(9.163) Oh, surely we must feel compassion for all these poor beings
Who are swept along in these vast rivers of suffering,
For, although they suffer in the extreme,
They do not recognize their suffering state.

(9.164) For example, some ascetics repeatedly wash in freezing water
And burn themselves with fire again and again;
And, although they experience great suffering,
They proudly maintain that they are happy!

(9.165) In the same way, those who live their lives
As if they were not going to be struck by sufferings such as ageing and death,
Will experience horrendous suffering at the hands of the Lord of Death
And then be cast into the unbearable torments of the lower realms.

People need our help, don’t they?  They really do need our help to show them where they are going wrong.  Crazy things people do for their freedom and happiness. They create the cause for more and more suffering and unhappiness.  So we have to show them where they’re going wrong.  They are powerless, helpless.

To do this, we have to first of all see where we are going wrong.  Otherwise, we will their wrong things are correct.  We suffer but maintain that we are happy.  Perhaps we feel ourselves that our life is bearable.  If we did not, I’m sure we would try end it by meditating on emptiness all the time.  We would say we hate this life of suffering.  So perhaps for us our life is a generally happy one, it is a bearable one.  But this will not last.

The fact is that our life at some time will become utterly unbearable.  In this lifetime, things will become unbearable.  We have giant tsunamis of sickness, ageing, and death bearing down on us.  If we do not do anything to get out, in our next life or in lives to come we will experience such immense suffering that we will be overwhelmed by it.  It is enough to just look at how it is for most other people.  They are a preview of what is to come for us if we remain in samsara.  We should not look at just this world, but think of other worlds as well, like the hells.  Even in this world, suffering for the vast majority is unbearable, isn’t it?  Most people in this world I would say are overwhelmed by suffering, mentally and physically.

But unfortunately for all of these beings they do not know how to end their suffering.  They just do not know.  They have no method.  Everything they do seems to just make the problems worse.  In this world alone, fears, dangers, and suffering are all increasing.  People are really helpless.

How can we bring an end to this world of suffering?  How can we bring an end to all worlds of suffering?  By meditating on emptiness.  There is no other way.  We need to deepen our conviction, don’t we?  We can bring an end to the world of suffering only by meditating on emptiness.  If we are not convinced ourselves, how on earth are we going to convince others, so they meditate on emptiness to bring an end to their world of suffering?   We must both deepen our conviction, and follow, follow our convictions.

Our belief must grow into a passionate belief, so we live by it.  Importantly, we need to be seen to live by it, not in a fake way, in an authentic way, because only that will inspire others to do the same.  We are passionate about our belief or beliefs, and of course naturally we live by our beliefs and others see that we do so.  Wanting to realize emptiness needs to be our most passionate wish, becoming the wish that other people too develop that same belief, and live by that belief.  Our most passionate wish is that others strive to realize emptiness. 

(9.161) Furthermore, demonic forces are constantly striving
To cast us into the vast wasteland of the lower realms.
There are many mistaken paths to mislead us,
And we find it difficult to resolve stultifying doubts.

(9.162) It will be very hard to find the freedom and endowment of a human rebirth again.
Buddhas rarely appear in this world, and it is difficult to find a qualified Mahayana Spiritual Guide.
Without these, there is no way to stop the flood of delusions –
Alas, the suffering of living beings will continue without interruption!

Each one of us here has a precious opportunity, I would say quite a unique opportunity, a chance not just of a lifetime, it seems the chance of lifetimes.  We will encounter difficulties, of course.  But we can overcome them with effort, such is our present situation, we can overcome them with effort.  We must remember that we make things difficult, don’t we?  We make things difficult, and we actually give power to our maras.  From their own side, there are no difficulties, from their own side there are no maras.  They have no power.

But I would say that we are relatively free from obstacles right now.  Those that we do encounter, we can use for our spiritual training.  We can regard them as necessary in order to bring about our spiritual growth.  And to say that we have relatively good conditions I think would be a gross understatement.  Venerable Geshe-la himself knows how good our conditions are, which is why he has said we should not just to enjoy them, we need to build from here.  But also we must use this opportunity we have to free others too.  Out of compassion, we must strive to take the self of others out of their samsara and place it in the firm ground of liberation, as Shantideva finally encourages us to do.

