Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 86-minute teaching, Venerable Thubten Dondrub guides students through the fourth week of a Buddhist philosophy course on the wisdom of emptiness, focusing on how to recognize and undo the false appearance of inherent existence that keeps us trapped in suffering. He walks through dependent arising in three dimensions—on causes and conditions, on parts, and on mental labeling—using concrete examples like books, malas, letters of the alphabet, and the famous Wittgenstein rabbit-duck drawing to show that nothing exists from its own side, independent and unchanging. The core practice involves learning to distinguish between how things appear (as if truly existing on their own) and how they actually exist (only in dependence on causes, parts, and the mind’s conceptual designation). For practitioners already familiar with Buddhist philosophy and ready to engage directly with Madhyamaka reasoning, this talk offers both intellectual clarity and practical methods for undermining the grasping that drives saṃsāra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015 02 03 DB Wisdom of Emptiness Week 4 03022015.mp3
UUID: 481ec268-4958-415a-896a-833a6e700406
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Wisdom of Emptiness (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2015-02-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 86.2 minutes
Words: ~9,521
Our fourth class on the wisdom of emptiness. So all of the so all of the Buddhist teachings oh, dear. So all of the Buddhist teachings are about helping us to become free of suffering and to be able to achieve peerless everlasting happiness. But so to do that, we need to and and to enable us to be of vast benefit to others. So to do that, we have to remove everything that’s obscuring our mind.
And to do that, we have to develop the wisdom that directly experiences the true nature of our self and all phenomena. And so this topic of understanding the true nature nature of our self and phenomena is really the most vital thing. So we can try and generate the motivation for studying this topic. Wanting to to not only free our mind, ourselves from all suffering, but also recognizing our connection with all sentient beings, beings, how immensely kind they are, but how they are are also trapped in suffering, cyclic existence, then we can develop the wish to to really understand this topic, not just understand it, but gain a deep realization of it for the sake of all all these all these kind suffering mother sentient beings. So when we think of Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us who has realized the wisdom of emptiness and not only that has been able to teach it in a way that we ourselves can understand it.
And and so we can think of the Buddha appearing in front of us to inspire us, to remind us of our Buddha nature, to inspire us, to realize it for the sake of ourself and all beings, and at the same time to think of all sentient beings surrounding us as our motivating force, recognising that they are suffering because they are they don’t have that wisdom but instead their minds are obscured by ignorance that brings every kind of suffering. So if you’d like to join in, there’s the traditional prayer that we can say which is on page eleven. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through teaching the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings? So then we can think that the Buddha now being very pleased with our motivation shows this by coming to the crown of our head and when directly above our crown, we think that the Buddha then dissolves into blissful golden light so that that light can then pour into us, blessing our mind to be able to understand and realize wisdom of emptiness.
So then briefly, we can do the nine round breathing exercise just to help our mind become a little bit more calm, clearer, more focused so that we can use that level of mind to think about the Buddha’s teachings tonight. Okay. Thank you. So the simple fact is that all of us in this room, room, every human being and every being in the animal realm on this planet, in this universe, is trapped in cyclic existence. We have to take rebirth over and over again.
We have to experience the suffering of birth, sickness, aging, and death over and over again. And as as well there are so many other difficulties, problems, and sufferings that one experiences when we have a mind controlled by delusion and karma. And the Buddha discovered that the there is a cause for all of this and the the very root cause is the fact that our mind is not experiencing ourself and everything in the correct way but in a completely false way. But as we experience things in this false way, we grasp that that false experience, that false appearance is actually true. So it’s yeah.
That’s it. That’s the problem. And this yeah. So to to get rid of every kind of suffering, to stop cyclic existence and all the suffering that goes with it, we have to develop this wisdom, which is the antidote, the direct opposite to this ignorance that is falsely perceiving things, so or falsely conceiving things and develop the wisdom that that validly, correctly, directly perceives the way things are actually existing. And, yes, that’s what we need to do.
That wisdom will will remove the the obstacles to liberation, and that wisdom combined with bodhicitta will have the power to remove the very subtle obscurations to omniscience that prevent us achieving enlightenment. So when those two levels of obscurations are removed, we can achieve our true nature, we can realize, experience our true nature, our Buddha nature, and once we are able to do that, we’re that, we’re able to be of continuous benefit, perfect, complete benefit to all sentient beings. So there are many level kinds of ignorance, many layers of ignorance on that very basic ignorance that is falsely experiencing ourself and all phenomena. We have many other types of ignorance such as the ignorance that perceives impermanent things as permanent. We see suffering as happiness.
We see what is unclean as clean and and good and blah blah blah. So many many types of ignorance. And there’s all it’s also helpful or maybe necessary if one gets into this subject if as a result of studying this course, you want to go into it more deeply, which I hope everyone will because this is the key to happiness, realizing emptiness, is that there is also what is called intellectually acquired ignorance, and then there is what is called innate ignorance. So there is many different kinds of intellectually acquired ignorance that comes from believing in false philosophies, mistaken philosophies, and dare I say it, religious views. But the so although these can lead to some mistakes, you know, because there are different philosophies and well, and religions that say, for example, there’s nothing wrong with killing animals and insects.
