It’s all right. For you, perhaps one day you’ll just stop trying to manage them, thinking, “There are so many thoughts; there’s really nothing I can do.” It’s all right. Many, many thoughts are no different from one thought, or from one or two thoughts. Many thoughts do not mean many obstacles. That’s not how it is.
It’s only thoughts, only stray thoughts. Some people keep thinking and analyzing, trying to return to emptiness through analysis. You try to return to emptiness through this constant analysis, but cannot make sense of it, because you are used to this way of thinking: you think you have to take it through chain after chain of analysis, all the way to emptiness, and that analysis will surely yield a result. You think this way because it is your habit of thinking.
Exactly that cannot be obtained through analysis. So you feel you cannot make sense of it, and that this is impossible: normally, so many things can be made clear through analysis, one link leading to the next—how could reasoning fail to make them clear? But this thing is exactly the opposite: the more you reason, the blinder you become; the more you reason, the more confused you become; the more you reason, the more it feels as though you have reached a corner, with no way through. And these things—how do you let them go? If you let go, you feel like a fool. So this is the problem.
Just carry on like this. Then one day you suddenly let go of everything; suddenly even “letting go” is gone, and everything is suddenly cleared out, you know? Like that disc: rewind it, and suddenly there is nothing on it. In that moment, it is neither something you let go of nor something arrived at through analysis; it simply appears that way. You don’t need to let go of anything, and you don’t need to do anything. You only need to keep practicing, keep struggling—you haven’t struggled enough. Because, in the first place, all cultivation is just struggle, you know.
Practicing the Bodhisattva Path seems sacred. The Bodhisattva Path seems something sacred; the Bodhisattva seems so great, so sacred, you know? It’s only a game. Because there is no self, who is practicing the Bodhisattva Path? Who is there to practice the Bodhisattva Path? So don’t attach to any marks. Only when you do not attach to the mark of the Bodhisattva Path can you avoid becoming so tragic and heroic, as if charging into battle. The Bodhisattva Path seems like such a great thing; only then can you avoid attaching to the mark of the Bodhisattva. Look at that person practicing the Bodhisattva Path—crying.
But the self really does have to be let go. With that kind of cognition through the six faculties, that state of constantly analyzing—if you really are to practice the Bodhisattva Path, you still need the Six Perfections. Try it. Hold on for a while longer; you can all do it.
Bailing and Long-ge, you still need to keep breaking through marks in cultivation and realization. You two actually have nothing to cultivate, but no: you are still attached to marks, and he is too. Once you break through it, you have broken through the marks; where you are attached to marks, once those marks are gone, that’s OK. The mark of a Buddha, the mark of a Bodhisattva, the mark of sentient beings, the mark of self—in the end, it is still the mark of self, the self’s mark.
But in their minds, the two of them don’t want to ask. The two of them don’t have… He doesn’t analyze the way you do, you know? In his mind, he believes he no longer has it; that’s the problem. Even with regard to empty appearance, he has a mark of an empty self—an empty self. You have a solid, actual self there; they have an empty, hollow self, two extremes. You are solid and full, packed with too much, with no gap; they are hollow and empty—they are an empty self.
But this empty self—once it awakens, it is the realm where true emptiness gives rise to wonderful existence; wonderful existence begins to arise within this emptiness. But why has this wonderful existence never arisen? This empty self—there is a self inside this emptiness—so true emptiness has not been reached. You have not emptied the Four Great Elements, your consciousness, and this thing you call your self.
On one hand, you still need to cultivate the energy channels physiologically; cultivating the energy channels will help you reach it quickly. On the other hand, your view must be complete, and your wisdom must be complete. Without reaching true emptiness, you only have an empty appearance—you have entered empty appearance, but not true emptiness; you are attached to empty appearance.
This is also unlike the Chan School’s one-sided emptiness. One-sided emptiness means that your view has become one-sidedly empty; your view has not become one-sided, but you are attached to empty appearance, you know? With empty appearance, nothing matters; nothing in this world matters. Gradually, you lose interest in everything. That’s what empty appearance is: everything is empty, everything is illusory. What is there to enjoy? There is nothing worth taking an interest in.
