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.