You know, nothing at all. So that that from a Buddhist point of view is a wrong view. But if you believe it’s okay, you’re thinking that this is perfectly okay, then one is from a Buddhist point of view, which may actually be the correct view, I hope it is, I think it is, then killing animals is actually a negative action that that whether one believes it’s correct or not, brings is a cause of suffering. So this is why we have to so although these these wrong views bring some suffering, they’re not the actual root cause of all suffering. These are just intellectually acquired views that just make it worse, add to the problem.
What we have to in order to be free of suffering, to be free of Samsāra, we have to identify the innate ignorance. So the innate ignorance, this inborn ignorance is something that every sentient being has by definition. To be in Samsāra, one has to have this innate ignorance. If one doesn’t have it, one isn’t in Samsāra, one isn’t suffering. But we are in Samsāra.
This means we have this innate ignorance. So it’s not something that we that we acquire intellectually. It has always been there. Just like our mind is beginningless, this our mind has been beginninglessly obscured by this innate ignorance. So if we take the example of a human being, when a human being is born, they have that ignorance.
You don’t acquire it. It’s there. It’s not something intellectually acquired. You don’t learn it from your family or culture. It is there and more interestingly, from a Buddhist point of view, you know, a human being doesn’t start being a human being when they’re born but when they are conceived in the womb and that tiny fetus in the womb has that innate ignorance.
The consciousness of the the fetus in the womb already has that ignorance. That innate ignorance. They have brought it. That consciousness has brought it from the previous life. And and the life before that going back to you know into beginningless time.
It’s always been there. But and some people think, oh, if it’s always been there, that means you can’t get rid of it, but we can. This is the the Buddha has demonstrated that. The Buddha was a being who had innate ignorance but got rid of it. Why ignorance perpetuates itself is partly because we don’t know it’s there.
We don’t know we’re ignorant. Most people would be probably deeply offended if you told them you’re ignorant because Because we associate that with some insult, meaning you’re not very intelligent and don’t know very much. But even the most brilliant people have this ignorance, but we don’t know it. That’s why the Buddha came to say, say how your mind is obscured by ignorance. That’s why you’re suffering.
So once we know that that that can lead us on the path, the spiritual path that enables us to identify what that what that ignorance is doing, how it’s creating a false appearance. So, and we can describe that false appearance as the appearance of inherent existence, but really what helps us identify that false appearance so that we can get rid of it because as I tried to say last week, to get rid of it, we have to really identify that false appearance as something that we’re experiencing moment by moment in relation to ourself and all phenomena. We can have a a general intellectual understanding of it but until we actually completely recognize that, yes, that’s exactly how I’m experiencing things, we won’t be able to get rid of it. And the way to really, for us, the way to identify identify that wrong view is firstly, I think, to develop the right view, to understand the right view of dependent arising. That as the Buddha said or says, the easiest way to get rid of ignorance is to to understand dependent arising because the ignorance we have creates if that that the appearance that ignorance creates, which we believe is true, if it was true, it would it would mean that everything exists independently, not depending on causes and conditions and so on.
But if we understand dependent arising and and we start to realize that that’s the only way things exist, then we can start to realize that I’m not experiencing things that way. So the more we understand the right view, the that helps us identify the wrong view, to understand the wrong view, but also identify that that’s how I’m experiencing things. So in in the Madhyamaka Prāsaṇgika view, just a simple presentation of it, there are three aspects of dependent arising, that things arise depending on causes and conditions. So the more we understand that, that everything or at least everything which is impermanent, which is virtually everything we experience, all impermanent phenomena arise depending on causes and conditions. So the more we really understand that, that that itself undermines the belief that things exist the way they appear now.
Because if the the way they appear now would imply they are independent. But if you take a simple example oh, you know, things that appear beautiful to us, partly why they appear beautiful. Like if you go shopping or you look at magazines of things that people want us to buy and they want us to make make us feel that we really need this object, this piece of clothing, or this kitchen appliance, or a car. That those things in shops and magazines are made to appear well, conventionally, they may be quite nice things, attractive things, but they are made to appear more attractive by the way they are photographed and the way they are they are presented in the shop and how they are lit. They are, you know, there’s a lot of thought and effort going into making those things, which may have some attractive quality, but it’s made more attractive by that presentation.
Yeah. So that beauty depends on all the conditions of how how it’s set out. Like for clothing like especially ladies clothing. You know with all these models. So they have these very beautiful models who have who walk a pathetic way and it’s the lighting.
Yeah. And all the glamour that goes with that with these famous people. Yeah. Just because there’s this famous person wearing it, it must be beautiful. It must it’s so much more desirable because this famous, beautiful, sexy person is wearing it.
Yeah. So it all depends on all these causes and conditions and the way things are photographed. And if you took all that away and you take it home, it doesn’t look the same because it depends. Yeah. It really is.
It doesn’t have that beauty there and all that glamour. The glamour isn’t there in the thing from its own side. All that glamorous quality of this thing isn’t there. That’s all arising dependently on so many causes and conditions. But when we look at that thing, you know, in the emotional moment, I don’t know what the proper term is but I’ve just invented that expression because at one level it’s very easy to say to when you when you once you hear about dependent arising yes you can think oh yes of course things depend on cause and conditions parts of the mind but in our life we don’t.
