Emptiness and Existence
by Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
To generate the type of love and compassion that motivates you to seek
buddhahood, not for yourself but for the sake of others, first you must
confront suffering by identifying its types. This is the first noble
truth. From the time we are born to the time we die we suffer mental
and physical pain, the suffering of change, and pervasive suffering of
uncontrolled conditioning. The second and third noble truths lead us to
understand the causes of suffering and whether or not those causes can
be removed. The fundamental cause of suffering is ignorance—the
mistaken apprehension that living beings and objects inherently exist.
We all have a valid, proper sense of self, or “I,” but then we
additionally have a misconception of that “I” as inherently existing.
Under the sway of this delusion, we view the self as existing under its
own power, established by way of its own nature, able to set itself up.
However, if there were such a separate I—self-established and existing
in its own right—it should become clearer and clearer under the light
of competent analysis as to whether it exists as either mind or body,
or the collection of mind and body, or different from mind and body. In
fact, the closer you look, the more it is not found. This turns out to
be the case for everything, for all phenomena. The fact that you cannot
find them means that those phenomena do not exist under their own
power; they are not self-established.
Sometime during the early sixties when I was reflecting on a passage by
Tsongkhapa [founder of the Gelugpa school to which the Dalai Lama
belongs] about unfindability and the fact that phenomena are dependent
on conceptuality, it was as if lightning coursed within my chest. Here
is the passage:
A coiled rope's speckled color and coiling are similar to those of a snake, and when the rope is perceived in a dim area, the thought arises, “This is a snake.” As for the rope, at that time when it is seen to be a snake, the collection and parts of the rope are not even in the slightest way a snake. Therefore, that snake is merely set up by conceptuality.
In the same way, when the thought “I” arises in dependence upon mind and body, nothing within mind and body—neither the collection which is a continuum of earlier and later moments, nor the collection of the parts at one time, nor the separate parts, nor the continuum of any of the separate parts—is in even the slightest way the “I.” Also there is not even the slightest something that is a different entity from mind and body that is apprehendable as the “I.” Consequently, the “I” is merely set up by conceptuality in dependence upon mind and body; it is not established by way of its own entity.
The impact lasted for a while, and for the next few weeks
whenever I
saw people, they seemed like a magician's illusions in that they
appeared to inherently exist but I knew that they actually did not.
That experience, which was like lightning in my heart, was most likely
at a level below completely valid and incontrovertible realization.
This is when my understanding of the cessation of the afflictive
emotions as a true possibility became real.
Nowadays I always meditate on emptiness in the morning and bring that
experience into the day's activities. Just thinking or saying “I,” as
in "I will do such and such,” will often trigger the feeling. But still
I cannot claim full understanding of emptiness.
A consciousness that conceives of inherent existence does not have a
valid foundation. A wise consciousness, grounded in reality,
understands that living beings and other phenomena—minds, bodies,
buildings, and so forth—do not inherently exist. This is the wisdom of
emptiness. Understanding reality exactly opposite to the misconception
of inherent existence, wisdom gradually overcomes ignorance.
Remove the ignorance that misconceives phenomena to inherently exist
and you prevent the generation of afflictive emotions like lust and
hatred. Thus, in turn, suffering can also be removed. In addition, the
wisdom of emptiness must be accompanied by a motivation of deep concern
for others (and by the compassionate deeds it inspires) before it can
remove the obstructions to omniscience, which are the predispositions
for the false appearance of phenomena—even to sense consciousness—as if
they inherently exist.
Therefore, full spiritual practice calls for cultivating wisdom in
conjunction with great compassion and the intention to become
enlightened in which others are valued more than yourself. Only then
may your consciousness be transformed into the omniscience of a Buddha.
Selflessness
Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists practice meditation to
achieve
pleasure and get rid of pain, and in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist
systems the self is a central object of scrutiny. Certain non-Buddhists
who accept rebirth accept the transitory nature of mind and body, but
they believe in a self that is permanent, changeless and unitary.
Although Buddhist schools accept rebirth, they hold that there is no
such solid self. For Buddhists, the main topic of the training in
wisdom is emptiness, or selflessness, which means the absence of a
permanent, unitary and independent self or, more subtly, the absence of
inherent existence either in living beings or in other phenomena.
The Two Truths
To understand selflessness, you need to understand that
everything that
exists is contained in two groups called the two truths: conventional
and ultimate. The phenomena that we see and observe around us can go
from good to bad, or bad to good, depending on various causes and
conditions. Many phenomena cannot be said to be inherently good or bad;
they are better or worse, tall or short, beautiful or ugly, only by
comparison, not by way of their own nature. Their value is relative.
From this you can see that there is a discrepancy between the way
things appear and how they actually are. For instance, something may—in
terms of how it appears—look good, but, due to its inner nature being
different, it can turn bad once it is affected by
conditions. Food that looks so good in a restaurant may not sit so well
in your stomach. This is a clear sign of a discrepancy between
appearance and reality.
These phenomena themselves are called conventional truths: they are
known by consciousness that goes no further than appearances. But the
same objects have an inner mode of being, called an ultimate truth,
that allows for the changes brought about by conditions. A wise
consciousness, not satisfied with mere appearances, analyzes to find
whether objects inherently exist as they seem to do but discovers their
absence of inherent existence. It finds an emptiness of inherent
existence beyond appearances.
Empty of What?
Emptiness, or selflessness, can only be understood if we first
identify
that of which phenomena are empty. Without understanding what is
negated, you cannot understand its absence, emptiness.
You might think that emptiness means nothingness, but it does not.
Merely from reading it is difficult to identify and understand the
object of negation, what Buddhist texts speak of as true establishment
or inherent existence. But over a period of time, when you add your own
investigations to the reading, the faultiness of our usual way of
seeing things will become clearer and clearer.