(9.158cd)Even in fortunate rebirths, we shall have little ability to practise virtue,
And our lives of freedom and endowment will quickly pass.

(9.159) We are constantly striving to avoid sickness and death,
Fend off hunger, find some rest, or just get to sleep.
We receive harm from inner and outer obstacles,
And waste our lives in meaningless company.

(9.160) Thus, our life passes swiftly without any meaning,
And we find it very hard to realize emptiness.
In such a state, where is there a method to reverse
The deluded wanderings of the mind, with which we are so familiar?

This is how our existence could be for a long time in the future if we do not follow the path of wisdom.  It is a very sad, pathetic actually, meaningless existence.  By not training in this wisdom, rather than experiencing freedom, we bind ourselves to a world of suffering, we bind ourselves to a life that is at best just hard work.  We left behind worldly life because we saw what it was like, didn’t we?   But we have not left behind worldly life completely, have we?   If we are not looking towards the door of emptiness, let alone moving towards that door, then it’s a sign that we believe there’s something worth staying in for.   But what is there worth staying for?  What?  If we check it is a bunch of little things that when we look at the price of keeping these little things, we realize it is ridiculous.  Yet, we still choose it!  Our strategy is to try to ‘get away with as much samsara as we can’.  But actually, we should do the opposite, have as little as we can.  This shows how confused we are.

But the question is when are we going to stop?  What did Buddha say to Angulimala in the play?  When are we going to stop?  When we die, probably. But even then, it starts all over again, doesn’t it?

Atisha says, “friends, there is no happiness in this swamp of samsara, so move to the firm ground … of liberation.”   We must take our self, this self out of samsara, and place it firmly in nirvana.  We need to do this while we still have the opportunity, as Shantideva explains.

(9.156) From time to time, they take a fortunate rebirth
And briefly enjoy some temporary happiness,
But soon they die and fall into the lower realms,
Where they experience unbearable suffering for a very long time.

(9.157) In samsara, there are many pitfalls that lead to suffering.
Instead of finding the path of emptiness that leads to freedom,
We are bound by its opposite, grasping at true existence.
But if, while in samsara, we do not find the path of emptiness,

(9.158ab) We shall continue to experience an unending ocean of suffering
That is so unbearable it is beyond analogy.

Because we do not have deep conviction in the existence of past and future lives, the teachings on the sufferings of the other realms seems abstract or intellectual or philosophical. But let us try set those doubts aside for now and engage in a thought experiment that past and future lives do actually exist and we are bound for them.

What awaits us in samsara? The truth is the vast majority of beings within samsara are in the lower realms. Put another way, the vast majority of our previous and future lives will also be in the lower realms. The reason for this is quite simple: when we take lower rebirth, we engage almost exclusively in negative actions which causes us to remain in the lower realms. Because there is virtually no Dharma to be found, it is very difficult for us to die with virtuous or pure minds and escape from the lower realms.

The sufferings of the animal realms are manifest in obvious. It is worthwhile spending some time watching nature shows about life in the wild to see what life is like for wild animals. It is definitely worth our time to watch the videos about how animals in industrial farming are treated see what their lives are really like.

To get a feel for the hungry ghost realms, we can consider the plight of those who are starving in various parts of the world. It’s not enough to just simply look at the pictures of the emaciated children, but we should spend time researching to try understand what their lives are like and ask ourselves what would we do if we were born in such a situation.

To get some feeling for the hell realms, we can watch authentic documentaries about war. Not the Hollywood glamorized versions of war, but the actual experience of soldiers and the horrors they go through. We can see how just a short period of time in a war zone can permanently scar someone’s mind and leave them crippled with PTSD for the rest of their life. One of the books that marked me the most was a book about how rape is used as an instrument of war. Imagine the terror of women who are captured by enemy soldiers and raped just to be cruel.

