Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 35-minute teaching on emptiness, Lama Lhundup explains how Buddha spontaneously appears to practitioners who have purified their karma and created conducive conditions through dedicated practice. He illustrates this with stories of Atisha receiving images at Bodh Gaya and Tsongkhapa generating supplies through ritual offerings during his retreat with eight disciples, arguing that apparent spiritual masters like Tsongkhapa manifest at the level ordinary beings can understand, showing the path rather than revealing their realized state. The second half addresses meditation practice directly: how to investigate the sense of “I” by evoking a strong feeling of selfhood, then examining whether it exists as the same as or separate from your aggregates, and concluding that the inherent appearance of self dissolves into emptiness. From this emptiness arises the visualized form of Buddha Śākyamūni, radiating light and blessing to all sentient beings. Suited to practitioners already engaged with Buddhist philosophy and visualization practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 E.mp3
UUID: ca163f7e-6ec7-4879-95a9-9b56a104ae4f
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Emptiness (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.6 minutes
Words: ~1,350
Upon the collection of the causes and conditions from the point of view of the whenever the causes and conditions are complete from the point of view of the sentient being, then the Buddha spontaneously helps. So when, you know, Atisha was circumambulating the stupa in Bodh Gaya, the images actually spoke to him and told him where he would prophesy his future and why he was circumambulating. So when we’ve actually activated our potential, our lineage, our nature, you know, through the practice of Dharma, then we actually don’t even have to make requests to the Buddha. Will be spontaneously we will be helped. So, the case of Tsongkhapa, when he did all these preliminary practices of many hundreds of thousands of prostrations, mandala offerings.
His negative actions and had amassed a wealth of merit, then Buddha spontaneously began to appear to him. When they first went for retreat, Tsongkhapa had eight disciples, and at that time they didn’t have any food. Tsongkhapa offered a ritual cake, a white ritual cake to one protector, Namtöse. And then people began bringing butter and barley, flours. They began to bring all these things.
So if we have the complete conducive conditions on our side, if we make requests, then whatever requests will come about. From our side, have to we have to create the complete conducive conditions. Well, no, it says it says what mama used to say, you know, don’t believe me. That’s right. That’s the point there.
Yeah. When when Tsongkhapa came into human body, he was already the emanation of three Buddhas. So surely, he he he was not really purifying negative karma because he was already Buddha. No. No.
Just And you say, spontaneously when he purified his karma. Maybe he was stopping me. No. Just he’s emanating, but but he’s showing same ordinary person with his ordinary person. His his So did.
Thousand Mandala offerings, thousand prostrations, you know, so many. He’s thirty years age time. He has put, you know, thousand students. He’s very learned from. Then one one, please don’t faint.
So many is very beneficial, great deal, so many students. You you don’t know. Stop. I know. You must need to go to retreat.
Go. Know? So why did he have to go into retreat if you Because he not yet realized. He didn’t realize who he was? Yeah.
He not realized the innate right away, and then he’s not experiencing all parts. So then he went to treat everything what Mañjuśrī said. He’s showing being. Same thing being. So, he he like his try with if if that time you with him, that time, try it that time.
If you like that, what what he doesn’t do that. Same time, what he show realize, also you show realize. Same time. You miss time. I can understand what he’s doing to show us.
But I can’t understand that he was experiencing ignorance when he was already doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. He show us like that. He show us like that. So we need to do like that. So he only appears and manifests at the level of our ability to understand.
Pardon? Yeah. When you say this Yeah. And then before you were saying how the Buddha is not judgmental and all knowing, But all knowing about what? Everything.
Everything. No. But you not everything. You mean everything. Knowing everything.
Knowing Well, how the internal combustion engine works? No. Everything. Yeah. Believe that.
But that’s different from what is what is with us? You know? We show you, you know? But really So we can relate to it. Yes.
Yeah. So because we don’t have karma, we’re the Buddha. If he shows we’re Buddha, we then cannot talk. And then we not get opportunity to into it. So that’s very kind.
What do we say? Same. Yeah. Manifest body. Yeah.
Yeah. So if he didn’t manifest that body, we would see space. So it’s not being how your mind could, you’d probably see Buddha. Yeah. Yeah.
So if you have bodhicitta, then what people, what seeing your body, is it? Then when you are the first part of bodhicitta part, then you can completely change. This body is not but Do they see Tibetan with black hair and brown eyes? Just blue? Yeah.
You said they see deity. Deity. Deity. Deity. So the deity, you said?
He’s so deity. Deity means what? Is that what you said? Yeah. Deity.
Deadly. Deadly. Yeah. Yeah. You said the enjoyment body of the deity.
Enjoyment body? The actual physical aspect of Chenrezig. Back in eighty four there were many Some people saw the Dalai Lama. long night puja time. Some people saw the Dalai Lama with very long white hair and long beard.
If we have purified our negative actions then we can see these things. If we purified our negative actions we will only see the good aspects. But if our mind is full of negativity we can’t see them. We can’t presently understand what has been explained on emptiness, but we have to continually receive teachings, to think about it, and then we continually, year after year, receive more teachings, think about it, and it will become clearer and clearer. So we have to always be practicing in Dharma trying to create all the conducive conditions.
Without creating the conducive conditions and merely listening, will not have the realizations. Merely hearing the words things do not inherently exist, just hearing the mere hearing these words purifies a great deal of negative actions. But we have to continually make effort. We have to read the text about emptiness and then meditate on it, reflect upon it, and read again, and continually be making effort. So, we aren’t going to understand emptiness all at once.
Now, we’re going to meditate, and you should we’re investigating as we’ve been explaining the way in which the I is established, how it appears. Should think, I, I, and try to get a very strong sense of I, evoke a very strong feeling of I. And then, once you have this feeling, see how it appears, how does it look, and what way does it exist. And then, if it exists that way it appears, then is it the same as my aggregates, or is it different than my aggregates? And then, if it’s not the same as my aggregates, having investigated, then it must be different than my aggregates.
And then we say, Well, it’s neither the same. The way it appears is neither the same as my aggregates nor the different than my aggregates, then the I does not inherently exist. And then, we transform the ordinary appearance of our body. This aspect no longer appears, this ordinary appearance of our body? It becomes empty?
So, the appearance of the ordinary body becomes empty. There’s no longer this appearance, and out of this emptiness there arises ourselves in the body of a Buddha with his bodies in the nature of light. And that appears to the mind as if one has the Having oneself in the aspect of Buddha Śākyamūni, our teacher Buddha Śākyamūni, having with a faultless body. And the mind? So this is the aspect.
The mind is in the aspect of the nature of light and is the omniscient mind of the Buddha. And we imagine all about us, all surrounding us are all sentient beings. Light radiates out from our body touching all those sentient beings around us. Then, upon this light touching each of the sentient beings, they experience the wisdom of the great bliss and they abide in this great bliss. So we should dedicate all the merit that we’ve created to listen to these teachings on emptiness.
That the teachings of the Buddha may last long, that the wrong views and the doubts of sentient beings may be cleared away, that they always abide in happiness. So that the fighting will end in the world and that all sentient beings will have complete happiness.