Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 100-minute commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Kyabje Rinpoche introduces emptiness through a memorable analogy: it is like the nutritious essence of food—profoundly beneficial when properly understood and consumed, but poisonous if handled incorrectly. He teaches the middle way between eternalism (superimposing true existence on phenomena) and nihilism (denying emptiness altogether), showing how clinging to true existence generates the afflictions that perpetuate cyclic existence. When emptiness is not realized in this life, he advises planting seeds for future rebirths by cultivating generosity, ethics, and patience. He concludes with direct meditation instructions: how to begin with analytic reasoning, invoke blessings when understanding stalls, and dedicate merit properly. Intended for practitioners committed to systematic philosophical and meditative work on emptiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1991-04-16 – Meditate on Emptiness – KR.mp3
UUID: 6b47c6c4-c80a-4a3a-8286-e6544a7d2cf4
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Garland
Date: 1991-04-16
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~5,552
Begin by adjusting our motivation, developing the awakening heart. The people of our world have a tremendous potential that is that of the intellect or the intelligence, whereby to make use of this discriminating faculty of wisdom, they can differentiate between what is good and what is bad, what brings happiness, what brings suffering, and eliminate those factors which bring suffering and begin to cultivate those which bring happiness, that we have such a potential. So if we can understand what are the factors, then we can make use of it, then great benefit can be derived from it. So we have the faculty whereby we can understand the natures of various phenomena and this factor of discriminating awareness which can bring tremendous benefit if we make use of it. In order to make use of it we have to practice well and our practice consists in, is expressed in terms of adopting that which is healthy and rejecting that which is unhealthy.
And it’s in the very nature of things that if in the course of our practice we have a healthy motivation, then out of that will arise healthy types of conducts, and out of that will arise healthy types of results. And therefore, what do we mean by a healthy motivation? It is expressed in the thought of holding others more dear than ourselves, and remembering their great kindness that they’ve shown to us, seeking to benefit all sentient beings in return. And in doing this, way to do this is by leading them to happiness and freeing them from their suffering. And if we are in fact to lead others to a state of happiness and help them to be free of suffering, we ourselves must achieve this state of freedom from suffering by the elimination of all our various faults and the attainment of happiness by the consummation of all our acts and qualities.
Otherwise, we simply cannot lead them to such a state. Therefore, for the sake of others, that we individually must eliminate all our various faults and bring the consummation to all our acts and qualities. If we, in fact, do this, if we free our if we eliminate all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities, then we can actually be empowered whereby to free others from their suffering and to lead them to happiness. So develop the healthy attitude of the awakening heart over the next three minutes, cultivating the motivation that in order to free others from their suffering, that in order to lead them to happiness that I must understand the Dharma well in order that I might practice it well, in order that I might achieve this end, and therefore I’m going to listen to the present teaching for that purpose. So we’re continuing with Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland and beginning with the following verse.
Therefore, having forsaken all nihilistic views and rejections concerning emptiness, strive your best to understand correctly for the sake of achieving all your aims. So what we have covered up to now can be looked at from the point of view of an analogy, and that is we have prepared for us some very delicious food, and it is quite nutritious. It’s very it’s health food. And if we know how to eat it properly, in what proportions, then it can be extremely beneficial for ourselves. It can strengthen our body.
It can help, can, out of it we can develop good health, a long life. Out of this strong body, healthy body, we can carry on a very successful practice of Dharma. On the other hand though we have this delicious meal prepared for us, if we don’t know the proper way of taking advantage of it, the way to eat it properly in correct proportions, then we can simply, it can simply become a source of, it can be as if it was poison and we can become sick from it. Emptiness is like this, like the essence of the food, the nutritional part of the food. It is extremely profound, extremely powerful, extremely beneficial.
And those with wisdom, if they were to reflect upon it well, they will gain realization, and out of this realization they will be able to abandon all their suffering and to achieve the bliss of liberation. But on the other hand, those who do not reflect well on the meaning of emptiness, then it is similar to the eating of the food in an improper manner incorrectly. That if we were to deprecate emptiness, saying, well, emptiness simply doesn’t exist, or we were to simply deny the existence of the view which propounds emptiness, then out of this would come simply negativity, and out of this would arise a bad migration in the future. Therefore, we must reflect well on the meaning of emptiness, and we must seek to avoid the two extremes: the extreme of nihilism, which denies the existence, and the extreme of eternalism. Abandoning these two extremes we seek to take a centrist position, a middle way.
