Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 34.8-minute teaching on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Ven Jampa Ignyen explores emptiness—the lack of inherent existence in all phenomena. He begins with searching for a vase among its separated parts: it disappears. He then develops the central metaphor: mistaking the moon’s reflection in water for the actual moon, just as we mistake appearances for solid reality. Though objects lack true existence, they function through cause and effect; karma operates on this principle. Music illustrates this: individual notes have no essence in themselves, yet melody still lightens the mind. Understanding emptiness paradoxically strengthens virtue—we practice ethics and reject harm precisely within this mere appearance. He concludes by sketching the path from hearing, through meditation, to wisdom that stabilizes this understanding. Pitched at practitioners with Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 Wheel of Sharp Weapons 2001 04 03.mp3
UUID: c2690b42-4c83-40ee-86e5-25ceb9b6fff3
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Wheel of Sharp Weapons 2011 Month 04 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-04-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.8 minutes
Words: ~3,743
So for that reason, we can establish that it’s not a true or truly existent doorframe. It’s a little bit like a Zen statement. But in the beginning, rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains. But then when one begins to study dharma in the middle period, mountains are no more mountains and rivers are no more rivers. But then in the end, the rivers are once again rivers and mountains are once again mountains.
When one begins to examine the nature of objects that we use in our everyday existence, and we begin to investigate them to see how they do exist. Are they you know, we’re we have this little, like, vase, and we think, yes, there’s a vase there. And we think in an innate way that the vase actually exists there within its parts. It’s findable. We can find a vase.
But, actually, if we take that apart into its various parts, we can’t find a vase. So for that reason, it’s it’s not a real vase. It’s not a a truly existent vase. If in fact it were findable, then it would be truly existent. So for that reason, they appear as if they’re true.
Objects appear as if they’re true, like even a sound. That sound appears true to our ear. But similarly, it’s only made up of parts. It’s just this series of, tones that occur over time. It doesn’t truly exist.
Why? Because it’s a dependent arising. Why? Because it’s a result. Because it comes about through tapping.
Even that sound, therefore, is not truly existent. And the taste of food is similar. It’s not truly existent. The contact with things. Things feel solid to our touch, but also they’re just dependent arisings.
They’re not, existent in and of themselves. And smell aroma and so on. So here, as it says, they appear as if they’re true. All objects appear as if they’re true, but their truth has never been experienced. And then they appear as if they appear, but they are objects beyond overestimation and underestimation.
So another point here is that their their appearance. In a sense, they appear as if they have the capacity to appear in and of themselves. But the real objects are beyond the overestimation and underestimation that is applied to them by our conception. We, in general, overestimate the status of objects, and we we tend to think there’s more there than there’s actually there. We think that there’s a truly existent chair there when there’s only an ordinary chair there, a non truly existent chair there.
We give it a bit more value than what’s actually there. And one of the reasons for that is that the object itself appears in that way. All these objects that we’re continuously dealing with, they appear as if they exist from their own side. And we take that, therefore, to mean that they do exist in that way. So, therefore, we overestimate what is there.
Doesn’t mean to say they don’t exist, but their measure of existence is less than what we currently think. Some people go to the other extreme in order to try and stop this tendency of ours and say that they don’t exist at all. But that’s in a way just a a system or a way of trying to counter our tendency to overestimate. We can try to overcome that by underestimating. So if objects are actually like that, then where does this wheel of karma, this experience come from, this contaminated experience that is there all the time?
Where does it come from if objects are not actually real? Even the wheel of karma, which means this wheel of contaminated experience that we are continuously experiencing, all the feelings that we have in this long continuum. You know, positive feeling, then down to negative feeling, then neutral, then negative, then positive, so on. All of this contaminated experience. Also, where does that come from?
Even this process of experience, is not truly existent, but it arises through causes and conditions. Then in the next verse, verse one hundred and nine, although all things lack inherent existence, yet just as the face of the moon can be seen in a cup of clear water reflecting its image, the various aspects of cause and effect appear in this relative world as reflections. So please, in this world of appearances only, let’s always be sure what we do is a virtue and shun all those acts that would cause us great pain. So then verse one hundred and nine. So when we reflect about objects that exist externally, internally, then they’re without essence.