If we want to get a feel for what it is like to be born in the cold hells, we should spend the night like a homeless person in a cold city in the middle of winter.  If that is too much, then try to simply sleep a few nights without the heat on in the middle of winter without any blankets. We do not do these things sort of guilt or self-flagellation, but rather to help us move the teachings on the lower realms from something abstract and removed from us to getting a taste for what it is like. The goal is to generate a deep fear of taking rebirth there and a profound compassion for all those who have.

In truth, all of samsara is one giant reviving hell. In the reviving hells, we are killed by enemies and then revived just to be killed again.  Or worse, we are killed in battle and then revived only to begin killing again and continue the fight. One of the most powerful scenes from Game of Thrones is when there was a major battle had a village by the sea and thousands of the Night King’s soldiers were killed. As Jon Snow escaped with a few remaining wildlings, he looked back and the Night King merely raised his hands and all of those killed in the battle rose again as soldiers in his army only to fight another day. It did not matter whether the soldiers first fought on one side or the other, they all equally arose as soldiers in the army of the dead. Such an army is an unstoppable force that promised to devour all life in Westeros.

The night King, however, was able to be killed with Valyrian steel. Arya Stark wielded her Valyrian steel dagger and killed the Night King, causing all of the soldiers in the army of the dead to fall.  The wisdom realizing emptiness is the Valyrian steel that can destroy all delusions. The Night King of our samsara is our self-grasping ignorance. And if we kill this one demon with the wisdom realizing emptiness, we can cause all of samsara to cease.

(9.154cd)Consider that although all people wish for happiness,
They swing between being troubled by suffering

(9.155) And being overjoyed by meaningless pleasure.
Not finding happiness, they suffer; and in striving to fulfil their wishes
They quarrel, fight, and hurt each other with weapons.
Thus, they consume their lives in the commission of non-virtue.

This is a pretty fair description of our modern life. All of us wish for happiness. We all wish to be free from suffering. We all do our best. Sometimes we have good moments. But most of our life is struggling through one problem or another. Wave after wave of personal calamity confront us. We are not alone in this. Everyone is going through similar suffering each in their own ways. Because most of us do not know about the sublime happiness that is possible from within, we chase after the fleeting pleasures of samsara, hoping that they will bring us some respite from our otherwise difficult existence.

For most people, going on vacation is one of the highlights of their year. They save up all sorts of money to try go on vacation. But when they go, their family complains the hotel or food is not good enough, the sun is too bright and we get a sunburn, there are too many people around us, and we feel as if we’ve spent all this money and done all of this effort to try have a good time, and everybody is still unhappy. It is about the best we get in this world. It is really quite sad.

In our work, we fight with others, jockey for position, complain about our boss or our clients. We get passed over for promotion, we never feel appreciated, or maybe our business gets wiped out by the competition.

In our personal life, we never find the one who makes us happy. We expect others to do the right thing, and when they don’t we feel disappointed or let down or even angry. If we are all alone, we think we need to be with others to be happy. But then when we are with others, they are never happy, and so we spend all of our time trying to help them be happy but never succeeding.

We spend our whole working life planning for retirement, but then when our retirement comes, we are too old or too sick to enjoy ourselves, and the enjoyments we thought we would have never quite turn out to be as good as we had hoped. As we get older our best friends get sick and die, and we are left with empty voids. Our body becomes more fragile, weaker, and it increasingly fails. It hurts everywhere and we are never able to get comfortable. We gradually start doing less and less because we are simply incapable of doing so, and we realized with sadness we will never be able to do these things again.

On our deathbed all the things that we had hoped and worked for wind up being meaningless and useless and we realize that we wasted our life chasing after things that provide no real happiness and no real protection. This is not a fiction, nor a horror story, this is all quite common. This is daily life in the human realm. And the human realm is one of the best possible places to be just imagine sufferings of other realms.

Shantideva now goes on to describe what our life will be like if we don’t follow the path of wisdom. Actually, he is describing what our life is like now.

(9.154ab) I beseech you, O reader, who are just like me,
Please strive to realize that all phenomena are empty, like space.