Out of realizing that a middle way position we can achieve all our temporal aims, the aim being of liberation or the ultimate aim of finally of Buddhahood. So it’s necessary to strive in coming to a proper understanding of emptiness. In, The word middle way or the centrist position in Sanskrit is Madhyamaka and in Tibetan it’s uma and literally means the center, the central, the central position just like the center between these two extremes. We want to try to take the middle way or the central position between the two extremes. We don’t want to fall to either of the two extremes but to try to take a course in the middle way and this middle way represents the understanding of emptiness, the proper understanding of emptiness.
So what are the two extremes that we are trying to guide our central course between? They are the extremes of existence, that is to say, eternalism, and the extreme of nonexistence, that is to say, nihilism. So the first of these two extremes is that of eternalism, and this is expressed in the position that, in holding to the assertion that all phenomena truly exist, that they’re self defining, that they naturally exist. In fact, phenomena do not truly exist. They do not naturally exist, but in this position, this assertion, true existence is superimposed upon phenomena.
It’s something which is not there is added to, and this is the extreme of eternalism, adding, superimposing true existence to phenomena which do not truly exist. Deprecation. Deprecation. The second of the two extremes. This is when it is asserted that emptiness does not exist.
Emptiness does exist, but there is the assertion that empty does not exist. There is a deprecation. A deprecation means to say something which does in fact does exist doesn’t exist, to take away existence from something. This is the Deprecation is termed the extreme of nihilism or annihilationism. So we are seeking to take a position which does not fall to either of these two extremes, the centrist position, which holds that phenomena do not truly exist.
By asserting that phenomena do not truly exist, this refutes the extreme of existence. That is the true existence, that is to say eternalism. Holding that phenomena do not truly exist, we refute the extreme of eternalism. Phenomena do not truly exist, but they do not not exist. They exist nominally.
They exist conventionally. To say that to assert that phenomena exist nominally is to refute the extreme that phenomena do not exist at all. That is to say the extreme of nihilism. So within the centrist position, we assert that phenomena do not truly exist, but they nominally exist. This represents the centrist position or the middle way.
All phenomena do not truly exist, but they nominally exist. By asserting they do not truly exist, we refute the eternalist view. By saying that they nominally exist, we refute the view of nihilism, and we take a centrist position between these two extremes. It is a great fault if we do not refute true existence. If we do not refute true existence, that is to say we will not be refuting the extreme of permanence or the extreme of eternalism, and out of that we will not be able to realize emptiness, and therefore this is a great fault not to refute true existence.
Then continuing with the next verse in which it states, If this doctrine is not truly understood, the conception of an I prevails. That if emptiness is not properly understood, then we will hold to the position that natural existence and true existence actually exist. And this is the position held by the tenet schools, the great exposition school, the sūtra school and the mind only school. Not understanding the presentation of emptiness well, they hold that phenomena truly exist, that they naturally exist. Though they assert verbally that phenomena are empty, still within their mind.
They have the conception of true existence. They do not reject it, and out of that power of that conception, then they still grasp at the true existence and the natural existence of phenomena. Since the broadly they assert a type of emptiness, but still within their minds there is the ignorance grasping at true existence. And out of this grasping at the ignorance grasping at true existence, then various afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred and delusion is generated. Out of these are generated Out of these various types of afflictive emotions are generated actions.
Out of these actions, both skillful and unskillful, we continue to circle within cyclic existence. As an effect of skillful actions, we take rebirth for example in happy migrations of a human and celestial being under the influence of unskillful actions taking rebirth in bad migrations as an animal hungry ghost and hell being. Under the influence of the conception that true existence actually exists, we continue to circle within cyclic existence and one is not able to obtain liberation. That in this process of circling within cyclic existence, undergoing the various types of suffering of birth, aging, disease, and death again and again. So it’s said that if we do not refute the extreme of eternalism, then this fault will arise for us.