We we that almost never occurs. Even as a Buddhist. You know, it’s just not there. It’s just, oh, this is good. Oh, that’s bad.
Meaning, it’s really bad from its side, not depending on causes and conditions, blah blah blah blah blah. But really bad. You know, another example I give, a very extreme example, is when, you know, the the terrorists flew into the Twin Towers and every, you know, the president president Bush says these are evil people. They just what is an evil an evil person someone who does things for no reason? Now what was implied by saying these are evil people, blah blah, is they flew into that twin towers for no reason, which is just rubbish because they had very good, you know, not good reasons.
They had many reasons. I’m not I’m not trying to say in any way justify this. It was a really ridiculous, awful, disgusting, terrible thing to do, but these people had reasons. Yeah. Even the most insane people, when they do the most insane, ridiculous, terrible things, they have reasons.
There are causes and conditions why people do things. Why, you know, there are, what do you call them, serial killers. Actually, it’s very interesting if you read about serial killers and watch programs about it. They can never really identify why that person killed all those people in that way. They can give some, oh, they had a bad family life and blah blah blah or something.
Something but there’s no real explanation from an ordinary point of view but there is karmically. I’m not saying there’s no there’s this but there are, you know, you know, there’s many causes, conditions why people do the things they do. But to label someone evil, you know, negates all that. They they are just evil. Yeah.
So you don’t have to worry about society is the cause that very culture and society is the causes and in in some way contributes to the causes and conditions of many unhappy disturbed people who out of their unhappiness and disturbance and confusion do terrible things. Oh, no. No. I’ve got nothing to do with anything. You know?
They’re just evil. It’s complete, you know. Rubbish. There’s no such thing as someone just inherently evil or, yeah, who just does evil things for no reason whatsoever. It all depends on many, many factors.
So there’s causes and conditions. And of course what causes and conditions applies implies is one shouldn’t just leave that that there are causes now. You know the the the why something happens. Why something exists. Why something happens is just simply because of causes and conditions now.
What that what that implies is you know things are you know impermanent phenomena arise depending on causes and conditions. But those causes have causes. Which have causes. Which have causes. And we will like to think there’s a first cause.
At some point there’s a first cause. When when the whole thing started. You can go back like in history. One tries to work out, you know, why Hitler, you know, why the second world war started, why the first world war started. But you can never find a first cause.
It just goes back and back and back and back if you really, you know, historians at some point just have to draw a line because they’ll never write the book, you know, because there’s always too much research to go, so you have to say, well, it started then. Well, these are the things kind of started it. Well, people are still that this is not negating the fact that they are responsible for their actions but there there are reasons for their actions. That’s all I’m saying in this case. Yeah.
People are definitely the the Buddhist teachings are saying, we, that’s what the law of cause and effect is saying that we are accountable, you know, you you can’t say Anyway, the course and effect is saying, if we do an action, it will have an effect. So we we are responsible for our actions, and we have to take responsibility. This is what the law of cause and effect is teaching that we have to take responsibility for our actions because they definitely have effects. And if we want certain effects, we have to create the causes, not wait for the government or mama or dad or somebody to do it. Or or God or some you know.
Porpoises or crystals to to do it for us. Excuse me. Sorry. We have to create the causes. Dolphins.
I think dolphins are higher, aren’t they, than porpoises? I’m not really sure. Yeah. Well, you know, one and one has to create the, you know, rot the right causes. So the law of cause and effect is definitely saying we are accountable for our actions.
That’s true, but let’s not get to that. I’m not trying to make that point at the moment. I’m just trying to say, yes. Yeah but that is true. But one thing is to try and check how how how everything that we, you know, what we are right now is is who we are is arising depending on causes and conditions.
As I I I as I often say, but I didn’t tonight, in the motivation that who we are is the result of the kindness of all sentient beings. We we don’t experience ourselves that way. We think of, you know, you know, when we’re under the control of our ignorance, which is pretty much most of the time, if not all the time, our ignorance, our self grasping says, I am this and I I am a self created, amazing, perfect, wonderful being. And all my good qualities are due to me and not nobody else. And everything I know is is uniquely wonderful, my knowledge.
But, actually, it all comes from the fact, for example, of our mother. Teaching us how to walk, how to talk, how to wash, and all and go to school, do our homework, be nice, and polite. Because of all of that, we’ve learnt what we know. But we don’t think that. We think me, independent, smart, clever, wonderful, me.
It’s all due to me, not anybody else. Yeah. But it’s all due to other people. Everything we know is due to other people. Other people helping us know things.
And they help they they knew what they knew because of other people coming back. So it’s all interdependent. So many causes and conditions for us just to know one thing, to be able to do one thing. And so it’s really important to sort of check that how everything, our self, our body, everything everything in the world arises depending on causes and conditions, which, you know, there are immediate causes and conditions, but this goes back and back and back. And, also, particularly to try and check how could things exist without causes and conditions.
