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(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

Many of us have found the concept of “emptiness” difficult to understand, to “get a handle on,” to “come to grips with.” Not surprising, as even the concept of emptiness is empty!

Why would I want to write about it? Because it describes the true nature of our minds, of reality, of the universe. Put another way, what we think exists in a permanent, solid way is just an appearance.

Phenomena are  like firecrackers. They flash (appear) in the sky, stay for a second, and then pass away. They have no inherent existence apart from the causes and conditions that produced them. You may have heard the phrase “the world of appearances.” That is what I am referring to here.  So everything that arises in our lives is actually an “appearance,” not some solid,  permanent reality.

I have come to believe that without an understanding of this true nature, we cannot really live the best of lives. Why? Because we are fooled, deluded, duped. That’s what is meant by the phrase “we are fooled by our own projections.”  The problem isn’t so much that we project, but that we don’t acknowledge it. Personally, I do not want to live in this state.

We experience this “emptiness” everyday: things change all the time, manufactured items like cars, a supper plate, etc. etc. fall apart. But while we understand the concept intellectually, it is emotionally difficult to accept. Why? Because our ego resists this truth.

So what? Who cares?

What possible usefulness is it to understand ideas like emptiness, appearances, the 12 factors of dependent origination, cause and effect. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Spring, 1976. I am the sole support mother of a beautiful four-year-old son.

The doctor says my son has to have his tonsils out.

Every night for one month I read a book to him that takes a child step-by-step through the process of what happens when the child enters the hospital for the operation. I hope that this information will calm his fears.

When my son is rolled through the hall on a gurney towards the operating room, he says to me “I not only love you. I like you.”

Even 36 years later, I am struck by the wisdom in this remark.

But what does it mean?

We talk about love a lot. But this remark suggests that somehow you might love someone, but not necessarily like them!

In order to gain some clarity, I did a contemplation exercise on loving and liking.  (Instructions for how to contemplate are provided in Appendix C,  Turning the Mind Into An Ally by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche)>

Here’s what arose for me: Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

I replied:

I don’t know where this comes from.

But I began to contemplate its meaning.

This is the best I can come up with:

Nature’s actions — wind, rain, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, sunshine etc. etc. etc. — while the result of cause and effect, aren’t “volitional” (not by choice). They are not underpinned by the kleshas (poisons).

In other words, Nature’s very power lies in the fact that it is free of
volition and the kleshas that underlie volitional action.