Not understanding emptiness, one is not able to abandon the conception of true existence. One continues to grasp that true existence. Out of that, various types of afflictive emotions arise, out of that actions, and one is never able to realize emptiness. If we had a question, what are we to do? What should we practice?
What is the method whereby we can refute true existence? Because if we don’t refute true existence, we’re simply going to continue to create karma or action. So, we have to make use of it in this life, to go through the process of listening, reflecting, and meditating on emptiness, to listen to the meaning of emptiness, read various books upon it, reflect upon its meaning, again and again cultivate this understanding in meditation, and make various types of prayers, and thereby implant various predispositions and latencies for the understanding of emptiness. So if we have sharp intelligence, then if we undertake this process, we can gain realization in this life. But suppose we can’t gain the realization in this life, then what are we to do?
So not realizing emptiness in this life, what are we to do? That we can think of the body as analogous, our embodiment as analogous to a field, and in some types of fields a crop will grow, and in some types of fields a crop will not grow. Likewise with certain types of embodiments the wisdom realizing emptiness is able to be developed. In certain types of embodiments it is not. It’s like planting the realization of emptiness is necessary to plant a seed in order that a plant arises.
In certain types of embodiments, the plant will rise. In certain types of embodiments, it will not, just like in a field. Nāgārjuna is setting out some very good advice for us on the way to practice the Dharma. If we cannot realize emptiness in this life, then we have to ensure that in future lives that we attain the type of embodiment in which the sprout of realization can arise, and this sprout arises in the embodiments of high status, that is, the lives of humans and celestial beings. Sprout of realization does not develop in those embodiments of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals.
And Nāgārjuna goes on to say, Take care always to practice giving ethics and patience. And because we if we are not able to realize emptiness in this life, that we must make effort to achieve a type of embodiment whereby we can realize it in the future. And in order to achieve that we must practice the various causes which bring about such a type of future embodiment, and types of embodiment as a human or a celestial being in a level of high status. And the causes for achieving this type of embodiment are, if they were to be condensed or briefly, are generosity, ethics, and tolerance. Must ensure that we achieve an embodiment of high status in order that we have a basis realizing emptiness in the future.
And therefore in order to achieve such an embodiment in the future we must create its various causes. And we have detailed these in the Precious Garland near the beginning of the text when we said there were 16 practices whereby to achieve high status in the future. For example, the abandon, the 10 unskillful actions and putting into practice the 10 skillful actions. The abandonment of intoxicants, taking, living with the right livelihood, abandoning and harming others, respectfully giving to others, making offerings to the Buddhas and holy beings, and the cultivation of love. These were the 16 practices in extensive form to ensure the achievement of high status in the future.
If we would simply state these practices in brief form, they are the practices of generosity, ethics, and tolerance. If we were to go on to explain, well how do these three types of causes help us to achieve a type of embodiment in high status whereby we can carry on our practice of Dharma, Through generosity we are able to achieve all the various supportive conditions, the material supportive conditions, for example food, clothing, anything which materially is necessary for us to carry on our practice, we can achieve these without any difficulty, and this is the consequence of generosity. And then with respect to ethics, it is said that there is no other cause for high status than ethics. The main cause of achieving high status in the future is the practice of ethics and the way we can carry on our practice of ethics and whereby to achieve embodiment as a human in the future is by observing ethics through the abandoning of the 10 unskillful actions, abandoning in general the harming of others. So on the basis of ethics we achieve a human life, but within that human life by means of the practice of tolerance then we will achieve a beautiful type of human embodiment, and we will be surrounded by harmonious, supportive companions, or we will have Dharma friends who can aid us in our practice.
