Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using a flower as his central teaching object, Khensur Rinpoche works through the logic of emptiness in this 81-minute session at Buddha House. He opens with a breathing meditation — exhaling difficulties as black light, inhaling well-being as white — then presents three levels of spiritual result drawn from Buddha Śākyamūni’s advice, using an unripened fruit to describe a mind governed by afflictive emotions. The main argument traces impermanence through cyclic existence to emptiness as the antidote, organized around the three doors of liberation: the emptiness of phenomena, their causes, and their results. Rinpoche applies this framework to the flower, then the body and the self, closing with a five-minute guided meditation on why the “I” does not truly exist. Suited to practitioners already familiar with basic Buddhist cosmology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 GM 1992 06 21 Emptiness.mp3
UUID: ccef45cb-71cf-40e3-bc7f-72f442ed4a2d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Guided Meditations 1988-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-06-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 81.1 minutes
Words: ~2,585
So we begin with a meditation. Can can you hear me in the back? So we begin by adjusting our motivation, developing as our motivation for our meditation the quality of a kind hearted attitude, love and compassion. Compassion expressed in the thought, It would be wonderful if myself and others were free from suffering and the causes of suffering. And love expressed in the thought that it would be wonderful if others and myself had happiness and the causes of happiness.
Having developed such a motivation, then we’re going to meditate on mindfulness of breathing, watching the in and out, inhalation and exhalation of the breath. And we can do that combining with the imaginative process that when one is breathing out, all that is undesirable, all that one’s difficulties and sicknesses go out far out to the distance and disappear. And then upon breathing in, these go out in the form of black light. And then all that is desirable, the well-being, bliss and blessings come to one in the form of white light entering into oneself. Would you like to stand up for a moment?
Stretch your legs. Verse number three. And then verse number two. And verse number five. So I’m going to be quoting from a verse which was an advice compassionately given by Buddha Śākyamūni.
He taught that the ultimate result that we’re seeking to achieve — no matter — and this would be with respect to whomsoever, whether it be humans or non humans, everyone in the world, in order to bring about the welfare of both oneself and others, is to remove all of one’s individual faults and to bring to consummation all of one’s excellent qualities. So this ultimate achievement, which is the removal of all of one’s faults and the development of all of one’s excellent qualities, is the ultimate result that we can seek to obtain. The second level of achievement that we can seek to achieve is the state where we would not have to experience any suffering. That is to say, we will achieve an unchanging, stable happiness where there would be no suffering. That is to say, liberation.
And then as the minimal level of result that we should be seeking to achieve is that of simply decreasing our unhealthy states of mind and increasing those healthy states of mind. In discussing the latter, the resultant that we can seek to achieve, that is to say, the decreasing of negative states or unhealthy states and the production of positive states of mind or healthy states. An analogy which can be used is that fruit, our mind at present, is comparable to an unripened fruit. An unripened fruit is not very enjoyable to eat. It’s of no benefit nutritionally and it can actually make us sick.
So our mind is at present compared to an unripened fruit because it’s under the control of afflictive emotions. So our mind is comparable to an unripened fruit due to it being under the control of afflictive emotions. Our mind is simply not free. It’s not free in the sense that it’s difficult for us to generate healthy or positive states of mind. We have to develop a method whereby to decrease the negative states of mind which inhibit the production of these healthier states of mind.
By healthy states of mind, such states as love and compassion, the awakening heart, it is by generating or developing these states of mind again and again that we are said to ripen our minds. So what is the method whereby we can begin this process of ripening our minds? It is said through the cultivation of an awareness of impermanence and dissatisfactoriness that the mind can be brought to a ripened state. How do we proceed in cultivating awareness of impermanence? Both the body and mind are established in dependence upon causes and conditions.
They grow out of causes and conditions. Therefore, because these causes and conditions are momentarily disintegrating, that which is produced by them, the body and mind is accordingly momentarily disintegrating. That is to say, neither the body nor the mind is able to remain the same from moment to moment. It’s transitory. So the nature of impermanence is momentary disintegration.