Again and again throughout Shantideva’s guide he portrays himself as no different than us. He is just a practitioner, striving to do his best to progress along the bodhisattva’s path. He wrote his Guide as a personal practice to try deep in his own familiarity with the teachings that he has received.  His Guide is his own personal meditation on the bodhisattva’s path he compiled to clarify it within his own mind. Geshe-la’s commentary to the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life is called Meaningful to Behold. The meaning of this is Shantideva said that he prepared the guide to familiarize himself with the teachings, but if others find it meaningful, then all the better. When Geshe-la looks at the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, he finds it something to be meaningful to behold, and he encourages us to do the same.

I have spent the last many years providing my understanding of Shantideva’s Guide to Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. This for me has likewise been my own personal meditation on what Shantideva has written. By familiarizing myself with what he said, and writing down my understandings of what it means, I have clarified to an extent by own understanding of the bodhisattva’s path. I have shared my understanding on my blog in the hopes that others might also find these reflections helpful.

In the last few years of Geshe-la teaching publicly, he said many times that we need to write our own commentaries to the practices he has given us. He provides us this encouragement not to replace his commentaries, but rather to deep our familiarity with the teachings. By writing down our understandings, it forces us to clarify our thoughts about the Dharma. I have found this to be incredibly helpful and beneficial over the last many years. Writing this series of post has in many ways been one of my most important spiritual activities. None of what I say here should ever be considered definitive, it is just simply my understanding as of the time in which I wrote these words.

All of the buddhas that came before us were once practitioners just like us. They were full of delusions, worries, and preoccupations just like us. But they felt a spark of inspiration and decided to use their precious human life to familiarize themselves with Dharma. Overtime, their familiarity grew and grew and they became happier and happier. They then sought to share their understandings with others in the hopes that they too could find a similar happiness.

(9.153) When examined in this way, who lives in this world
And who is it who will die?
What will happen in the future and what happened in the past?
Who are our friends and who are our relatives?

This is one of Shantideva’s most famous verses. Geshe-la quoted it often in his teachings on emptiness at various spring and summer festivals. With these very simple questions, we are able to completely pull the plug on the vast majority of the delusions that arise in daily life. It is definitely worth memorizing this verse and using it like a mantra whenever we find ourselves worried or stressed about daily life. Or when we find ourselves obsessing over certain possibilities, thinking we cannot be happy unless those things come to pass. Indeed, I would say if we were to only memorize one verse out of the entirety of Chapter 9, it would be this verse. It is in effect our practice during the meditation break.  We should recite this verse again and again while contemplating deeply upon its meaning as it relates to are delusions arising at any given moment.

In the beginning, when we apply wisdom to overcome our delusions it will not have much power compared to some of our vast path teachings, such as love and compassion. If we are impatient for results, we can easily and quickly give up on using wisdom to try to overcome our delusions. This is a big mistake. Wisdom gains its power overtime following an exponential curve. During the COVID crises, we all saw the many graphs about exponential growth of case number.  For a very long time the number of cases remained very low and it seemed as if there was not much going on, but it was growing in an exponential way. Then at some point the curve starts to go up quite quickly and exponential growth takes off almost like a rocket. It is exactly the same with our using wisdom realizing emptiness to overcome our delusions. In the beginning it does not seem to be doing much, but as we gain more familiarity the power of these ways of thinking grows exponentially within our mind and after a period of time it starts to become the most powerful tool we have in our spiritual toolbox. By investing our time early in applying these reasons again and again, we will later enjoy a rich reward and be able to radically chop the root of any delusion that arises.

This verse is the doorway to such experience. The more we train in it, the more power it will gain within our mind, until later in the future we will be able to overcome almost any delusion we have simply by reciting this first while contemplating on its meaning. I pray that everyone reading this post makes the firm decision to take the time to memorize this first and to gain experience with it in their daily life until eventually it becomes a universal panacea able to overcome all of their delusions.

Well, who lives in this world, who are our friends and who are our relatives?  There is no one there, there is just an appearance of somebody being there.  When we check, we will find nothing more than a mere appearance, like a hologram or an illusion.  The only difference between the illusory woman and the real woman is it is a different type of illusion arising from different causes and conditions.  But their status of being illusions is the same.

