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Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, US, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“As explained by the fully enlightened being, Shakyamuni Buddha, from his own experience, by meditating on the reality or ultimate nature of the I, the five aggregates, the twelve doors of the senses, the eighteen elements and other phenomena, and actualizing the wisdom understanding the very nature of these things, this is the main weapon, like an atomic bomb, to destroy the very root of all problems,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in Florence, Italy, in 1990, as published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
“Without the wisdom directly realizing the ultimate nature or emptiness of the I, aggregates and all the rest of the phenomena, there is no way to eliminate the root of all our problems. There is no way to eliminate the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death, or the worry and fear of meeting undesirable objects and separating from desirable ones. The root of all these difficulties we go through in our life cannot be eliminated without wisdom. No matter what other realizations we have, whether of tantra or even bodhichitta, until we are able to actualize the wisdom realizing the ultimate nature of the I and so forth, the root of the whole problem cannot be eliminated. Only by having this wisdom can we eliminate the root of the entire samsaric suffering.
“Without achieving this wisdom realizing emptiness, no matter what other realization we have, there is no way we can end the suffering of samsara, no way to reach the end of the entire problem, which means no way to achieve liberation. Once we achieve liberation, it is impossible to experience suffering again. The root of the entire problem is the ignorance not knowing the ultimate nature of the I and aggregates. No other realization can directly eradicate this ignorance – only wisdom. Therefore, listening, reflecting and meditating on the ultimate nature of everything is the most important thing.
“To think about emptiness for even one second is very fortunate. Going beyond hallucination and touching the ultimate nature for even one second is great purification. So many heavy negative karmas are purified just by that. A sutra mentions that even questioning whether there is such a thing as emptiness or not shatters samsara into pieces. This expresses how powerful meditation on the ultimate nature of things is.
“The teachings also say that simply generating the wish to experience the Middle Way view of emptiness purifies many heavy negative karmas, such as the ten non-virtues and even the five uninterrupted negative karmas, which are the heaviest among all the negative actions. The five are killing your present-life father or mother, causing blood to flow from a tathagata or a buddha, killing an arhat, and causing disunity among the Sangha. These negative karmas are called ‘uninterrupted’ because immediately after death one is born in hell, without any other rebirth intervening. So, even this very heavy negative karma can be purified by generating the wish to understand the ultimate nature or shunyata. …”
You can read the entire teaching “Actualizing the Wisdom Realizing Emptiness” at this link: https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/meditation-emptiness-and-tong-len-taking-and-giving.
More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.