Well, there are things that do exist depending on permanent things depend on causes and don’t depend on causes and conditions. But permanent things, by nature, an impermanent phenomenon is a functioning phenomenon. A permanent phenomenon cannot function, cannot act. It’s a non space. There are different kinds of space, but space is a permanent phenomenon.
Space is always space. It’s always the same space all the time. The lack of obstruction is always the lack of obstruction. You can’t have more or less lack of obstruction. You can’t have higher quality lack of obstruction.
Lack of obstruction is just the lack of obstruction. That is permanent. But that doesn’t function. Although it’s kind of useful. But everything in our world is impermanent.
It’s changing and it depends on cause and conditions. Can one find anything that doesn’t arise depending on causes and conditions in our world? How could it exist? Not depending on causes and conditions which also go back and back and back and back. That’s one thing to try and look into.
And and to and then think how when when we experience things, when we don’t think about things is the point. When we and which is we don’t. You know? We just accept things as they are. They don’t seem to depend on causes and conditions.
They’re just there. Even we know, of course, this was manufactured. Of course, no one’s saying that I know I know you we all know that this was a is a manufactured object, which means it it it depends on causes and conditions. But when you look at it, you know, and just use it, it doesn’t seem we try and identify how it appears as though it’s there, not really depending on causes and conditions, just there. Or we can think, yes, it depended on causes and conditions to come in into existence, but now that it’s coming to existence, it doesn’t depend on causes and conditions, but it still does to be able to function.
It’s depending on cause and conditions arising moment by moment. Check out. But what what gets really interesting is when we look into the next two sections of dependent arising, which is how things depend on parts and how things depend on the mind itself. So some of you have seen me do this many times before, but now now the thing to understand is okay. Yes.
This is a book. This is a book. Now we all know we all know that a book has parts. A book has a cover, a front or a front cover. Right?
It has a back cover. All books have that unless it’s an old book that’s been damaged and the back cover’s been ripped off. But a complete book, a book, has a front cover, has a back cover, and it has pages. Several pages to make a book. You need at least a few pages to make a book.
Right? So here we have a book, but so it’s made it has parts. We all know that. We all understand that. But the point is, do we really understand?
Do we experience that a book not only has parts, but it totally depends or it arises depending on the parts. There is a difference, actually, quite a big difference. Difference actually. Quite a big difference. Now whether we believe it or not, but we should, can’t force you to.
Sorry to keep repeating myself but I I have to. We are suffering. Why are we suffering? And the Buddha is saying he’s found the answer and it’s because of ignorance that we’re experiencing things in a false way. Okay.
Hopefully, if you have some faith in the Buddhist teachings, one accepts that. Even if we don’t understand what what the false way is. And the Buddha is telling us that false way we’re experiencing things is called inherent or true true existence. We experience things as being inherently or truly existing. Which what does that mean?
Well it means that we experience things as not dependent arising dependent. As though they truly exist from their own side under their own power. So one of the arguments in Buddhist philosophy is if something does validly exist, if you search for it, if you investigate, you will find it. So for example and if you investigate properly. So just to give a very gross example.
If I say there is an elephant in this room, if there really is an elephant in this room, if we look properly, if we and can’t find an elephant in this room after proper thorough investigation, that means there isn’t an elephant in this room even if I say so. Yeah. If we if we properly investigate, if something exists, you should be able to find it. You will find it. But if it doesn’t exist after a thorough, proper investigation right?
Because, yeah, because there may be a like, finding a needle in a haystack is very difficult. But if you look long enough, you’ll find it. Right? So same. If something really exists, the If you investigate properly, it you will find it.
Yeah. So we the point is we believe that things inherently exist. So if inherently existing things did exist, if you look for them, we should be able to find them. Right? But what the Buddha is telling us and what Buddhist philosophy, all the great Buddhist masters are saying, if you look for inherent existence correctly, properly, you cannot find it.
And this means it doesn’t exist. So, when we look at a book, a book exists. Remember, we can’t fall into the extreme the extreme of nihilism which says the book doesn’t exist at all. Books do conventionally, nominally exist. They are as they arise dependently.
Dependently arising books do exist. But the Buddha says inherently existing books do not exist at all. They only exist as a an illusion, as a delusion in our mind. Yeah. Remember the appearance of water in the desert?
The appearance is there, but there’s no water. So the false appearance exists, but what it’s claiming to be doesn’t exist. So there is an appearance of an inherently existing book, but an actual inherently existing book doesn’t exist. Because if you investigate when you don’t investigate, which is what we do all the time in our life, we don’t investigate thoroughly. For us, there appears to be an inherently existing book.
Here here it is. Here is the inherently existing book that doesn’t seem to depend on causes and conditions, parts, and our mind is just there. Here it is. But if we investigate so this is what we have to remember. We’re not looking for a book because here here’s a book.
We’re trying to investigate whether an inherently existing book exists. So an inherently existing book doesn’t depend on causes, conditions. But this book, but you can’t find here a book that doesn’t depend on causes and conditions, yeah, because it had to be manufactured. This thing had to be paper. The book depends on paper, and that paper had to be manufactured, etcetera, etcetera.