They’re not inherent inherently existing. Just as the mandala or the moon appears in water, just as if we look in the water, if we look in the water that’s reflected in a bucket or a cup or whatever, we see the reflection of the moon, but that’s not the moon. And that’s obvious to us. But at present, it’s as if we’re taking that that reflection of the moon, say, in a bucket, in a bucket full of water to be the moon. We’re a hundred percent convinced of that.
We’re convinced that things are truly existent. So in a sense, it’s a bit like thinking the reflection of a moon or the mandala or the circle of the moon in water is actually the moon. But it’s not the actual moon, but we take it to be the actual moon. Similarly, this is not the actual table or the real table or the true table, but we take it to be the true table. Is this true?
Is that how we act? Yeah. Good. Because everybody else is acting. Well, you don’t have to just because everyone else is.
Oh, no. It’s table. It’s a table, but it’s not a truly existing table. Yeah. But we take it to be a truly existing table.
At present, our discernment of it being a table, our imputation of it being table is mixed with the conception of it being a truly existent table. A Buddha also would call this a table, but for them, there’s no conception of a thing truly existing. Well, the floor itself is not truly existing. Right. So here, this example of the reflection of the moon is very important because the way we look at things is just like that.
It is a poem written by one nun, a nun said. In this way and that, I tried to save the old bucket that the bamboo strap was worn and about to break. Then one day the bottom fell out. No more moon in the water. No no more water in the bucket.
No more moon in the water. No more water in the bucket. No more moon in the water. In other words, we tend to hold things to be truly existent just as if we hold the reflection of the moon to be the moon. But after much contemplation, one day the understanding arises.
Things aren’t truly existing. So this, of course, has to be proven. This has to be fully established for each of us. And so this takes time. This and we need a lot of patience with ourselves.
So even though things are not truly existent, karma and its results variously manifest in the deceptive world. So even though things are like a reflection of a moon, still they function. Even the reflection of the moon functions. Similarly, objects function, but they’re not truly existing. But but we should practice virtue and reject non virtue within this mere appearance.
So within this appearance of things being true when they’re not actually true, we should hold to the practice of virtue and reject non virtue. Then in the next verse, when our bodies are charred in a horrible nightmare by the world ending flames of a stellar explosion. Although this ordeal may not act be actually happening, we nevertheless feel great terror and scream. In similar fashion, unfortunate rebirths in hells or as ghosts are not actually real, and yet we can fully experience their pain. Thus, fearing such suffering as being burned alive, we must shun
Those actions that yield this result of rebirth in hell and so on. So when the fire at the end of the eon blazes so at the end of the eon, destroyed. The physical universe is destroyed in the desire realm. It’s not the universe is not completely destroyed, but what we’re aware of in in the desire realm is completely annihilated. It’s either annihilated through fire, water, or wind.
So he’s talking about the annihilation by fire. Now if we have a dream of this occurring, we’ll tend to be terrified of being consumed in such a an an immense conflagration. However, when we wake up from the dream, we realize it was just a dream. It wasn’t actually there, anything that had happened. Similarly, though the hell realms are without essence, through fear of being boiled and burnt, we act to abandon them.
So there’s a parallel there. We can have a dream about the end of the universe and develop fear of being consumed in that heat, and that’s natural to have that sort of fear. Similarly, if we develop a fear for being reborn in hell, even though the hell is like a dream, it’s not truly existent. Still, it’s very beneficial because it can stop us from engaging in negative actions. Then the next verse, when our minds are delirious, burning with fever, although there is no darkness, we feel we are plummeting further and further inside a dark pit with the walls pressing closer, the deeper we fall.
In a similar fashion, although our dark ignorance lacks self existence, we nevertheless must by all means break out of this strangling constriction by putting the three kinds of wisdom to use. So in other words, when confused by fever, if we come down with a strong fever, we often we can experience this sort of feeling of sinking. And then we it even may appear as if things are getting dark. Even when it’s not dark, we have experience. And it’s almost as if we’re falling.
We sometimes we have that. We’ve got a fever, and then it there’s a sort of a darkness. And when we roll over, it feels if we keep rolling and it perfect example. That’s right. When we’ve had to that’s right.
We lean too far and we just keep going. We feel as if we’re falling into a deep pit and suffocating and so on. So that’s through the confusion of fever or the confusion of alcohol or whatever. We have ignorance, which is like that confusion. But because even that ignorance that we have is without essence, it can be completely eliminated by wisdom.
