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Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving the preliminary teaching before the long life initiation during the CPMT 2014 meeting, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, September 17, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an exhilarating teaching on the merely labeled ‘I’ and emptiness during the preliminary teachings for the Amitayus long life initiation given during the CPMT 2014 meeting in Australia. A recording of the teaching is now available on the CPMT livestream page.
Rinpoche will be webcast live giving the concluding talk and dedication of the CPMT 2014 meeting on Thursday, September 18, at 4 p.m. AEST (UTC+10).
Here’s an excerpt from a long letter Rinpoche dictated to Ven. Holly Ansett in 2008, published on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, with extensive advice on emptiness and the merely imputed ‘I’. Rinpoche advised:
“… The I, or the self, action and object are dependent arisings. The I exists being imputed in dependence upon its base, the aggregates. Here aggregates refers to form, feeling, recognition, compounded aggregates and consciousness. The I exists in dependence upon the aggregates; the I is merely imputed to the base, the aggregates, which exist in mere name. So, the I is empty of existing from its own side, empty of existing by its nature; it does not exist inherently.
“It is the same with any action. How an action actually exists is as a dependent arising. It is not independent, but a dependent arising. ‘Action’ is labeled on what the body, speech or mind does. It exists, but dependently. Any action, no matter what name it is given, is merely imputed by the mind. It is not independent, but a dependent arising. Action does not exist from its own side; it does not exist by its nature; it does not exist inherently, or truly.
“It is the same with any object. In dependence upon the base and the thought, something is labeled ‘object.’ The object came from the mind, not from the base. You could say that it exists from the side of the mind, or in dependence upon the mind, which imputes, or designates, it. But it also exists in relation to its base. So, it is the same with an object: it does not exist from its own side.
“Therefore, I, action and object are all totally empty. They are not nonexistent, which is nihilism, but they do not exist from their own side. They do exist from the side of the mind in relation to the base, but they do not exist from their own side. Therefore, they are totally empty from their own side. This is the same with all the rest of phenomena. Nothing exists from its own side. While they exist, all phenomena are totally empty of existing from their own side. They exist in mere name and function in mere name, but that doesn’t mean that they are nonexistent.
“This is a very subtle explanation of how the I, action, object and all other phenomena exist. It can be explained in a gross way, but here this is an extremely subtle explanation. Phenomena exist in mere name, being merely imputed by the mind. Here one needs to study and one needs to analyze, which means really check how things exist. …”
The complete advice “The Merely Imputed I” is part of “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the website of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Mandala will be covering the CPMT meeting with daily updates and new photos.
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 via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.