But, also, it depends on part. No. Okay. So an inherently existing book, if it you know, again, if it existed, it wouldn’t depend on anything. That’s what an inherently or truly existing book means.
It doesn’t really depend on anything. It’s just there from its own side. It’s just a book. So, therefore, an inherently existing book is a book that doesn’t depend on parts. So if if we look for such an inherently existing book that doesn’t depend on parts, we should be able to find it.
But if you look, you know, you can say, well, look. I am touching the book. There’s the real inherently I’m I’m touching the book, but I’m not touching the book. I am touching the cover of the book. And the cover of a book is not a book.
Otherwise, if the cover of the book was the book, then I just can give you that and say, you know, here’s present. Imagine that. You know? Here’s here’s a book for your birthday. Right?
Or take a girlfriend. Oh, here’s a bunch of flowers. Right? Or you just take the cover of the chocolate and say, here’s a box of chocolates. Romance won’t develop very far that way.
Right? Now you’re jumping ahead. One thing at a time. One thing at a time. What?
Good. Oh, no. You’re all. So, I’ve I’ve become irrelevant. You don’t need me.
Right? That’s okay. So, we’re looking what we’re looking for is not a book but inherently existing book, which we think is there. Because actually we do. That’s what we believe.
Everything is otherwise, we wouldn’t be suffering. And we are. Yes. Yes. I, yeah, yes, sure.
I agree. But we, yes, that that’s the thing. Such a thing doesn’t exist. You wouldn’t be able to hold an inherently existing book. You wouldn’t be inherent, you wouldn’t be able to write on it.
It wouldn’t get dusty. Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to open it and you wouldn’t be able to open an inherently existing book. Because it wouldn’t depend on you know since it didn’t depend on cause and conditions there’s no way you could open it. Because also an open book is different from a closed book. And if a if, you know, if you’ve got an inherently closed book, you’d never be able to open it.
Right? But they’re the logical faults. Here, we’re just trying to have a direct I’m trying to give you a direct experience of your wrong views and my wrong views also. But we think here’s a book, an inherently existing book. Yeah.
But when you but wherever you investigate, where you think the inherently existing book is, you cannot find it. You see, it’s there seems to be an inherently existing book here, but that is the cover. That is a part of a book. This is a page. A page is not a book.
It’s part of a book. And all you find are pages which are part of a book, and then you come to the back cover, which is part of a book. Yeah. So wherever you look for an inherently existing book, you all you find are parts. Yeah?
But inherently existing book can’t have parts or can’t depend on them. So where is this inherently well, yeah, there’s the inherently existing book that doesn’t depend on books on parts, but all you can find are parts. And the same for everything. This is called a mala. Right?
It seems to be one thing, but all you find when you investigate, I’m holding a mala, but, actually, I’m holding a bead. A bead is not a mala. It’s just part of one. You know? And everywhere you look, you can’t find an inherently existing mala.
You can only find a part, another bead, you know, counter, thread. You know, inside is the thread. That’s not a mala. It’s just a bit of cotton thread. Can’t find an inherently existing one.
You know, don’t fall into the extreme. You can’t find a mala because I’m holding a mala all the time, but you can’t find an inherently existing one, which is what we think is there, what we not only think, what that’s what we’re experiencing and grasping that’s really there. There seems to be something there that doesn’t depend on the parts. Same with the flower. You know?
Or you can find other petals, you know, the stalks, but these are just parts. Everything. Same with your body. You know? I’ve got a body.
Seems like an inherently existing thing, but where’s my body? But or my hand, inherently existing hand. But where if you look, you’ve got you know, this is this is look. That’s only a finger. Finger is not a hand.
And this is the front one. The front of my hand, back of my hand. And nails, not my hand. Wherever you look, you can’t find. Same with the body.
You you can just find part of a body. So where’s this inherently existing body, this inherently existing thing? An inherently existing table. But where if you look, you know, there’s the top of the table, the leg of the table, which is only a part. And, of course, when you when you when you see, I’m not touching a book.
I’m touching the cover of a book and I’m not even touching the cover of a book. I’m just touching. Of the cover of the book. Of the book because the cover of a book doesn’t inherently exist either. It’s just, you know, there’s a front front part of the cover of the book and the inside cover of the book.
Many parts. You can’t find a book that doesn’t depend on the parts. But there seems to be when we just when we’re not investigating, when we just live our life it there just seems to be something there from its from its own side. This is what we have to try to identify. Firstly, we have to understand that everything is made up of parts.
Everything depends on the parts. You can’t have I mean, to some extent, if I chop well, I won’t chop off my arm, but but my body still exists. But it’s not a complete body. And I can tear, but I won’t, to cover off this book. And then to some point, you can you can still call it a book, but it’s not a complete book.
And you can rip out you know, you can break a leg off a table, and you can still call it a table up to to some extent, but it’s not a complete table because the complete thing depends on all its parts. A broken car is not the same as a car. It’s a broken car. But even when we look at a broken car, it looks like a truly existing broken car. Let let’s leave that.
Let’s not get too complicated yet. Okay? Just let’s try and get the point. Maybe you’ve already got it, but some people yeah. And and so what what we you know, if if I was I usually do this with flat oh, they’re not very good version.