Because the ignorance is not substantially existent, not inherently existent. The ignorance that we have can be completely rooted out by the three types of wisdom. So what are the three types of wisdom? The the the the the the the the the arising. Then the next verse, when musicians are playing a beautiful melody should we examine the sound?
Not like the rolling stones here. Should we examine the sound they are making? We should see that it does not exist by itself. But when we are not making our formal analysis, still there is a beautiful tune to be heard, which is merely a label on notes and on players. That is why lovely music enlightens sad hearts.
Or in other words, though a musician plays melodies on a lute or a guitar or whatever, when analyzed, it is confirmed that there’s no essence in the sound or to the sound. When each of the individual notes are examined, there’s nothing much in there. You know, there’s da, duh. You know, we could take it all apart and examine. There’s nothing much there.
And even the parts, that sound, it’s got a beginning, a middle, and an end. And in fact, we can divide it up into really short bits and so forth. It’s not very pleasant in and of itself. But if we don’t analyze into its pieces, still a pleasant effect occurs, which does alleviate the heaviness of the mind of beings. It’s true, isn’t it?
That’s why there’s such a big market in music because music has the capacity to lighten the mind a little bit. We put on an old tune, something, you know, that we like. And even though it’s they’re just a collection of notes there, for some reason, the mind feels lighter. The burden of our existence is lightened for a period. Of course, we play it too often.
We get sicker than so in fact, that’s our situation perfectly. We have all these methods of lightening our load a bit. You know? If I’m feeling a little bit bored, okay, I’ll go and do that, and I like doing this, and I like doing that. Little stop gap measures, fingers in the dike.
You know? We’ve got various methods of lightening our load. Actually, these are very important because they do help us to get by. They’re very important, and we need we it’s very useful for us to have these. I don’t think we should try and get rid of them.
If we like music, I can’t throw music away. If we like watching movies on TV, just to okay. I won’t do that. If I like reading books and so on. Taken to an extreme, it’s probably not a good thing.
But we need to be skillful in how we employ methods to keep us keep the mind as light as possible. So here, listening to music can lighten the burden, keep the mind a little bit lighter. That’s what we have to do. Keep the mind as light as possible. Then in the next verse, verse one hundred and thirteen.
That’s why in this verse, it even ends. That is why lovely music enlightens sad hearts, which is really, an indication of the necessity for us to find methods that do enlighten lighten the mind. Because we work. Why is that? We need a light mind because we work better.
We function better if the mind is happier. The unhappier the mind is, the harder things are, the less we get done. The lighter the mind, the easier things become. We get more done, more efficient. So we need to be skillful with that.
Then in verse one hundred and thirteen, when we closely examine effects and their causes, we can see they both lack inherent existence. They cannot stand alone, either whole or apart. Yet they seem to exist independent this to exist independently rising and falling events which in fact are conditioned by various forces, components, and parts in this very level on which we experience birth and our death and whatever life brings. It is this very level. So please, this world of appearances only, let’s always be sure what we do is a virtue and we shun non virtue.
So similarly, if we examine karma and causation, if we examine the law of cause and effect, then there’s nothing with any essence. Whether the cause is one or many and so forth, they’re without essence. They’re without existing from their own side. Dharmas or objects that exist are generated and destroyed in accordance with appearance. So things arise and fall just as they appear.
As they appear, they are conditioned by the law of causation. However, we tend to overexaggerate their status. All these impermanent entities do arise through cause and condition, but we take their appearance the way they appear to be true. Even so, their appearance is a product of the law of cause and effect. Bliss and suffering are variously experienced as if they exist.
So, also, causation appears and it functions, but doesn’t truly exist. Bliss and suffering, our blissful feeling, positive feeling arises, negative feeling arises, experience them as if they truly exist. When we feel unhappy or bored, we really think that we’re truly existently bored or truly existently suffering when in fact we’re not in the least. Nothing truly existent there at all. That feeling is not there’s not even one minute part of an instant of a moment or an instant of a second that’s truly existent.
It’s nothing. It’s not truly existent. It just appears that way. But in understanding this in understanding this vast interplay of appearance that reflects the law of causation, we should practice virtue and reject non virtue. Even though it’s mere appearance.
It appears to be true, but it’s not. Still, we absolutely need to hold to practicing virtue and rejecting nonvirtue. This is very important because that’s the foundation of the path. Then the next verse, one hundred and fourteen. When a vase has been filled by the dripping of water, the first drop themselves did not fill it alone, nor is it made full by the last several drops.
