3. Tantra

Understanding the structure of the pure land

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra

The elements and main ideas of the pure land are as follows:

  1. Dharmakaya – both inside the nada and the ultimate nature of everything in the pure land, like the ocean of my mind in the aspect of the pure land.  The Dharmakaya is the entity of my mind mixed as inseparably one with that of the guru
  2. The nada.  This is the principle object of completion stage meditation – all of the rest of the mandala gathers and dissolves into this nada.  It is the synthesis of everything else, the meaning of everything else is all there, but it is in the apsect of the nada.
  3. The seed letters.  Like the nada, but for each of the deities of the body mandala.
  4. Heruka Father/Mother.  All of the winds gathered and dissolved into the indestructible drop, again a key object of completion stage meditation.  It is both the drop and the principle deity of the body mandala.
  5. The Body Mandala deities.  These function to heal the subtle bodies of all living beings.
  6. The Celestial mansion.  I have gathered all beings into a Kadampa Buddhist temple where I can heal their subtle bodies and teach them all of the stages of sutra and tantra.
  7. Mount Meru.  Each level is a different pure land from other deities leading up to the top where the HBM is.
  8. The continents.  This is a completely purified version of the three thousand worlds.
  9. The protection circle.  Within this protection circle, only the completely pure may enter.  Everything inside this protection circle is completely pure.
  10. The charnel grounds.  This is like a half-way realm between the realms of samsara and the pure land.  It appears in an aspect that resembles some of the worst of samsara, but it is understood to be by nature Heruka and it functions to reveal all of the stages of the path and provide tantric bodhisattvas with opportunities to train and practice in the stages of the path.
  11. The realms of ‘samsara’.  These are outside the charnel grounds and the beings of samsara inhabit them.  From their perspective, they are in samsara, but from my perspective as Heruka, these realms are also part of my pure land, by nature my pure mind, like extensions of the charnel grounds.  It is samsara for them, but part of my pure land for me.  I am emanating myself in their realms according to their karmic dispositions.  In reality, it has the same function as the charnel grounds, it is just the beings do not realize it.
  12. Dorje Shugden’s protection circle.  This surrounds everything, ensuring that everything that takes place inside is perfect for the swiftest possible enlightenment of each and every living being within the pure land.

These different elements of the pure land can accurately be understood as really different versions of the same thing at different levels of karmic purity.  They are not discreet or different things/places, rather they are different versions of each other all existing simultaneously on many different levels of karmic purity.  For example, the continents, the charnel grounds and the realms of samsara are each all worlds that contain all beings.  THey are different versions of all worlds and all beings existing simultaneously on many different levels (again, like the glass of water appearing as water, pus or nectar depending on one’s karmic view).  The same can be said for all of these different elements – they are all different levels of reality organized by degree of karmic purity in which all beings and all worlds exist simultaneously, like parallel universes.  We are not just on one of these levels and not the others, but are on all levels simultaneously.  From the perspective of Heruka, I am emanating myself on each of these different levels as each of these different levels so as to gather and dissolve all beings into me, the Dharmakaya (Chakrasambara). 

These levels can be understood in three different ways, each with a slightly different meaning.

  1. Organized like a funnel, with the Dharmakaya and the nada at the bottom center, then working upwards and outwards until the 6 realms of samsara.  This is also a shape like how a black hole warps space-time.  Anything put into a funnel is gradually drawn down into the center, and anything that comes withn the orbit of a black hole is also drawn inwards.  This is, in some ways, the perspective of Heruka.  The feeling is of having made oneself the lowest in service of others.  It is the feeling that all of the different levels are like different degrees of wave on the ocean of our mind, and the Dharmakaya is the complete settling of all of these waves, the gradual making perfectly still of all of these waves.
  2. Like a mountain.  This is more the perspective of a practitioner striving to higher and higher levels, from the deepest hell to the highest enlightenment. 
  3. Like a mult-layered onion, burgeoning outwards to be able to help different beings at different karmic levels or gathering inwards like in the yoga of inconveivability. 