We need a flower with petals. But, anyway, imagine I’m not gonna tear this book apart, but you could you know, if if you’re looking for the inherently existing book, you can take off the cover and say, that’s not the book. It’s just a part. The pay that page is not the book. It’s just a part.
So you have all the parts, and then you can say that all the parts of the book are the book. Yeah. That’s what a book is. It’s all the parts together. So this is where it come becomes very interesting because what what the the Madhyamaka philosophers are saying is that all the parts of anything of a book, of a mala, of a clock, a flower, a table, a body, anything no.
It doesn’t no. It’s okay. Thanks. All the of a assembled correctly. All of those well, so this is a you know, all the different parts of a book assembled properly into a book.
All the parts together are not a book. And if one is honest, we would say, I’m sorry. You’re wrong. All the parts together is a book. All the parts of the mala put together is a mala.
All the bits of a table put together is a table. That’s what a table is. Or, you know, if you put a piece of bread and butter and a — do they still have fritz? I remember from my childhood. School fritz sandwiches.
Oh god. Awful. Fritz. I anyway, and another piece, you know, piece of bread, Fritz, piece of bread, all that, those three bits together, those parts get, that is a sandwich. According to Nāgārjuna,.
That is not a table, all the parts put together. It’s not a table at all. No. It’s not even a conventional table. What is it?
According to Nāgārjuna and all the great philosophers, it is the base. It is the base for something to be labeled. Because then you get mind. But it and and yeah. But for the yeah.
So if in the case of this wonderful book here, for something to be labeled a book. So a book to exist not only depends on the causes and conditions, but it depends on the base and it depends on the label of of the word book, the concept book, and the mind conceiving that. The mind has to perceive see an object, explore, locate an object, experience an object, and then label that object book. But, you know, the mind doesn’t label this a book. It doesn’t label this a book.
It doesn’t label this a book. It doesn’t label even a couple of pieces or, you know, many peep no. Quite a few pieces of paper, that’s not a book. Yeah. And it just doesn’t and and it just doesn’t label some something in your space or there’s a book up there in space.
You have to have a base. And you can’t have just any base. You know, firstly, there has to be a base to call something a book. And then you can’t call anything a book and it becomes a book. You’re not allowed to interrupt but anyway, you’ve interrupted.
Go on. No. Wait. This is getting too complicated. Yeah.
Wait. Yeah. You’re too smart, all you guys. But with all this, you should try and just relate it to your your ex what I’m saying, what the dharma’s saying, to your your personal experience now. Yeah.
And right. Here’s this book. How am I seeing this book? Actually, we’re all seeing it as inherently existing, whether we know it or not, whether we accept that or not. And how we could and and particularly, we can start to see it through this bit because, actually, although they say understanding dependent arising through causes and conditions is the easiest, but in fact that, it’s easy to understand that causes and conditions refutes things being independently existing.
It’s true, but it doesn’t destroy the view that this is really here from its own side. But when you start to understand parts and the labeling, it really starts to shake your because, yes, I know this depends on part, had parts. But when I think when I experience a book or anything, it just seems it doesn’t really seem to be something that depends on all the parts. It has parts, yeah, but doesn’t really seem to depend on them all. And and then, you see, there is the light, the base in tricky part because a book and the basis of a book are different.
And the table and the basis of a table are different things. If they were the same thing, you wouldn’t need the label. Or if the if they were the if the base and the label were the same things, you wouldn’t you wouldn’t need the the the name book for this to be a book. Or equally, if the base and the label were the same, you could just say book and you’d have a book because you wouldn’t need the base. They’re oh, they’re the same same thing.
If they were the same thing, you could just say, I have a million dollars, you’d have them. Think about it. So there are two different things. There’s the base and the label. They are different.
They’re not completely different but they are different. The also the interesting thing to check out is that first, you have to have the base. And then comes the label. So you have to have a base. You just can’t call space whatever you like.
You know, this is a there’s an elephant. There’s a tree. You have to have a base. The mind has to label something. There has to be something there for to, you know, to label.
And it can’t be anything. It has to be a valid base. You can’t, you know, you know, this is similar to a book. It’s got pages, shape, and everything, but it’s not sufficient to be the basis, to be labeled book. You have to have a a valid basis.
So then so all the parts together of anything are not the thing. They are the base. Yeah. The base to be labeled. But when we look at this object, this book please look.
For us now, it is impossible unless you’re some highly realized being. You see the difference between the base and the label? Between the basis of the book and the book? No. We can’t.
That is the object to be refuted because, yeah, they they appear to be for us the same thing. We can’t distinguish the basis and the book. The wrong view. The wrong view that there’s an inherently existing book. An inherently existing book is something that doesn’t depend on a base and doesn’t depend on labeling.
It’s just there. And but in fact, when one investigates for a book to exist, it it you have to have a base which depends on causes and conditions, and you have to label it a book because I should be prepared. I’m never prepared. I’m sorry. You’ve got a dud teacher.
One of these. Oh, I I was semi prepared. I did at least bring a pen. Yes. As Rinpoche once did in class Can you all see that?
Yes. That we instantly say is what? A zed. Yes. But actually, if you investigate, all it is at one level is just three straight lines.