It was filled by an interdependent collection of causes and forces that came out altogether. So here the author is going through different sets of reasoning to help us understand emptiness. What is emptiness? Emptiness is not something we can see with the eye awareness or we can hear with the ear awareness. It’s beyond the senses.
It doesn’t have a shape, has no color. It’s not sweet sounding. Doesn’t have any aroma. No texture whatsoever. It’s not that emptiness is some very smooth round thing that exists somewhere, but it exists everywhere.
Does anyone know what emptiness is? It’s co-pervasive. It’s a lack of inherent existence. Something that’s permanent. Emptiness is permanent.
True? Is emptiness permanent or impermanent? Now if emptiness were impermanent, that would mean that nirvana itself was impermanent. But nirvana is permanent, never changes. Whether one’s woken up or not, nirvana is permanent.
Like space. Like space. It’s permanent. Not momentary. Doesn’t change moment to moment.
True? This is said, and we can accept this. And what emptiness is is the nonaffirming negation, which is the mere lack of inherent existence. It’s a a lack of something. It’s the lack of true existence in anything in anything, including ourselves.
That lack is a permanent entity. Yeah. This is paradoxical. It’s also a little bit like this mala or this rosary is impermanent. Its emptiness is permanent.
How do they stick together? It does. It depends on its basis of designation. Absolutely. That’s right.
The emptiness of the object only exists as long as the object exists. But the emptiness of the rosary sorry? The emptiness is then dependent on the object. Absolutely. This is, sorry?
It’s not permanent. It’s permanent, but it’s dependent. It’s permanent. That’s a very good it’s dependent but not changing. Everything that exists, whether permanent or impermanence or dependent arising, is dependent.
But the emptiness of the rosary is permanent. The rosary itself is impermanent. The rosary itself is changing every moment, but it said that its emptiness is permanent. Anyway, that’s something to think about. Because the main purpose of these, verses here is to start thinking about emptiness and what the meaning of emptiness actually is, what the meaning of dependent arising is.
So here in this verse, when a vase is filled by drops of water, the first water drop does not fill the vase, and each drop till the last does not as the vase is filled by the dependent collection. Actually, that sounds simple, but here it’s an indication of dependent arising. Here, this is teaching dependent arising and how the way we designate things depends on terms and so forth, depends on names And how we apply names to things is completely dependent. The way things come into existence is completely dependent on their parts, and the parts themselves are completely dependent on their parts and so on. Then in the next verse oh, it’s just oh, Okay.
I think we’ve I might just read through the last little bit just to finish it off. Similarly, when the result bliss or suffering is is experienced, it is not experienced by the first moment of the cause, and it is not experienced by the last moment, etcetera. As the experience of bliss and suffering occurs through the dependent collection, we should practice virtue and reject non virtue within this mere appearance. Ah, without investigating investigation, objects seem attractive, yet we confirm there is no pith within their appearance. However, this dharma of objects appearing as if they exist is profound, and inferior minds have difficulty seeing it.
Now we enter equipoise in concentration. So having developed this idea of what emptiness is, then progressively through hearing, we develop concentration and we develop a mind focused on emptiness that is stabilized through calm abiding. We develop some level of contemplation, some degree of concentration focused on the object. And then we develop wisdom, wisdom which is actually derived from the state of meditation itself. When we develop that sword of wisdom, then we can we’re able to clarify exactly what this emptiness is and see the nature of the appearance, how the appearance exists, how the object actually exists.
We’re able to discern what exists and what doesn’t exist clearly and without any doubt in relation to the object. And so when we have this type of awareness which comprehends the fundamental state or the ultimate state of anything in which the objects and the suchness of objects are not found to inherently exist, and which is free of any tendency to accept or reject or overestimate or underestimate the object. When any type of elaboration, conceptual elaboration has been completely pacified, and we’re able to hold the object naturally as it is without any fabrication at all. One enters the status of a great being, a bodhisattva, on the path of seeing and develops ultimate bodhicitta. So therefore, in that way, practicing relative bodhicitta and ultimate bodhicitta, we are able then to establish the two collections of merit and wisdom and attain the full perfection of the two purposes, the purpose of self and the purpose of other beings.
Okay. So we’ll leave it there. We better go and have a cup of tea, I think. Just do a very brief, quick dedication.