By Lama Zopa Rinpoche
When all sentient beings become enlightened,
there will be no samsara, no six realms, no three lower realms with hell, preta
and animal beings. There will be the omniscient mind of enlightenment. The stream
of our consciousness - actually, we are talking here about the subtle mind -
never ceases. Since the continuation of this subtle mind never ceases, there
is always the dharmakaya. When everyone has removed the two obscurations, there
will be no such thing as samsara, nor even the lower nirvana, which is mere
release from the bondage of karma and disturbing thoughts. You can understand
from this that enlightenment and samsara exist by depending on the mind.
To use a simple example: while I might see someone as very ugly and undesirable,
another person may see him as very enchanting and desirable. We are both seeing
the same person at the same time. This simple example shows that the way things
appear to me comes from my mind, according to my karma; and how things appear
to the other person comes from his own mind and karma.
This way of thinking is very useful in controlling the dissatisfied mind of
attachment. While an object is appearing to you as beautiful, try to be aware
that you have created this beauty You have made it up. Your view, in which you
believe one hundred percent, is that this object exists from its own side as
beautiful. You believe that it is permanently beautiful. At the same time as
this object is appearing beautiful to you, however, others may see it as ugly.
Try to be aware that there are different views of the object. This makes it
clear that your view of an object comes from your own mind. How an object appears
to you depends on your mind. This helps you to understand generally your own
karma and also different karmas. If the way of making commentary on an object,
such as someone's face, were not dependent on the mind and karma of the individual
observer, there would be no reason at all for the same object to appear differently
to different people.
Let's use Tibetan tea as a example. When they taste Tibetan tea, Tibetans -
and even some Westerners - experience a pleasant taste, on which they label
'delicious'. The pleasant feeling arises due to the person's previous karma
and the person then labels 'delicious' on that feeling. The delicious Tibetan
tea exists in dependence upon the drinker's mind labelling on that. Now, when
some sophisticated Westerner, particularly an American, comes along and you
give him the same tea with thick butter and salt, he feels as if he is drinking
muck. That uncomfortable feeling also results from the individual's own karma.
The unpleasant taste is the result of the person's previous karma and he labels
'disgusting' on that particular feeling. When that person drinks Tibetan tea,
it nauseates him.
In the Great Lam-Rim Commentary Lama Tsong Khapa says that sometimes when you
eat fruit that is supposed to be sweet, you unexpectedly find it tastes sour
or bad. Lama Tsong Khapa explains that this is the result of covetousness, one
of the ten non-virtues.
The whole of existence, samsara and nirvana, depends on a valid mind labelling
on a valid base. Samsara comes from the mind of ignorance not realising the
absolute nature of the I. Samsara comes from the mind. These aggregates, the
container of many problems, come from ignorance hallucinated as to the absolute
nature of the I. Enlightenment, the indestructible vajra holy body of Buddha
free from all suffering, comes from the virtuous mind of method and wisdom.
Everything that exists comes from the mind. Without depending g on the mind
knowing an object, or the knower (I am talking here about the mind, not the
person), there is no way an object can exist. Anything that exists is empty
of existing without depending on the mind.
A vase that we can use is empty of being a vase that exists without depending
on the base and the subject, the mind. And it is the same with all the rest
of existence: all the respective existents exist by depending on the base and
the mind that labels. They are empty of existing without depending on the base
and the mind. This emptiness is the absolute nature of existence. Therefore,
wherever there is existence, there is emptiness. Wherever there is emptiness,
there is Buddha, and there is the dharmakaya, oneness with absolute nature forever,
like having poured water into water.