Yeah. And if you were to show this to somebody in, I don’t know, in Tibet. A little kid in Tibet and say, what is that? They wouldn’t say, z. They could see these three straight lines just as we do, but they don’t see a zed.
But we instantly, uncontrollably see a zed. But there is no zed here on this page from its own side. Wherever you look, you can’t find a zed. Oh, there is a zed here, but wherever you look for an inherently existing zed, you can’t find it. All you can find is a line.
And, of course, when you look for a line, wherever you look, you can’t find a line. There’s just a a point. But there appears to be from its own side, a zed on this page. But the only way this zed can exist is depending on the causes and conditions of this piece of paper and someone drawing these these these lines depending on one of these objects. There appears these lines which is the basis.
And on that basis mind projects. And it can only do that because it recognises because depending on causes and conditions it it’s education and things. It recognizes this. It has a meaningful three lines. This is not just three meaningless lines.
These these three lines arranged this way has a meaning, and that meaning is it’s a letter of the English alphabet or Western alphabet. But depending on all that, there appears, there seems to be a Zed there from its own side. We cannot stop ourselves seeing that as a Z. Whereas a little boy or girl in Tibet can’t see a Z there at all. Because it doesn’t truly truly exist.
But if it truly existed as a zed this is, you know, interesting thing. If it truly existed as a zed, you could take this to a little girl or boy in Tibet or anywhere in the world and they would see a zed because it was a truly existing zed that wouldn’t depend on the labeling mind. But it does. It doesn’t see, it doesn’t appear to. It just appears to be a Z from its own side.
And this appears to be a book from its own side and this appears to be a from its own side. But it all depends on the mind labeling something. That’s an N. N, right? So that you you can label that an N.
But if I go that, you and you say that’s an N. No, it’s not. You can’t say that’s an N. You’re not allowed to say that’s not an end. You can say it’s an end but doesn’t make it an end because it’s not a valid base.
That is not that. You can’t make that appear as a zed. No matter how much you say it’s a zed, it’s not a zed. We’re not all that’s how well, that we have that perception already. That’s that is the wrong view we’re experiencing right now.
Of course, we understand. You know, as soon as you say, because we’re all you’re all very intelligent people. I’m slightly intelligent. We can understand that, yes, yes, that the, you know, you there’s these, actually, really, there’s only three lines there and we are somehow see, why am I seeing an end there? You know, why?
And you think, oh yes, it’s because my mind has been educated to see those three lines. Yeah. But when when we don’t investigate all that, which we don’t, because it would take too long to do that all the time, you just look and then, of course, that’s an n. Doesn’t depend on anything. It’s just an n.
But if if if an n didn’t depend on anything to be an n, then anyone would see it. In fact, even a dog would see it as an n or zed. And if they could speak, they’d tell you, n zed. Didn’t get very far with that, but that’s about as all I know. Anyway, just in conclusion, I’d like to give you a picture, a drawing of Wittgenstein’s rabbit.
Don’t say anything. No. No. I want don’t want any clever person saying clever things about it yet. Ludwig Wittgenstein, in case you don’t know, was a an Austrian philosopher, one of the most brilliant people that existed in the twentieth century.
Apparently, only about three people in the world understood anything he ever said. He I don’t think he even understood himself what he said, but his ideas came very close to the Buddha’s. And he once drew this which is rabbit. So if you look from the well, actually again, again, what is it?
It’s it’s really just a wiggly line on a page and a dot. But if you look at it from the left, it’s a rabbit, right, with two ears and an eye and a bit of an open mouth. But if you look towards the left, it’s a duck. Right? But Wittgen Rabbit is also a duck, which means it all depends on your mind.
There’s nothing there from its own side. It really depends on what you label that there. What that you label it something, and it appears back as that thing. But the interesting thing is it appears back to be really that thing, not depending on our mind. Any questions?
Keep them simple. What what it really is but the whole point, you can’t really say it’s one or the other because one way you look at it, it’s a duck. One way you look at it, it’s a rabbit. And another way you look at it, it’s just a line and a dot on a piece of paper. It all depends.
So, you know, it doesn’t inherently exist. As anything. Yeah. Yeah. Everything.
Yes. Yeah, but But that’s a different completely different thing that that we’re we’re talking about something much more basic. Yeah. Which is showing it depends on your mind. Yeah.
But here, we’re just using it as an example that when we see something, we think that is it from its side. We we’re seeing something that is there. When you see a duck, it it’s because there is a duck there. There is a drawing of a duck there. But there isn’t a drawing of a duck there from its own side.
There there is a drawing of a duck there depending on one’s mind, seeing it there. And of course, that depends on all the psychological stuff, but that’s not the point here. That’s that’s another thing altogether. Here, we’re talking about something very basic about how we experience things. But the, you know, so in conclusion, the only way things can exist is by our mind labeling them something.
If our mind doesn’t label them, they can’t appear. In that way. And labeling just doesn’t mean giving it a name, putting a name on it. It just doesn’t mean the word or giving it the name. It’s our mind conceives.