Buddha said many times that because all phenomena are dependently
arisen, they are relative—their existence depends on other causes and
conditions and depends on their own parts. A wooden table, for
instance, does not exist independently; rather, it depends on a great
many causes such as a tree, the carpenter who makes it, and so forth;
it also depends upon its own parts. If a wooden table or any phenomenon
really were not dependent—if it were established in its own right—then
when you analyze it, its existence in its own right should become more
obvious, but it does not.
This Buddhist reasoning is supported by science. Physicists today keep
discovering finer and finer components of matter, yet they still cannot
understand its ultimate nature. Understanding emptiness is even deeper.
The more you look into how an ignorant consciousness conceives
phenomena to exist, the more you find that phenomena do not exist that
way. However, the more you look into what a wise consciousness
understands, the more you gain affirmation in the absence of inherent
existence.
Do Objects Exist?
We have established that when any phenomenon is sought through
analysis, it cannot be found. So you may be wondering whether these
phenomena exist at all. However, we know from direct experience that
people and things cause pleasure and pain, and that they can help and
harm. Therefore, phenomena certainly do exist; the question is how?
They do not exist in their own right, but only have an existence
dependent upon many factors, including a consciousness that
conceptualizes them.
Once they exist but do not exist on their own, they necessarily exist
in dependence upon conceptualization. However, when phenomena appear to
us, they do not at all appear as if they exist this way. Rather, they
seem to be established in their own right, from the object's side,
without depending upon a conceptualizing consciousness.
When training to develop wisdom, you are seeking through analysis to
find the inherent existence of whatever object you are
considering—yourself, another person, your body, your mind, or anything
else. You are analyzing not the mere appearance but the inherent nature
of the object. Thus it is not that you come to understand that the
object does not exist; rather, you find that its inherent existence is
unfounded. Analysis does not
contradict the mere existence of the object. Phenomena do indeed exist,
but not in the way we think they do.
What is left after analysis is a dependently existent phenomenon. When,
for example, you examine your own body, its inherent existence is
negated, but what is left is a body dependent on four limbs, a trunk,
and a head.
If Phenomena Are Empty, Can They Function?
Whenever we think about objects, do we mistakenly believe that
they
exist in their own right? No. We can conceive of phenomena in three
different ways. Let us consider a tree. There is no denying that it
appears to inherently exist, but:
- We could conceive of the tree as existing inherently, in its own right.
- We could conceive of the tree as lacking inherent existence.
- We could conceive of the tree without thinking that it inherently exists or not.
Only the first of those is wrong. The other two modes of
apprehension
are right, even if the mode of appearance is mistaken in the second and
the third, in that the tree appears as if inherently existent.
If objects do not inherently exist, does this mean that they cannot
function? Jumping to the conclusion that because the true nature of
objects is emptiness, they are therefore incapable of performing
functions such as causing pleasure or pain, or helping or harming, is
the worst sort of misunderstanding, a nihilistic view. As the Indian
scholar-yogi Nagarjuna says in his Precious Garland, a nihilist will
certainly have a bad transmigration upon rebirth, whereas a person who
believes, albeit wrongly, in inherent existence goes on to a good
transmigration.
Allow me to explain. You need a belief in the consequences of actions
to choose virtue in your life and discard nonvirtue. For the time
being, the subtle view of the emptiness of inherent existence might be
too difficult for you to understand without falling into the trap of
nihilism, where you are unable to understand that phenomena arise in
dependence on causes and conditions (dependent-arising). Then for the
sake of your spiritual progress it would be better for now to set aside
trying to penetrate emptiness. Even if you mistakenly believe that
phenomena inherently exist, you can still develop an understanding of
dependent-arising and apply it in practice. This is why even Buddha, on
occasion, taught that living beings and other
phenomena inherently exist. Such teachings are the thought of Buddha's
scriptures, but they are not his own final thought. For specific
purposes, he sometimes spoke in nonfinal ways.
In What Way Is Consciousness Mistaken?
Because all phenomena appear to exist in their own right, all
of our
ordinary perceptions are mistaken. Only when emptiness is directly
realized during completely focused meditation is there no false
appearance. At that time, the dualism of subject and object has
vanished, as has the appearance of multiplicity; only emptiness
appears. After you rise from that meditation, once again living beings
and objects falsely appear to exist in and of themselves, but through
the power of having realized emptiness, you will recognize the
discrepancy between appearance and reality. Through meditation you have
identified both the false mode of appearance and the false mode of
apprehension.
Let us return to the central point: All of us have a sense of "I" but
we need to realize that it is only designated in dependence upon mind
and body. The selflessness that Buddhists speak of refers to the
absence of a self that is permanent, partless, and independent, or,
more subtly, it can refer to the absence of inherent existence of any
phenomenon. However, Buddhists
do value the existence of a self that changes from moment to moment,
designated in dependence upon the continuum of mind and body. All of us
validly have this sense of “I.” When Buddhists speak of the doctrine of
selflessness, we are not referring to the nonexistence of this self.
With this “I,” all of us rightfully want happiness and do not want
suffering. It is when we exaggerate our sense of ourselves and other
phenomena to mean something inherently existent that we get drawn into
many, many problems.
Summary for Daily Practice
As an exercise in identifying how objects and beings falsely
appear, try the following:
- Observe how an item such as a watch appears in a store when you first notice it, then how its appearance changes and becomes even more concrete as you become more interested in it, and finally how it appears after you have bought it and consider it yours.
- Reflect on how you yourself appear to your mind as if inherently existent. Then reflect on how others and their bodies appear to your mind.