiness. There is an object object of of negation which is being refuted. Now, when we say emptiness, the word empty, what does empty mean? Empty of what?
Empty of the object of negation. By emptiness we don’t mean nothingness. We don’t mean vacuity. We mean that, by emptiness we mean that things phenomena are empty of the object of negation. We illustrate this by an empty cup.
When we say the cup is empty, we say that there is a factor which is absent within the cup. There is something which is not there. There is a factor which is non existent. For example, there is no tea or water or drinkable, there is no food within the cup. There is a lack, an absence of a factor.
That’s is what we mean when we say the cup is empty, a lack, an absence of a particular factor. So when we say the purse is empty we’re not saying that the purse doesn’t exist. What we mean is that there’s a particular something which is not in the purse and this something is money. There’s a particular absence there’s a factor of a particular phenomena. There’s an absence of a particular phenomena within the purse.
It is empty of that factor, money. So, there is the nonexistent in the theory of emptiness. The nonexistent factor is the object of negation. The factor which does not exist is the object of negation. And what is the object of negation?
The non existence of the factor of the object of negation is emptiness. That’s what emptiness is. It is the non existence of the object of negation. And what is the object of negation? The object of negation is true existence or within the consequence of middle way school inherent existence by way of its own character.
So, in talking about emptiness we are talking about a nonexistent. A nonexistent, there is something which does not exist. That which does not exist is the object of negation. Without understanding the object of negation, then we cannot understand what doesn’t exist and therefore we cannot understand emptiness. So initially we must understand what is the object of negation.
For example, today within our teaching room, if I were to ask, Is Robin here? Robin is not here. But, if we weren’t able to recognize who Robin was then we couldn’t say whether Robin, no matter how much we looked around the room, wouldn’t be able to say whether Robin was here or not. We have to recognize who Robin is to say whether she’s here or not.
So, in order to understand that something doesn’t exist, we have to understand what it is. If we don’t understand what it is we’re looking for, then we can’t say that it doesn’t exist. And this is why we have to understand the object of negation or the object of refutation. So, Śāntideva says, Without contacting the imagined entity, its non-existence is not ascertained. Without recognizing the object of negation, we cannot ascertain that it doesn’t exist.
Just as in the case, if we do not recognize who Robin is, identify her, then we can’t say whether she exists or not. So, in general, we can talk about two types of objects of negation. Those which are negated by the path, and those which are negated by reasoning. For example, a truly existent flower does not exist and the way in which the existence of the truly existent flower is able to be refuted by reasoning. So the truly existing flower is refuted by means of reasoning.
It is the object of negation by means of reasoning. So through a process of examination as to whether the truly existing flower exists or not, we’re able to refute by means of reasoning the existence of the truly existing flower. So, though reasoning is able to refute the existence of the truly existent flower, it cannot negate or eliminate the wrong conception, that is the ignorance which conceives of a truly existent flower. So there is the ignorance which conceives of truly existent flower. This ignorance or this distorted awareness is not negated by the reasoning which negates the existence of the truly existent flower.
The main object which is being sought to be negated is the ignorance which conceives of a self of the flower, That is the ignorance, the distorted awareness which conceives of a truly existing flower. This ignorance is what is being sought to be negated in that because of it various afflictive emotions arise. In order to bring about a cessation or the negation of the conception, conceiving of a truly existent flower, it’s necessary to generate the wisdom which realizes the non true existence of the flower. This wisdom consciousness has the ability to eliminate or to negate this conception, conceiving the truly existing flower. So as the wisdom realizing the non true existence of the flower increases in its potency, there comes about a direct realization of the non true existence of the flower.
That is one develops a wisdom directly realizing the non true existence of the flower and this becomes a path or the grounds, that is to say the mode of actually traveling to Buddhahood by means of the paths and grounds. So we said there were two types of objects of negation. The object of negation which is the truly existent flower, the existence of the truly existent flower is negated by reasoning and the ignorance conceiving of the truly existent flower is negated by the path, that is to say a wisdom directly realizing the non true existence of the flower. So there are two objects of negation. The first is the object negated is the truly existing flower and this is negated by means of reasoning which establishes the non existence of the truly existent flower.
The second object of negation is the ignorance conceiving of a truly existent flower and this is negated by means of the wisdom realizing the non true existence of the flower. So I’ve used as a basis of illustration a flower, but we can extend this to all phenomena whatsoever a table, book, room, water, etcetera, that all phenomena whatsoever can be the objects of these two types of objects of negation. For example, we ourselves in terms of our aggregate that is the body, that the truly existing body is refuted by means of reasoning and the awareness conceiving of a truly existing body is refuted by means of the path. Again, with respect to the truly existent I, the truly existent I is refuted in terms of the reasoning and the conception, that is, the view of the transitory collection.