Real Life Wisdom
“THE THREE PRINCIPAL ASPECTS OF THE PATH” A CONDENSED LAMRIM BY JE TSONGKHAPA
Homage to the venerable Spiritual Guide
I shall explain to the best of my ability
The essential meaning of all the Conqueror’s teachings,
The path praised by the holy Bodhisattvas,
And the gateway for fortunate ones seeking liberation.
You who are not attached to the joys of samsara,
But strive to make your freedom and endowment meaningful,
O Fortunate Ones who apply your minds to the path that pleases the Conquerors,
Please listen with a clear mind.
Without pure renunciation there is no way to pacify
Attachment to the pleasures of samsara;
And since living beings are tightly bound by desire for samsara,
Begin by seeking renunciation.
Freedom and endowment are difficult to find, and there is no time to waste.
By acquainting your mind with this, overcome attachment to this life;
And by repeatedly contemplating actions and effects and the sufferings of samsara,
Overcome attachment to future lives.
When, through contemplating in this way, the desire for the pleasures of samsara
Does not arise, even for a moment,
But a mind longing for liberation arises throughout the day and the night,
At that time, renunciation is generated.
However, if this renunciation is not maintained
By completely pure bodhichitta,
It will not be a cause of the perfect happiness of unsurpassed enlightenment;
Therefore, the wise generate a supreme bodhichitta.
Swept along by the currents of the four powerful rivers,
Tightly bound by the chains of karma, so hard to release,
Ensnared within the iron net of self-grasping,
Completely enveloped by the pitch-black darkness of ignorance,
Taking rebirth after rebirth in boundless samsara,
And unceasingly tormented by the three sufferings
Through contemplating the state of your mothers in conditions such as these,
Generate a supreme mind [of bodhichitta].
But, even though you may be acquainted with renunciation and bodhichitta,
If you do not possess the wisdom realizing the way things are,
You will not be able to cut the root of samsara;
Therefore strive in the means for realizing dependent relationship.
Whoever negates the conceived object of self-grasping
Yet sees the infallibility of cause and effect
Of all phenomena in samsara and nirvana,
Has entered the path that pleases the Buddhas.
Dependent-related appearance is infallible
And emptiness is inexpressible;
For as long as the meaning of these two appear to be separate,
You have not yet realized Buddha’s intention.
When they arise as one, not alternating but simultaneous,
From merely seeing infallible dependent relationship,
Comes certain knowledge that destroys all grasping at objects.
At that time the analysis of view is complete.
Moreover, when the extreme of existence is dispelled by appearance,
And the extreme of non-existence is dispelled by emptiness,
And you know how emptiness is perceived as cause and effect,
You will not be captivated by extreme views.
When, in this way, you have correctly realized the essential points
Of the three principal aspects of the path,
Dear One, withdraw into solitude, generate strong effort,
And quickly accomplish the final goal.
Session 1
Buddha’s ultimate intention is for everyone to understand emptiness, the final nature of reality. There is no other method to permanently end suffering - 1 medicine for all mental and physical problems. Other teachings temporarily pacify suffering. If we really are suffering, these teachings will not solve those problems, because our real problems and suffering do not exist. You cannot solve a problem that does not exist. We believe our problems and suffering are real, so we experience them as painful mental and physical feelings. But the only reason why we suffer is because we believe they are real. Just like a dream. Buddha is known as the Awakened One because he has awoken from the sleep of ignorance.
Today’s teachings are based on the book Mirror of Dharma by GKG, a commentary to Three Principle Aspects of the Path by Wisdom Buddha Je Tsongkhapa. Today we will be looking at the 3rd Aspect.
Samsara is nothing more than a dream or nightmare, i.e. mistaken appearance. Why it’s so difficult to see it like that is because we’re not awake; if we were dreaming and someone in our dream told us it was a dream, we would find it difficult to understand because it appears so real. Our mind is so addicted to / caught up with grasping at appearances as true / real that there’s little room to believe that they exist in another way. Things exist, everything exists. But the things we normally see do not exist. Have to correctly believe something first before we can directly perceive or experience it.
