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non-virtue. As it says in the Vinaya teaching, Dulwa lung, Small
drops fill a big pot. Therefore, we shouldn t think that small merits
are useless. Try to collect as many as possible. It also says, A tiny spark
can ignite a huge forest. Therefore, don t think that small negative
karmas won t bring results. Avoid them too. Here is where we must
direct all our effort. This is the Buddha s fundamental advice.
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MEDITATION ON EMPTINESS
Once again, bring your attention away from hallucination to the reali-
ties of life, the nature of which is impermanence and death. Awareness
of death helps free our mind from delusion and karma so that we can
not only bring to an end the entire round of suffering, the cycle of
death and rebirth, but also eradicate even the subtle errors of mind,
thereby attaining enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
All causative phenomena our life, our body, our mind, our self,
our possessions, our relatives and friends, all other people are chang-
ing, not only day by day, minute by minute and second by second, but
every tiny moment. They do not last for a fraction of a second.
Because they are under the control of causes and conditions, they are
in a state of constant decay and can cease at any time. This is the
nature of our life. If we can remain aware of this, we will prevent our
mind from coming under the control of the delusions the disturb-
ing emotional minds that hurt us and other sentient beings, prevent
us from transforming our mind and gaining realizations of the path
to enlightenment, and stop us from seeing the ultimate nature of all
phenomena. First we stop delusions from manifesting, and then, by
actualizing the remedial path, we eradicate even the imprints that
they have left on our mental continuum. By destroying the seeds of
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VIRTUE AND REALITY
delusion, we attain nirvana, ultimate liberation from the six realms
of suffering and its cause, freedom from the circling aggregates,
which are samsara itself. These are the benefits of mindfulness of
impermanence. We free ourselves of disturbing thoughts, immediate-
ly experience peace and satisfaction, free ourselves from samsara, and
eventually attain enlightenment and enlighten all sentient beings.
Contemplate all this.
Now meditate on emptiness, the actual nature of all phenomena.
Think how your I, actions, objects, and in fact all phenomena
everything that is called such and such and this and that are just
names. Names have to come from the mind; they don t exist from
their own side. Names are labels applied by the mind. However, it is
not just that phenomena are labeled by the mind they are merely
labeled by the mind. In other words, all phenomena I, action,
object, everything are merely labeled by the mind, in relation to
their base.
Think about this.
HOWTHINGS EXIST
Now I m going to elaborate a little on the subject of emptiness. The
way in which everything exists is by being merely labeled by the
mind. But that does not mean that everything the mind labels actual-
ly exists. Even though everything exists by being merely labeled by
the mind, that doesn t mean that if your mind labels something it
automatically brings it into existence.
For example, say I cut up a huge pile of newspapers into little
pieces and my mind labels each one a billion dollars that doesn t
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MEDITATION ON EMPTINESS
make each piece of paper worth a billion dollars. Even though my
mind has merely labeled those pieces of paper a billion dollars, that
doesn t mean each one has become a billion dollars.
If it were possible for that to happen, we wouldn t have to vote in
presidential elections. We wouldn t have to put all that effort into
raising funds, campaigning, spending all that money, holding
inquiries, to elect the president. All you d have to do would be to label
yourself, I m the American president, and you d become president.
If things coming into existence were only up to the mind labeling
them, if that s all it took, then that s what would happen. Whenever
you wanted to be president, all you d have to do would be to have
your mind label yourself president and you d be president. In that
way, everybody could become president. Maybe there d be nobody
left who wasn t president.
A magician could hypnotize you into believing that he d given you
a bag full of money, and you might carry it home, believing you were
rich, but later, when you opened it up, there d be nothing there but
cut up pieces of newspaper. That s one way of showing that it doesn t
exist for your own mind to discover that it s not true. Later, when
you re not under the influence of hypnosis, you realize that it was an
illusion, that the money you saw didn t exist. Everything was there for
your mind the appearance of money and your mind labeling it
money but it wasn t money.
Another way of showing that it does not exist is for other people
not to see the money. Because of the illusion created by hypnosis,
money appears to your mind, but other people, whose minds are not
under the illusion, don t see it. Therefore, it takes more than appear-
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