As a consequence of our practice of generosity we will have all the material conditions and conditions to carry on our practice of Dharma in the future. In dependence upon ethics we will achieve the human body whereby we can carry on our human, our Dharma practice and then in dependence upon the practice of tolerance we will have the necessary harmonious companionships to support us in our practice, our Dharma friends. But it’s necessary to combine these three causes with the additional cause of making various prayers that we will be able to meet with the Dharma in the future, that we will be out of these various prayers we will be able to meet with the qualified spiritual master who will be able to set forth the various practices of Dharma and we will be able to, in context of these supportive conditions, carry on a successful practice of the Dharma. The text goes on to say, A king who performs actions with the prior intermediary and final practices is not harmed here or in the future. And this refers to how we can carry on a successful practice of Dharma.
That in terms of our practice of generosity, ethics and tolerance, it’s necessary that these have the proper motivation in order that they be successful to achieve our ends. Therefore, our motivation in acting these various practices through our physical, verbal and mental actions have to be preceded by a proper motivation. So in the beginning it’s necessary that we have proper motivation in order to carry on a successful practice of Dharma. In the intermediate it’s necessary that we have proper motivation to carry on a successful practice of Dharma. In the end it’s necessary that we have proper motivation in order to carry on a successful practice of Dharma.
It is said that the holy Dharma of the Buddha is skillful in the beginning, in the intermediate, and in the end. It is said that through development of a healthy motivation that during the course of this life that no harm will come to us, but additionally no harm will come to us in our future lives out of our healthy motivation. If we practice, if we carry on our practice of Dharma with such a type of healthy motivation, then we will become renowned as a great practitioner, that we will be held in high regard and all our ends will be achieved happily. So the second quality of carrying on such a type of practice motivated by healthy motivation is that we will practice well and in the course of this we will not create a great deal of negativity. When we do something and we feel it was negative, a sense of regret arises in our mind and with this sense of regret we simply can’t be happy.
But if we practice well in this way, then our actions will be skillful. We will have quite very few negative types of actions we will out of that we will not have a sense of regret, but our mind will be filled with a sense of well-being. Additionally, in this life, if we practice well, for example, through our cultivation of love, then others will not harm us. And additionally, if having practiced well at the time of our death, we will not be afraid. And not having any fear at the moment of our death through having practiced well, we will take on a type of rebirth whereby we will find it easy to have a livelihood.
We will be surrounded by harmonious companions. We will be able to carry on any type of practice that desire, and that we will be able to have it really generate a type of happiness and little suffering. Additionally, having created the causes during the course of our life, through our successful practice, We will achieve in the future life all the necessary supportive conditions whereby having meditated during the course of this life on emptiness, we have planted many seeds whereby in the future simply listening to the Dharma and again meditating on its meaning, these seeds just like the seeds placed in a field when they are watered develop into sprouts. Likewise the latencies of our having cultivated the meaning of emptiness during the course of this life are like the seeds planted in the field and upon listening and meditation we will be able to readily grow the wisdom realizing emptiness. If in our cultivation of the view of emptiness we are able to refute the two extremes, the extreme of nihilism and the extreme of eternalism, then we will be able to remove the ignorance which is the foundation of cyclic existence.
Having eliminated that, we will no longer generate the various afflictive emotions and the actions arising out of the afflictive emotions and we achieve liberation from cyclic existence. Having achieved such an end, we have put to cessation all the sufferings of samsaric existence and we abide in the complete bliss of liberation. And we can achieve a mental abiding(s) and live in a pure land. We will take rebirth, we will be reborn in the center of a great lotus, a flower. These flowers are just like as big as a room, and when the sun shines, petals open, and nighttime they close back up.
And for food, we can live on the bliss of meditative stabilization. Therefore, in the next life flourishes happiness, therefore always observe the practices. So through our practice gaining the realization of emptiness in terms of the lesser vehicle we can achieve liberation. But if the being, the realizer of emptiness is a bodhisattva, one who couples their realization of emptiness, unites it with the awakening heart and compassion, one will eventually achieve the state of a bodhisattva superior and ultimately the state of Buddhahood as in the great vehicle. We have been discussing the benefits of the practice of Dharma in terms of the spiritual benefits, but such spiritual benefits as liberation, omniscience, and finally Buddhahood.