We have never experienced any object that is separate from mind. Your mind has to be involved. What are the things we “normally see”? These are the things that we see with our normal mind of self-grasping ignorance. This does not mean the things we “usually see” - like familiar daily appearances.
Meditation - try to stop thinking “I”. Then notice how strongly and tightly the mind grasps onto the I within the body. We are always grasping at ourself moment by moment.
Session 2
We don’t even think “this is my body”, we just think “me” and grasp very tightly. When we fall asleep, the appearance of our waking human body disappears, and our dream body arises. And we grasp at that, completely convinced “this is me”. Which one are you? Who are you? Likewise when we die, when this body no longer functions, because we are so used to identifying with this body, we think that we will disappear. So what’s going on? What is the “I” precisely referring to? Are we a body? Are we a mind? On the basis of our body and mind appearing, we attach “I” or “self”. But we are neither. The independent owner of our body and mind simply does not exist. Self and others - we completely depend on what others do, they are affected by what we do. We are all limbs of life, all part of the same thing. The independent grasping of the self, separate from others, is the basis of all our suffering. All things we normally see do not exist at all. We are just hallucinating. However, we and all other things exist. How? As mere name. Emptiness = mere name = mental imputation. Names do not come from the side of the object. Naming comes from the mind. Mind imputes name on the basis of imputation. On the basis of our body and mind appearing, our mind names or imputes “I”. Anything more than that does not exist. Things are mental imputations. Even the emptiness of all phenomena is just mere name. This implies that other than mere name, nothing exists at all. Ordinary beings are beings that identify themselves mistakenly. Anyone who does not want to experience suffering needs to change their basis of imputation. E.g. if you want to stop suffering of a nightmare, you need to wake up - stop grasping at the appearances of the nightmare and change your basis of imputation from a dream self to a waking self.
Ordinary appearances are the main obstacles to enlightenment. Ordinary conceptions are the main obstacles to liberation. Therefore the principle objects of abandonment of HYT practitioners are ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions.
If we are satisfied with their mere name, things exist. Which means everything can change if we change our naming, if we change how we identify ourself and all other phenomenon.
If we identify ourself correctly as the emptiness of all phenomena, the mere absence of all the things we normally see or perceive, that is correct = Dharmakaya
You would have no limits
We’re all interconnected. We’re not individuals. What joins us together is this underlying truth of mere name.
Session 3
There are 3 levels of the correct understanding of emptiness:
- According to Hinayana
- According to Mahayana
- According to Vajrayana - Buddha’s ultimate view
The union of appearance and emptiness means the appearance of all phenomena and their emptiness are one object, not 2 objects. We should know that there is no “our body” other than its emptiness. We should apply this understanding to all phenomena. To understand this fully we have to be patient.
“But, even though you may be acquainted with renunciation and bodhichitta, If you do not possess the wisdom realising the way things are, You will not be able to cut the root of samsara; Therefore strive in the means for realising dependent relationship.” - JTK
Things depend on their causes and conditions. Things depend upon their parts. How is it possible to be an independent person? We are totally dependent. Being independent and existing from their own side is the same thing. When we see things they appear independent, but we know that they exist in dependence on their causes and conditions = CONTRADICTION.
We have a deep seated misunderstanding that in order for something to exist, then it has to exist outside our mind. Truth is, the things we grasp at as being independent of our mind are hallucinations. But they do exist as mere appearance or name. Things exist as not being real. If we perceive and believe appearance and emptiness as dualistic, we have not yet realised Buddha’s intention. We have to apply effort to realise non-dual appearance and emptiness, like the blue of the sky and the sky itself. There is no blue of the sky other than sky; the sky appears as blue If we realise this it’s very easy to keep a happy mind. How can empty space upset us?
Extreme (mistaken) view is very harmful, i.e. extreme of existence and extreme of non-existence. If we develop the above realisations, we will be protected from this.