Any individual being will likely experience themselves on any one level, but Heruka emanates different karmic versions of that being on each of the different levels to provide them with a pathway or a series of way stations on the way to enlightenment.  By concentrating on a being at any one of these levels, we help draw them into that level and we gain the wisdom of being able to explain the world to them from the perspective of that level.  As a practitioner, if we imagine ourselves on a different level or we try to maintain the view of a given level, we move ourselves into that level.  Each time we train in such concentrations, we create the karma to actually move into that level in the future. 

Ultimately, the structure of the pure land is not one or the other of these, but all three simultaneously and without contradiction.

Keeping the Dharma alive, festivals

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra

During and around the Summer Festival last year, I had many dreams where I was at festivals and the attendance was way down.  I would either cry about not being there, cry about how the NKT was dying, I would dream of VGL crying about these things.  I don’t know whether to interpret this as it appeared or as if the NKT is dying because I am allowing the Dharma to die in my own mind.  I remember when I had my vivid dreams about Manjushri being overrun, one of the conclusions I came to was as long as I keep the Dharma alive in my own mind, I keep it alive in this world; and that as the Dharma flourishes in my own mind, it will flourish in the world.  So if the Dharma is appearing to my mind to be fading in this world, perhaps it is because it is fading in my own mind.  Having no access to centers, sangha, etc., it is very difficult to keep things flourishing within my own mind, but this is my challenge.  I need to take inspiration from rhinocesourus like solitary realizers who spend their whole life practicing in an isolated way, but keep things growing and moving forward.  I think central to this is to always maintain the mind of retreat.  I am on retreat right now, a special kind of retreat.  If I maintain the mind of retreat, this will be my experience.  If I lose this mind, then I won’t be and things will gradually slip.

Engaging in your daily practice for the benefit of all living beings

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

The only thing we can take with us when we die is the karmic causes we have created for ourself.  A pure practitioner is not concerned with results, but is exclusively focused on creating good causes.  We have a fininte amount of time in this life to create good causes, so we need to make sure that every moment we dedicate to doing so we get the most karmic bang for the time invested.

The basic daily practice we do is the Yoga of Buddha Heruka (adding Dorje Shugden on at the end).  So the question is how do we engage in this practice in such a way as to create the maximum amount of good causes while we do it?

There are three things we can do:

First, we should take the time before we begin the practice to generate a qualified bodhichitta motivation.  Bodhichitta multiplies the power of our practice by the number of living beings – in other words, infinitely.  But it is not enough to just say ‘bodhichitta’, you need to actually generate the mind of bodhichitta.  To do this, I find it most helpful to recall that every living being is an aspect or a part of my mind and my dream.  I have imprisoned all living beings into contaminated aggregates and they are suffering terribly as a result.  I have made a terrible mess of the universe of my mind, and now I need to clean up the mess I have made, I need to right the wrongs I have committed, I need to undo the samsara that I have created.  Since the enitre universe and all of the beings within it are only the fabric of my mind (my mind is currently in the shape of a samsara filled with suffering beings), to correct for everything I need to reshape my mind in the aspect of a pure land in which all beings are free.  My mind is currently uncontrolled and is shaping itself as a samsara, but now I need to gain control of my mind and intentionally shape it as a pure land.  Only a Buddha can do this fully and compltely and irreversibly, therefore I need to become a Buddha.  How?  By engaging in the practice of the Yoga of Buddha Heruka, the method for reshaping my mind.  The advantage of this contemplation is it also functions to make our practice a practice of purification.  We acknowledge all the wrongs we have committed, and we resolve to do right by all living beings by undoing all that we have done.  This mind is absolutely orthogonal to all of the negativities we have ever created, and so therefore functions to purify all the negative karma we have with respect to all living beings very very quickly.  For me, bodhichitta is my main purificaton practice.