We are so concerned with what has happened, is happening and will happen to us.  Because our self-cherishing makes us think we are important, we think what happens to us is very important, so we are naturally quite concerned.  Almost all of our problems arise from this.  But what has happened to us in the past?  Nothing.  What is happening to us now?  Nothing.  What will happen to us in the future?  Nothing.

Just because nothing is happening does not mean we don’t still need to respond correctly.  Everything is a reflection of our mind, so if we respond incorrectly the appearances will grow worse and we could lose our understanding of emptiness, and then we will perceive ourselves as having big problems.  If we respond correctly to whatever arises, then the appearances will gradually improve until eventually we construct the pure land.  We also do not deny the function of objects within the world of appearances.  So we do have to be concerned with what happens.  But because we know that these appearances are coming from our mind, we realize if we want to change the appearances, we need to change our mind.

(9.150) Living beings are like objects in a dream
For, when analyzed, they have no ultimate identity, just like a rainbow.
Thus, in that they both lack true existence, there is no difference
Between nirvana, the state beyond sorrow, and samsara, the state of sorrow.

Shantideva is telling us we have no fixed identity. We have no identity, so we need to stop believing we have one.  We ourselves are empty.  Our samsara is empty.  Nirvana too is empty.  Therefore, we can come to abide in nirvana.  Because we ourselves, samsara and nirvana all lack true existence, we can change from a being abiding in samsara to a being abiding in nirvana. Wonderful!

Nagarjuna says for those who emptiness is impossible, nothing is possible; but for those who emptiness is possible, everything is possible. At present, we grasp at ourselves as being fixed, unchanging, and inherently the person we are today. We hear in popular psychology all of the time we need to be our true self, our authentic self. We tell our children to be who they really are. This always leads to a good deal of confusion amongst kids as they ask themselves the question, well who am I really? They then go searching thinking there must be some inherently them that they are that they need to try and embody. All of this is wrong.

We are who we choose to become. For example, we can decide to impute our I on being a good person. When we do this, we naturally come to embody what a good person would be like. We quite literally become a good person. We see this with professions, when people make decisions to become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a salesperson and so forth. They then say they want to be a good doctor or lawyer, and so they try act in those ways. In exactly the same way, we can decide we want to become a Buddha. Indeed, we can change the basis of imputation of our I from an ordinary being to that of a Buddha. With enough familiarity, this could become our living experience.

From a tantric perspective, we can reinterpret popular psychology talking about identifying with our true self or our authentic self by saying that our authentic self is our Buddha nature. Our Buddha nature is our true self, and the wish to attain renunciation is the wish to free our true self from the prison of our false self created by our self-grasping ignorance. The wish to attain enlightenment is the wish to fully unleash our true self to be of the greatest benefit possible to others. What is the nature of our true self, our Buddha nature? It is our very subtle wind and are very subtle mind. These are our continuously residing body and mind that go with us from life to life. It is our continuously residing body in mind that will eventually transform into the body and mind of a Buddha. It is incorrect to say that it is already a Buddha, but it is correct to say that our very subtle body and mind are the substantial causes that will later transform into the body and mind of a Buddha. There is no inherently existent true self, but there is something that goes with us from life to life and will remain with us forever. The question is whether our true self remains merely a potential or whether we fully actualize it by becoming an enlightened being ourselves. With this understanding, we can agree with people who ascribe to modern psychological theories and merely understand those theories in a more Buddhist way.

We often say that there are five principal aspects of the path: renunciation, bodhichitta, the correct view of emptiness, generation stage, and completion stage. How can we understand how all of these fit together? In reality, there is only one activity on the path, namely changing the basis of imputation of our I from an ordinary samsaric being to a fully enlightened Buddha. There are two reasons why we change the basis of imputation of our I, namely for the sake of ourselves (or renunciation), or for the sake of others (or bodhichitta). There are two levels at which we change the basis of imputation of our I, gross and subtle. At a gross level, we changed the basis of imputation of our I to the gross deity body through the practice of generation stage. And at a subtle level, we change the basis of imputation of our I to the subtle deity body through the practice of completion stage.  All of this is possible because our I, our body, and our mind are all empty of inherent existence. We are not fixed or permanently attached to our ordinary body and mind. We can choose the body and mind we wish to have as the basis of imputation for our I. It will take training, it will take persistent effort, it will take time, but it is possible.