That is to say that whatever is impermanent is not able to remain the same, even from one moment to the next. In terms of the body and mind, they’re continually disintegrating and arising anew. Disintegrating and arising anew. This process is going on from moment to moment. So we’re continually re arising in a new body and new mind from moment to moment.
So there’s this continual momentary arising and disintegration of body and mind. How does this arise? As we mentioned, it arises in dependence upon causes and conditions. And what are these causes and conditions? Presently these causes and conditions are the afflictive emotions and karma, or that is to say, actions.
So we’re in the process of continuing both momentarily and on a subtle level but also on a coarse level arising, that is, say, being born and disintegrating or dying. This process is going on continually. And we reassociate with a new body, new mind. And the cause of this, as we just mentioned, is afflictive emotions and actions. And it is the nature of these causes that they bring about a negative type of effect because the causes is of a negative quality, then anything which can arise from it is negative.
That is to say, in terms of what type of rebirth, the body that we assume is of a dissatisfactory quality. The place that we take rebirth is of a dissatisfactory quality. Even the friends that we associate with are friends of dissatisfaction. Our possessions are in the nature of being dissatisfactory because all of the causes which are generating things are dissatisfactory. If one again and again cultivates an awareness of this situation, coming to understand it thoroughly, one will develop an awareness which strives to be liberated from this situation, that is to say, strives to be liberated from cyclic existence.
How are we to be liberated from such a situation, this situation of cyclic existence? This is where the Buddha gave us the advice in the form of the Sutras. He said that in order to be liberated from cyclic existence, it is necessary to eliminate the causes which perpetuate cyclic existence. And these causes are the afflictive emotions and karma. But the root of these two is afflictive emotions.
So it’s necessary to eliminate the afflictive emotions. And the way that we eliminate the afflictive emotions is developing the wisdom which understands emptiness. So it’s necessary that we develop the wisdom realizing emptiness. Therefore we have to understand what emptiness is and we have to carry on a meditation with respect to emptiness to cultivate its understanding and using various types of reasoning to come to grips with what emptiness means. So in coming to an understanding of emptiness, it is often presented in terms of what are called the three doors of liberation.
And by liberation, what is meant here is the abandonment of cyclic existence, the state of bliss which is experienced by means of having achieved that abandonment. And by doors, the doorway to this state of abandonment of cyclic existence is the wisdom realizing emptiness. And it’s referred to as a door just as in the case of an actual place, for example, coming into Buddha House. To come inside, we have to move to an entrance way. If there were no entrance way, there would be no way to get inside.
And so we come through the door. So the wisdom realizing emptiness is the entrance way into liberation. And these three doors of liberation take the form of coming to an understanding of the emptiness of phenomena, that is to say, the wisdom which realizes phenomena are empty of true existence. Secondly, that they are empty of true existent causes. And thirdly, that they are empty of true existent results.
With respect to phenomena, there are two types. There are, as we mentioned, phenomena which arise dependent upon causes and conditions and this refers to all impermanent phenomena. But generally, are termed products, that is, products of causes and conditions. So there’s that type of phenomena. There’s a second category of phenomena which are phenomena which do not arise dependent upon causes and conditions And these are referred to as non products.
So all knowables, that is, they all existent objects, are either products or non products. So we’ll discuss these three ways of liberation in terms of a simple example, that of a flower. And we said that we’re trying to come to an understanding of emptiness and we’re going to discuss it in terms of these three modes or three doors. In terms of flowers, this would mean that we’re going to look at the nature of the flower itself or the entity of the flower itself, the cause, that is what makes the flower to grow, and then the result, what arises from the flower. We’re going to look at emptiness in terms of this example of a flower as a basis of illustration in terms of the entity of the flower itself, its causes, its results.
So the flower itself, in its very nature, is not truly existent. That is to say, it’s empty of true existence. Then whatever are the causes of the flower, those causes are not truly existent causes. That is to say, from what the flower grows from is not truly existent. So the causes of the flower are not truly existent.
And then whatever comes from the flower, the various results, those results are not truly existent. So this is the way in which the flower is said to be non truly existent or empty. True existence does not exist. Flower does not truly exist. It itself and its nature is not truly existent.