Second, we need to practice guru yoga throughout our practice.  Every visual apsect, every mind we generate, every intention we should correctly see as a manifestation of and inseparable from our guru.  The Guru functions karmically as the focal point for all the countless Buddhas.  We recall this fact, so that we have the feeling that when we make offerings, prostrations, requests, etc., we are doing so to all the countless Buddhas.  We are calling upon all of them, we are mixing our mind with all of them.  When we generate a visual form in the practice we recognize the nature of this visual form as being all of the Buddhas, so throughout the entire practice we are cognizant of the fact that we are mixing our mind with the minds of all the Buddhas in every aspect of the practice.  Since there are countless Buddhas, this too multiplies the power of our practice by the number of Buddhas.  We receive a flood of blessings, because they are all trying to bless our mind.  The most important mind to generate with guru yoga (besides the recognition that the guru is the synthesis of all the Buddhas) is the mind of total and complete surrender to him.  From the perspective of our Dharma practice, there are three things:  the conditions of our practice (outer, inner and secret), our practice itself (what we are doing) and the final objective/destination of our practice (the enlightenment of all beings in the aspect of ourselves and all beings abiding in Keajra as Heruka).  We surrender completely the outer, inner and secret conditions of our practice to Guru Dorje Shugden.  We surrender our practice itself completely to Guru Tsongkhapa (he guides us as to what to do and he even engages in our practice for us within our mind).  We surrender the final objective/destination of our practice as being Keajra.  We have no other objective, we let go of and leave behind (renounce) all other goals and objectives.  Renunciation in this context is not a foregoing something good that we are depriving ourselves of, rather it is a leaving behind of all things less worthy, desirable and meaningful. 

Finally, when we engage in the practice itself, we should do so either as all living beings or for all living beings.  Living beings are currently samsaric beings in our dream because we have been having them engage in samsaric actions.  By engaging in the practice as all living beings, in other words, recognizing ourselves as all living beings and imagining that they are all engaging in the practice, we karmically reshape our mind such that in the future living beings will appear to us to be engaging in the stages of the path to enlightenment – engaging in pure actions instead of contaminated actions.  Imagining they are doing this is one of the most virtuous things we can do towards them, and for us it creates several great causes.  First, we get the karma as if we were engaging in our practice countless times since in effect we are doing so.  Second, we create the causes to have Buddhas engage in our practice for us within our own mind, we are doing it for living beings creates the causes for Buddhas to do it for us.  Since they know how to engage in the practices perfectly, if we learn to surrender to their engaging in our practices within our mind for us, we too will come to practice perfectly.

Within the context of the Yoga of Buddha Heruka, how specifically do we do this?

  1. When we do refuge, bodhichitta, through to the mandala offering, we imagine that all living beings are around us and we are all collectively engaging in the practice, like a universal puja, towards Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka and the field of merit in front of us.
  2. When we engage in the Migstema prayer (which I add to the practice) and the request to GSBH, we dissolve all living beings into us, generate the mental recognition that they are in us, that we are them (imputing our I on all living beings in the aspect of us engaging in these requests).
  3. When we dissolve everything into the Dharmakaya, we imagine that we have freed all living beings from the samsara we normally project them in/imprison them in.
  4. When we arise as Heruka, we imagine that we are inside the minds of all living beings (in the aspect of the Dharmakaya), and that we are generating the Heruka Body Mandala within their mind in order to accomplish the function of the mandala in their mind, like a medical treatment of their mind. 
  5. When we do the checking meditation of the mandala we recall the symbolism of each aspect of the mandala, and we recognize that as we are performing these different functions inside of their mind as a means of healing/treating their minds.
  6. When we recite the mantras, we imagine each mantra is like a magical spell we are casting which functions to accomplish the function of each mantra on the mind of all living beings.
  7. When we do the Dorje Shugden part (which I add) we recall how all beings and the entire universe are empty (the fabric or ocean of our mind), and we request that he accomplish his function for all living beings within your dream, so that everything that happens to every single being function to channel or herd all living beings to enlightenment.
  8. When we dedicate, we once again recall emptiness and dedicate to reshape our mind according to the dedication prayers so that all beings are freed.