We see how we change the basis of imputation of our I throughout our life. We start out as a baby, we later become a teenager, then later become a young adult, then middle aged, then an older person. In our previous lives, we imputed our I on completely different bodies and minds. Our I is nothing more than a post-it that we can place on anything. Some bases are beneficial and some are harmful. But the choice is ours. And we clearly see the emptiness of our I, then we realize we can quite literally construct an entirely new pure identity and become a Buddha.

(9.149) Just as there is no truly existent production of things,
So there is no truly existent cessation.
Thus, living beings are not truly born,
Nor do they truly cease.

If the cessation of things were truly existent, then there would be no production of things.  There would just be endings.  Nothing would change, everything would just stop.  For example, we would just die.  We don’t just die — we die and take rebirth.  We die and take rebirth because the cessation of things and the production of things are not truly existent.  If they were, then we would just die.  It appears that we do because we grasp at truly existent cessations.  But we do not really die, and we’re not really born.  And we do not really live either.

Another good example is karma.  We experience the results of the actions of previous lives, because the cessation of those actions was not truly existent.  If they were, there would be no karma carrying over, no cause and effect.  If actions truly ceased, then no effects would be experienced.  So our actions don’t really end.  Everything we do truly echoes in eternity.  If this makes sense, then it will so influence our life and our practice.

The third reason Shantideva gives to establish selflessness is reputation of inherent production of existents and non-existents. Before with the logical reasoning of the vajra thunder bolt we looked at the impossibility of inherently existent production from the side of the causes. Here Shantideva looks at the impossibility of either an existent or a non-existent being inherently produced, in other words looking at it from the point of view of the effect.

(9.145) If something is truly existent,
What need is there for a cause to produce it?
And if something is non-existent,
Again, what need is there for a cause to produce it?

First Shantideva shows there is simply a contradiction between saying an object is inherently existent and that it is produced. If it is inherently existent, then it exists inherently and therefore does not need to be produced since it already exists on its own. Likewise, it makes no sense whatsoever to talk about production of a non-existent since a non-existent does not exist.

(9.146) Even with a hundred million causes,
A non-thing will never transform into a thing.
If it remained a non-thing, how could it become a thing?
From what state could it transform into a thing?

(9.147) While it is not a thing, it cannot exist as a thing;
So when could it ever become a thing?
It would be unable to separate from being a non-thing
Without first becoming a thing;

(9.148) But without its being separated from the state of being a non-thing,
It is impossible for the state of a thing to arise.
Likewise, a functioning thing cannot become a permanent thing
Because, if it did, it would have two mutually exclusive natures.

Those the grasp at inherent existence say that an object is either inherently existent or inherently non-existent. In moment one for example the object does not exist, and those that grasp at inherent existence would say that it truly does not exist. It inherently does not exist. In moment two, those that grasp that inherent existence say the object inherently exists. Yet they have no explanation for how something can transform from a state of inherently not existing to a state of inherently existing. Transforming from being a non-thing to a thing. How does that happen? Where does the thing come from? Yet when it exists, we grasp it as having its own independent existence. All of this is quite impossible.

I’ll try to simplify with an example of a seed and a sprout.  If the sprout were truly existent, it would not need a cause, seed, to produce it.  It would be self-existent.  With respect to the sprout at the time of the seed, again it wouldn’t need a cause to produce it either since it is a non-existent.  So the question is how does an inherently existent sprout, a thing, come into existence from being a non-thing at the time of the seed?  This would be impossible. 

Essentially all we need to know is — something cannot arise from nothing.  Also, it cannot arise from that which is itself not an effect of some other cause.  It can only be produced from that which is itself a product, so nothing is inherently existent.