Emptiness

Review  We have been speaking about self-voidness and other-voidness and, so far, we are restricting our discussion to the Gelug assertions, although Gelug does not use the terms self-voidness and other-voidness for its own assertions. Some non-Gelug masters, however, do use...

What Do We Know after Negating Something We have been speaking about affirmations and negations and we have seen that they’re very important. There are quite a few things that came up from yesterday and some questions that are still there. A negation is one in which there’s...

Verses 18 through 24 Brief Review We have this incredibly precious human life, on the basis of which we can attain liberation and enlightenment. It’s very rare to have such a rebirth. It passes quickly and can end at any moment, so we need to take full advantage of it. To do...

Introduction and Question about Concepts and Nonexistent Phenomena We started going through the second half of the text, the chapters that deal with voidness, (specifically the topic is refuting or overcoming the incorrect views regarding voidness and the deepest nature of how...

Chapters 13 to 16 Thirteen: The Meditations for Refuting (Truly Existent) Cognitive Sensors and Cognitive Objects (1) You do not see absolutely everything about a vase (all its sensory qualities and parts) at the time when you see (its) form. Who would state “(because) the...

How to Refute the Assertions of Lower Tenet Schools The way in which we should understand how the position of a higher school of tenets undermines or damages another lower school can be understood in terms of how Madhyamaka undermines and refutes the Chittamatra assertion in...

Jealousy and other disturbing emotions are symptoms of a larger problem: our basic, fundamental ignorance of how phenomena actually exist. Here, we look more deeply at convention, categories, and how things exist, and how we can use an understanding of it all to overcome...

Conceptual Cognition of Space-like Voidness Needs to Induce Zestful Vigor Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II: Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that whatever Nyingma is saying is totally wrong. It is too early for us. Dr. Berzin: What do you mean by “too early for us?” Okay, now here it...

Review of the Five Aggregates of Experience We have been going through the text of the Heart Sutra, which is presenting in a condensed fashion the teachings on Prajnaparamita, the “far-reaching discriminating awareness of voidness.” Inspired by the Buddha, who is sitting in...

We’ve been speaking in depth about mental appearances or holograms that arise in both non-conceptual and conceptual cognition, and we’ve seen that it’s rather complex. Before we go any further, perhaps it might be a good thing to ask if you’ve understood at least something...