But not only does the practice of Dharma bring about spiritual benefits, but in fact it brings about secular or worldly types of benefits. This particular text, the precious garland, was composed for a king and the benefits to be derived even in worldly terms during the course of this life are outlined which will be achieved by the practice of Dharma even in the course of this life are set forth. So in terms of the secular benefits to be derived, that one who practices Dharma develops healthy relationships with others in such a way that they are well liked by others and out of this oneself is made happy and others are made happy. For example, we can take His Holiness the Dalai Lama as he’s like the king of Tibet, and you know we can say that in general everyone likes the Dalai Lama. There might be few individuals who don’t like him, but in general everyone likes the Dalai Lama.
On the other hand, if one does not, is not associated with a spiritual practice, that is the Dharma, then things will not go well. Things will be difficult. One will have difficulty in benefiting others. One will not be liked, and out of this not liking by others, one will be motivated to create a great deal of negative actions both in harming others and therefore in harming oneself just like Saddam Hussein. Is many types of advices I set forth as to the benefits to be derived from spiritual practice in terms of the secular benefits derived in this life, but additionally all the various benefits derived in future lives.
So it’s wonderful that we have so many teachings, that you listen to so many teachings. This shows that you have great liking for the teachings and this is very wonderful, but it’s simply not enough to listen. We have to practice what is being said just as in the case of Nāgārjuna’s advice that he’s giving us and ways to actually put what is listened to into practice. And the course of carrying on your practice should be as has been explained that in the beginning we should develop a healthy motivation. In the middle part of our practice we should have a healthy motivation and at the end of our practice have a healthy motivation and subsequent to that make various prayers of dedication.
Previously in Dharmasala there’s a meditation center, Tuśita, and there one person said that many teachings are given on emptiness. We listen to many teachings, but we don’t know how to meditate on emptiness. So someone asked, well, how can we practice and how can we meditate? So I think this person was not listening well and was not reflecting upon what he did listen to because the way is explained, the way of meditating and the way of reflecting is explained. So those who are seeking to put into practice and cultivate Dharma of the Buddha should begin by setting up a representation of the Buddha as a focus for one’s faith and making various requests and they’re in front of this representation making various types of offerings.
It can be anything like water or flowers for example. Then prepare a proper seat for your meditation, and then as we always do whenever we have a teaching that we’re always instructed to develop, adjust our motivation and seeking to develop the healthy attitude of the awakening heart as one’s motivation. And then having developed a healthy motivation for your practice, then go on with the recitation of the refuge and the mind generation. We should, to differentiate as Buddhists, we take refuge in the Buddha. To differentiate as to the practice of the great vehicle, we seek to develop the mind generation, that is the awakening heart as our motivation.
So reciting these slowly, reflecting upon the meaning, reciting three times, and reciting slowly, reflecting upon the meaning. And then that our meditation goes well, that we have clarity in our meditation, then we should then recite the seven-limb prayer that we recite at the beginning of each teaching, Gozang Gyepa, etcetera. Then we can offer a mandala. We can offer a mandala. It could be for example a brief mandala that we generally offer.
In order that you’re making requests, in order that my practice go well, that my mind be able to fathom what I’m meditating on, that it be beneficial making a request for these ends and offering them a mandala. So we don’t have much time to meditate. For example, in terms of we have been teaching, you have been receiving teachings on emptiness, and you’ve been taught many different types of reasoning to establish emptiness and we simply aren’t going to be able to make use of all these types of reasoning. But some of these types of reasoning are going to, you feel that they’re going to work for you and these are the ones that you should hold in your mind and make use of, the ones that make sense to you at that time and reflect upon those reasoning. We can’t reflect upon all of them.
So beginning your meditation on emptiness, in terms of those types of reasons which make most sense for you, those types of reasons which you feel some that work for you, that you feel some affinity with and beginning to using those particular reasonings. Then having worked with those reasons, we can go on to make use of other types of reasonings but begin with those which make most sense for you. But expand this in order simply to acquaint yourself with other types of reasoning. Out of this will become a very powerful way of working with emptiness, that one will have many different ways to think of emptiness and can gain out of this, a realization of emptiness will arise. But even if realization of emptiness were not to arise, by making use of this way of procedure, this procedure, we can implant very strong stable predispositions for its eventual realization in the future.