Its causes are not truly existent. Its results are not truly existent. And the same can be applied for the table. The table itself as an entity is not truly existent, its causes are not truly existent, its results are not truly existent. This would apply also to oneself.
One’s causes are not truly existent nor is the results of oneself truly existent. This is the same for all phenomena. True existence does not exist. We have to cultivate an understanding of this particular non existence in terms of the flower. What does true existence mean with respect to the flower, using it as an example?
The flower appears to us to be not imputed by means of terms. That is to say, it appears to exist objectively from its own side, independently. Independent of what? Independent of being labeled. Independent of being designated by the power of terms, by the power of names.
It appears to be independent of the labeling process, a naming process. This independence way of existing is what we mean by true existence. Nothing is established in this manner. Therefore, nothing is truly existent. So if the flower did not rely upon being imputed, if it did not rely upon this labeling process.
That is to say if it did exist truly from its own side objectively, independently, then what faults would arise if we were to analyze? When the flower grew, it would not rely upon. It would not depend upon a seed. It would not depend upon water. It would not depend upon soil.
It would not rely upon anything other than itself for its existence. But in fact, the flower does not grow independent of seed, water, soil, etc, does it? In fact, the flower arises or grows in dependence upon causes and conditions. Causes and conditions such as the seed, the planting of the seed, the earth, water. All of these various causes and conditions bring about the flower.
The flower grows in dependence upon them. The flower exists in reliance upon these. And therefore, we turn the flower a dependent arising because its arising depends upon causes and conditions. Because it comes into existence dependent upon causes and conditions, it does not exist independent of all other factors. It doesn’t exist not depending upon something other than itself.
Therefore, is not independently existent. It does not exist from its own side objectively. Also, the existence of the flower is reliant upon terms and concepts. That without a conception, conceiving of flower, the flower would not exist. So in this way, also, the flower does not independently exist from its own side, but in fact, relies upon the conception, conceiving of the flower itself.
So we’re going to meditate on the emptiness and we’re going to use as a basis of meditation the flower. And we’re going to proceed that the flower, which does not exist objectively, it does not exist independently. That is to say, it does not truly exist. And the reason that we give is because it relies upon causes and conditions for its existence. It depends upon causes and conditions for its existence, therefore it does not truly exist.
So this is we can take as a basis for cultivating and understanding the flower. We can take various other objects. We can meditate in terms of the table, oneself, the body, one’s eye. All of these various objects can be taken. For example, in terms of the body, the body does not truly exist or we can say it does not naturally exist.
Why? Because it exists in dependence upon a combination of many causes and conditions. We can also use the basis for cultivating the understanding of the I, oneself as the I. It does not truly exist. And why?
Because it also relies upon factors other than itself for its existence. For it relies upon the five aggregates, for example, the body. That is to say its various parts. Because the eye depends upon parts, it arises in dependence upon parts, it is dependent arising. If it is dependent arising, it’s not truly existent.
It’s not truly existent because it depends upon parts. It depends upon because it depends upon parts, it’s dependent arising. Therefore, it’s not truly existent. So we’re going to meditate for five minutes on the non true existence of the eye. We’re going to take as a subject of meditation the eye.
It does not truly exist. And why does it not truly exist? Because it depends. It is a dependent arising. Why is it a dependent arising?
Because it depends upon causes and conditions. It depends upon parts. For example, in terms of parts, there are five aggregates. For example, in the five aggregates, there are the aggregate of forms, or the body most simply, feelings, perceptions, mental constructions, and consciousness. So the I depends, relies upon, arises in dependence upon these parts.
Without these parts, the I would not exist. Therefore, the I is a dependent arising, just like a flower. So take as a subject one’s individual I. This I does not truly exist. The reason?
Because it arises in dependence upon many parts, the various aggregates, and therefore is a dependent arising. Dedication prayers verses eight to nine. I might just mention that we have a discussion. If you’d like to get a cup of tea in the back room if you’d like to join us for an informal discussion.