Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche continues his video teachings on thought transformation from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Here is a summary of the most recent teaching:

Rinpoche begins by asking, “What is the purpose of your life? And why do you do the things you do in your life?”

Rinpoche shares many examples to explain the inconceivable merit generated by studying, having faith in, writing out, printing, offering to others, reciting, or teaching on the Prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom. Even if one keeps righteous effort of body, speech, and mind, and keeps morality stainless for eons—hearing just one word about emptiness and generating faith in the Prajnamaraita teachings generates far more merit than that.

Further, Rinpoche explains, if you personally cause as many sentient beings as there are in the River Ganga to subdue their minds, actualize the path, cease all gross delusions and karma—to cause all those sentient beings to become arhats—far more merit than that is created by writing out Prajnaparamita texts, printing them for others, keeping them and making offerings to them, teaching Prajnaparamita to others, or listening to those teachings. If one filled up ten million universes with stupas made of seven types of jewels, the merit created by that is no comparison to the merit generated by writing down, creating texts of, and making offerings to the Prajnaparamita teachings. You create far more merit by hearing the Prajnaparamita sutra called the Diamond Cutter Sutra and never giving up faith in its teachings than by making charity of your body many hundred thousand times. Even reading every day from the Diamond Cutter Sutra, the Heart Sutra, the Prajnaparamita sutras, and so forth, or from Praise to the Buddha for Revealing Dependent Arising—the merit of that is unbelievable. Wow, wow, wow, wow!

The less dangerous and more protected way to meditate on emptiness, the correct way, Rinpoche explains, is to meditate on dependent arising—not only gross, but subtle. Meditating on this helps to lead one to the Prasangika’s subtle view of emptiness. When you meditate on the meaning of dependent arising, you are protected from falling into nihilism or eternalism.

Similar to what is said in the Heart Sutra, “Form is empty, emptiness is form,” by meditating on the emptiness of “I” you come to the conclusion that “’I’ is empty, emptiness is ‘I.’” By “empty” this means it does not exist from its own side. Understanding this eliminates eternalism. Not even an atom of what appears exists from its own side. What you believe is totally nonexistent. That which is empty, that is the “I.” There is no real “I,” it is merely labeled, a mental projection. Not only the “I” exists in mere name, everything exists in mere name, including samsara, suffering, everything. We hold on to the totally opposite view, which is a hallucination. That which is empty from its own side and existing in mere name is unified with dependent arising, not separate. So emptiness manifests in dependent arising, dependent arising manifests in emptiness.

The “I” which is empty, exists in mere name, merely labeled by the mind, but there is valid base. The aggregates exist, so the base to be labeled exists, so the “I” that is labeled also exists. So, I is empty, but it is not completely nonexistent. This is true with all the functions: creating merit in mere name, creating negative karma in mere name, experiencing happiness in mere name, experiencing suffering in mere name, experiencing samsara in mere name, experiencing nirvana in mere name, experience hell and the lower realms in mere name, experiencing enlightenment in mere name. This is very important to understand, how the “I” exists. It exists in mere name, merely labeled by the valid mind, because there is a valid base, valid aggregates. So it exists, but only in mere name. Understanding this stops nihilism, which says nothing exists at all.

The teachings on how the “I” is empty and how it exists in mere name shows the middle way, Madhyamaka. Only the correct realization of this according to the Prasangika view can eliminate the root of your samsara, ignorance. As the “I” appeared to you as existing from its own side, your hallucinated mind holds on to that and believes in it 100%. So you want to eliminate this. It is where all the suffering comes from—headache, diarrhea, depression—everything comes from ignorance, the wrong view. Only the Prasangika view can eliminate the ignorance that is the root of samsara. That’s why it is important to understand the Prasangika view—to learn and to meditate on this is so important.

Rinpoche discusses how the Chittamatra, or “Mind Only,” view says that nothing exists without depending on the imprints left on the consciousness, from which both subject and object arise. And how the Svatantrika view is that nothing truly exists without the mind labeling it, but still from the object’s side, it exists. Rinpoche explains how the Prasangika (correct) view is that the “I” exist in mere name, which is so so subtle. 

We invite you to go deeper into the topics presented here, plus many others, by watching Rinpoche’s video and reading the full transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching.

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching “‘I Is Empty, Emptiness Is I’ Shows the Meaning of ‘Dependent Arising'”:
https://youtu.be/wJ8A_neBG8s

• Read the transcript of Rinpoche’s teaching
• Find links to the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Cutter Sutra, and other sutras 
• Find Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Russian
• Dedication verses for COVID-19 Crisis Teachings

Watch more from the video series Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19 and find links to videos in transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

Practice advice from our teachers, Dharma study-from-home opportunities, and more can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.