Grasping for Impossible Existence

Review We have been discussing the qualities of the false “me,” which are quite specific. The level of false “me” that we’ve been dealing with is the one that derives from the concept of the “me,” or the atman, the soul, that is held by the classical non-Buddhist Indian...

Three Layers of Unawareness Voidness (stong-pa-nyid, Skt. śūnyatā; emptiness) is a total absence of impossible ways of existing: impossible means there is no such thing. Here, we are speaking specifically about the voidness of impossible ways in which the conventionally...

Chapters 9 to 12 Nine: Indicating the Meditations for Refuting Static Functional Phenomena (1) All (functional phenomena) arise as a fact of being the result (of a collection of causes and circumstances). Therefore, there’s no such thing as a static (functional phenomenon...

Review We have discussed the source of our problems in life, our ignorance or unawareness concerning behavioral cause and effect and the nature of reality. Either we don’t understand them, or we understand them incorrectly. Because of our unawareness of the nature of reality,...

Review of the First Level of Recognizing the Object to Be Refuted: The Coarse Impossible "Me" We were working on the first point of the four-point analysis, which is to recognize the object to be refuted. We saw that there are many levels of the object to be refuted, and we...

When You Have Parted from Clinging to Your Own Benefit, You Have Made the Pathway Minds Eliminate Confusion Concerning the third (parting), “When you have parted from clinging to your own benefit, you have made the pathway minds eliminate confusion,”  In general, when you have...

Positive Emotions Are Compatible with the Innate Essential Nature of Mental Activity We saw that it’s possible to attain a true stopping of our unawareness of how everything exists, because there’s a state of mind, correct understanding, that is the exact opposite and...

Review: First Level of the Four Point Analysis: Refuting the Coarse Impossible "Me" and the Subtle Impossible "Me" We have refuted now the coarse impossible "me," which is doctrinally-based and coming together with that are the twenty forms of this deluded attitude towards the...

Incorrect Consideration of the Self We’ve been talking about incorrect consideration and, in the standard presentation, there are four types of incorrect consideration. They are to consider what is nonstatic and impermanent as being static and eternal, to consider what is...

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...