It conceptualizes something as being this or that. We conceive it. We conceive this line, this, you know, this drawing, this this this as as a duck or rabbit or whatever. And we sorry. And we look.
And I and we conceive things as good, bad, beautiful, attractive, you know, this or that. It’s our mind it that way but it appears back with what says. In the next moment it appears back as being that from its own side. It can only appear that way depending on our mind. Right?
As with the case of the Z. The only way that Z can appear those lines can appear as a Z is our mind labeling that and so it does that but in the next moment that that those lines appear as a truly existing zed. We label some a person a friend, and they appear back as a friend. As an truly existing friend. We label someone an enemy and they appear back as a truly existing enemy.
And why do we do that? And it’s more interesting. Why do we label this as this and that as that? Is this, of course, there’s a lot of conditioning in this life but much more interesting is that all our past life experience And why we label at things as inherently existing or see them as inherently existing is infinite past lives. We’ve been doing that during beginningless time.
But once one starts to investigate, one can completely undermine that. This is wonderful thing that we can we have this wisdom with us all the time, this ability to distinguish this from, you know, what is correct and and what is false. That even as we grasp at things of being truly existing, we can start to understand that, yes, this appears that way, but it can’t possibly exist that way. The zed appears to be really there from its own side, but it can’t because if it did, I could show it to anyone, and they would understand it. Also, I don’t know if anyone here can read Chinese, but, you know, if things truly existing, we would be able to, you know, just read Chinese characters because they’re just lines on paper.
If we if we can read a zed, three lines of zed, then we we should be able to read Chinese characters. But because they don’t truly exist, then we can’t. We can’t read them unless we’re educated to read them. They have no those lines have no power from their side to make us understand But for us, where did it go? My truly existing z.
When when we see that, we we can’t stop seeing it as a zed. And and this is what we have to understand is this applies to everything. Everything. Everything we’re experiencing, it only exists for us depending on our mind conceiving it in a particular way. And then it appears back that way.
But that doesn’t mean the way to realize emptiness is to stop labeling things because the only way things can appear is to label them. If we don’t label them, they won’t appear. We won’t be able to experience anything. We will become totally nonfunctioning. Okay.
Thank you very much. Because I told you it was a rabbit, so you saw it as a rabbit. But then if you change your mind, it will appear as a duck. Yeah. So you can look at it in the same way.
We can look at a person and see enemy and we look and then they appear back as enemy. But if we change our mind, we can label them friend and they will appear back friend. Because there’s no such thing as a truly existing enemy, truly existing friend, truly existing stranger. I’ll go away. Yes.
Sure. Yes. Two questions now before we complete the finish. Right. I think so.
Yes. Yeah. I think, yeah, it’s a separate base for a damaged book. But, of course, when you when we look at a book, we can’t see the base anyway, the back of the book anyway. So we labeled the book.
But I I think when you yeah. Those really kind of tricky little questions maybe take us I’m I’m I’m not trying to disparage you, but I I think it’s sometimes that just complicates things, and it’s it’s really trying to get the basic point of trying to see how the way things do exist and the only way they can exist is on causes and conditions, having a proper base, and how your mind conceives that, and arising depending on all those things, something is existing. But it’s still a damaged book. We know that. You buy a brand new car, a Maserati, and someone puts a little scratch on it.
Is it the same? That’s a very good question. It it arose dependently. Yes. Depending on causes and conditions.
Who’s mine? Yeah. Is that what you were asking? Decided that was a valid base. That’s a very good question.
I’m not sure, but I think it’s everybody’s. Everybody’s. It’s it’s something conventional. Conventionally accepted. Yeah.
Yes. Didn’t exist before. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Sentient. Can you give an example of what you’re talking about? Or Teflon, the great Teflon debate. I’ve told some people about the great Teflon debate. There’s no time for it now.
Maybe I’ll mention the great Teflon debate next week. Did Teflon exist before it was labeled Teflon? That is the great debate. Sorry. What?
Yes. But the base isn’t the thing. Don’t you can’t answer that? Are you trying to say when did the Teflon base start? Well, actually, Teflon was a mistake, and wasn’t invented.
Was a mistake. You know, I mean, like, not a mistake. They were messing around in a lab and, you know, it all congealed, and they left it overnight. And then they came back, and there it was. Yeah.
But I I I I think we’re missing the point there a little bit about about this whole thing. I think. No? No? Well, for the base to arise, you could talk about this the whole history of everything is in in in any base.
You know, with some glass. You know, there’s the invention of glass which was what what with the Romans or something before earlier? No, The the ancient Egyptians had it, I think. But then that depended on sand, you know, causes and conditions. How did sand exist?
So it’s, you know, so it’s beginningless. No. No. They’re not. Okay.
On that confused note, we’ll finish. And we can dedicate the merit. Because arising dependently, merit has has has been created. And we can dedicate that that it becomes a cause or a condition to bring about the best result which is for us to be able to actually directly understand, experience, emptiness, and as a result of that, eventually achieve enlightenment for the sake of all kinds mother sentient beings. So the dedication’s on page eleven.
Well, it looks like it’s on page eleven, but it’s not really there at all. But anyway, due to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhicitta mind, not yet born, arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. K.
Thank you very much.