You cannot see the beauty in this glass. In other words, you can no longer give rise to that… Gradually, your mind sees everything as illusory, including your selves, which also become illusory. You won’t truly settle down, or—it’s just that you think, “It seems necessary to practice the Bodhisattva Path, so I’ll practice it”; because you are kind-hearted or upright, you’ll do it—just that. But no subjective compassion or motivation arises. That means you haven’t entered true emptiness; you’ve entered empty appearance instead, still attached to marks, attached to an empty appearance.
That isn’t emptiness. You haven’t realized and entered emptiness; in your state, there is empty appearance. To break through empty appearance, you need to break through the “empty self”; only after breaking through empty appearance can you truly realize it and enter the realm where Form and emptiness are not two. When you realize and enter this realm, everything starts happening again, as if everything were beginning anew: spring has come; only then can all the drive and vitality arise in your hearts.
This is very hard to break through. This isn’t one-sided emptiness: in terms of view, Form and emptiness are not two, but you are still attached to empty appearance. You still have to work on the self—that is, break through your own habitual tendencies.
If anything causes your mind to become attached, pulls at you, or makes your mind stir—in other words, be very clear, be as clear as possible in being aware of the arising and movement of thoughts in your own mind. Of course, attachments are best broken through. You are stirred in this area; however, you cannot break through it.
If you are stirred in this area, there must be a problem here. Whichever place touches you most deeply, there must be an obstacle there. If you can resolve that place, you will suddenly open up completely—you’ll open.
And be clearly aware, because in empty appearance, things are very subtle; some things… Every tiny arising and movement of thought, even a little selfishness, you can wrap up so seamlessly. You don’t notice it; you find many excuses and wipe it away without a trace, because empty appearance leaves no trace. Because your view is so seamless—after all, everything is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—you always find causes, reasons, and excuses for yourself, and muddle through; this empty appearance can never be broken through.
True emptiness—your empty appearance still has obstructions, attachments, and marks behind it. This empty appearance is even like an Arhat’s cessation attainment: it is self-deception. This empty appearance can’t be broken through; you can’t realize and enter emptiness; it isn’t true emptiness. So your view always feels slightly incomplete, not whole; in realization, wonderful existence never gets going. This is your problem now. Everyone’s entry into the Path is different.
Actually, practicing through the Diamond Sutra, viewing everything as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, is somewhat like a Lesser Vehicle Arhat. A Lesser Vehicle Arhat isn’t like this; he leaves emotion and desire behind. Because of things like emotion and desire, he simply leaves them: “I don’t touch them; they don’t affect me.”
Actually, when you view everything as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, regarding habitual tendencies and desires, if you really like something, you view it as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and then leave it. You leave it by treating it as a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; in fact, you haven’t seen through it.
It is not because you have seen through its true nature, where Form and emptiness are not two; it is not because you have seen through the truth and then picked it up or put it down. It is because you have imagined it as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, taking it to be, “Isn’t it just that?” Little by little, in this way, you will move away from this world. You will view everything as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and cast it away. This too is a kind of detachment from marks. This is a method of cultivation and realization, but ultimately you must return.
Like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow only means that in its essence it has no self-existence; it does not mean it is not real. Right now, in the present moment, it is right here, truly here. So nothing real can arise within your emptiness; everything remains illusory—in the nature of mind, in cognition.
Like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow means that it has no self, not that it is not real. Because of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), everything in this world is here. It is true reality: like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow means that it has no self, but it is true reality, truly here. It truly exists here. Even when all conditions are complete, it is still here; whenever the conditions are complete, it must appear—how could it not? So when many things appear, they continue… As long as you attach to marks, they can still affect you; they will appear. Many things do not simply… because you viewed them as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; they are all here.
You can also view everything as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—just view yourself as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Viewing Shao Ning as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow is the most direct; if you care about yourself, then you simply don’t exist, right? Just take yourself to be nonexistent, sit here, and watch other people—everyone seems perfectly normal. You can view other people as like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow too. It’s all a method of practice.
Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.
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