If our meditation is not going well, it’s simply we’re gaining no clarity of understanding, then we can imagine that the, for example, having a representation of the Buddha, either a painting or an image of some sort, the visualizing the Buddha coming to the crown of our head, and the Buddha should be, we should consider the Buddha as an inseparable entity with one’s yidam, one’s spiritual master and remembering their great kindness and making requests for their blessing, thinking that the understanding is not coming, please help me. And that imagine that you are receiving the blessings of the Buddha inseparable from your Yidam and spiritual master. So this is if we don’t have very much time for our session of meditation. If we have more time then we can of course expand our session. We can include various other types of practices such as the practice of the four immeasurables, a more detailed practice of the seven-limb prayer.
Can incorporate the Lama Chopa Guru Yoga. We can practice the ritual of Jorchö. All these can be incorporated if you have more time. And then finally at the end of your session, to make various types of prayers, and importantly prayers of dedication as we usually do, the prayer which is Gewa Di, etcetera. And then the second prayer, inserting Tongni Dawa which means the view of emptiness, the precious view of emptiness as a way of dedicating.
This is an extremely abbreviated and very rough explanation of how you could proceed in the course of your meditation. So we’ll stop there for today. So let’s take five minutes for questions. So you can reflect upon the fact that emptiness exists. The view of nihilism holds that emptiness does not exist.
When we say what doesn’t exist is true existence, true existence, the non existence of true existence entails the existence of emptiness. Because things do not truly exist, they are empty of true existence. So therefore emptiness must exist because things are empty of being truly existent and therefore their emptiness must exist. But if emptiness did not exist, then there would be no benefit of cultivating an understanding of emptiness. If we meditated on emptiness, it would be of no benefit.
We couldn’t achieve liberation by meditating on emptiness. It would be the same as if we meditated on the horns of a rabbit. We don’t achieve anything out of that either. Or if we thought we had a precious gem in our hand, and actually there’s no precious gem there, but we meditate, I have a precious gem in my hand. We cultivated that understanding.
It’s of no benefit. There’s no precious gem there. But through the cultivation of emptiness, we are able to eliminate our various faults and bring to consummation our excellent qualities. That it has meaning that emptiness exists because by cultivating that understanding of emptiness we can achieve these far reaching ends. We can eliminate our various faults and bring the consummation of all the excellent qualities by cultivating the understanding of this existing object emptiness.
Thinking this way will prevent you from thinking emptiness does not exist. So, if emptiness does not exist, then we cannot eliminate the view of nihilism, If we were to question, well does true existence exist or not? Does true existence exist? So you have to debate with yourself. You have to say to yourself.
You have to debate to yourself, if you say that emptiness does not exist, well then that entails that true existence exists. So what do you assert? Do you assert the existence of true existence or do you assert the existence of emptiness? Emptiness is an extremely subtle object and it’s difficult for it to appear to our mind, to our wisdom consciousness. We have to have a lot of positive potential in order that emptiness appear to our mind.
There’s no great wonder that it doesn’t appear to your mind, that maybe just some kind of blackness appears to your mind. So it’s just like if we were to close our eyes just now and though there’s light, there’s all various types of objects in the room, we simply don’t see them. Just this blackness appears to us. We are obscured from seeing all these various objects and this is the same way with respect to emptiness at present. We are obscured from seeing it.
So we have to So we have to carry on a debate with ourselves using reasoned analysis. We have to put questions to ourselves and answer the questions. Eventually we will come and say, Oh it can’t be that, can it? And we will come to these various understandings will arise as a consequence of carrying back this questioning and answering to ourselves. There are two types of meditation.
There is analytic meditation and stabilizing meditation. In the course of analytic meditation we make use of reasoned analysis in the course of our meditation. Thinking, well if it is this, then this must follow from that. And if it’s that, then this must follow. Carrying on the consequences in our own mind and coming to an understanding, well if it’s that, then it can’t be that.
That’s really a mistake. That’s a great fault if it was that, so it can’t be that way. Understanding that, oh I was thinking wrongly. I was making a mistake because it can’t be that. And out of this arises actual, an understanding of the actual nature of what we are reasoning about.