Yes, this is a lot to do and it takes time to become skilled at doing so, but if we do, the power of our practice will be augmented infinitely.  We will make the most out of the little time we have to engage in formal practice.

Constructing alternate karmic realities with our mind

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life

Reality as we know it is nothing more than a particular set of appearances arising from our karma.  It is one dream, amongst countless possibilities.  There is no underlying reality to speak of, only emptiness.  Currently, the reality that appears to us is the fruit of our contaminated karma.  It is nothing other than a mere appearance to our mind, but it is a particularly tricky one in that it ‘appears’ to not be one.  It appears to be ‘real’.  It appears to be something that exists independently of the mind, not created by the mind and not dependent upon the mind.  Not knowing any better, we ignorantly assent to this appearance, believing it to be the case.  Since everyone within this particular set of appearances likewise relates to it as if it were real, we don’t even put its ‘reality’ into question.  As a result, all of our actions we engage in become contaminated by this view.  They are mistaken actions based upon a mistaken view.  These contaminated actions then plant contaminated karma onto our mind.  Our delusions then activate these karmic seeds, giving rise once again to contaminated appearances which we once again ignorantly assent to and act upon.  In this way, it continues as an uninterrupted cycle.  This is samsara.  What is particularly horrible about samsara is its gradient – it is steeply tilted towards extreme suffering.  When our appearances are horrible, we grasp more tightly at them, engage in negative actions in response and this keeps the nightmare going.  When our appearances are pleasant, we grasp more tightly at them, burning up all of our positive karma quickly, leaving us only with negative seeds leading to our fall.  When we lose good things, we grasp at them more tightly, also leading to a fall.  So basically no matter what is appearing, the final destination of all samsaric minds is the deepest hell.  Yet, when we are in the human realm, enjoying temporarily pleasant conditions, we fool ourselves into thinking these will last forever.  We stupidly do not realize that we are just burning up what little merit we have.

But through some miracle of good fortune, we have had somebody enter into our contaminated dream to explain to us what is going on, and how samsara works, and how to get out.  As soon as we realize that this world is nothing more than a mere karmic appearance of mind, one karmic possibility, then whole new possibilities open up.

When samsara appears, we should recognize it as simply one karmic possibility of mere appearances.  And a bad one at that!  If we do not assent to its appearance of being real, but recognize it as just a hallucination, a mere appearance, then we cut its power.  If we cease to pay attention to it, then it will gradually whither away on the vine.  Instead, with our generation stage practice, we dissolve the contaminatedly appearing world into the clear light Dhamakaya, and then from that we intentionally appear with our mind the pure land and ourselves as a deity.  We intentionally appear with our mind all beings abiding in the pure land, engaging sincerely in all of the stages of the path.  We intentionally appear with our mind ourselves guiding, healing and liberating all beings.  We construct an alternate karmic reality with our mind.  Then, understanding that it is a better karmic possibility of mere appearances, we choose to focus our attention on this new world and we choose to abide within it motivated by renunciation, compassion and bodhichitta.  Every moment that we maintain this appearing world, understanding its function and nature, we plant new, pure karmic seeds on our mind.  In the beginning, there are only a few such pure seeds, but the more we engage in this practice the more seeds we plant.  Eventually, we start to reach a critical mass of such seeds and they start ripening more and more.  It begins by having qualified experiences within our daily practice of actually being in the pure land.  But gradually the scope of this appearance grows and grows until eventually we will come to experience it all of the time as our living reality just like we currently do with our contaminatedly appearing world. 

Quite simply, we cease assenting to the contaminted world, choose to construct an alternate, pure karmic reality with our mind.  Then, motivated by compassion and bodhichitta, we choose to pay attention to or focus our mind on assenting to the appearance of abiding in this pure world.  The more we do this, the more pure karma we plant on our mind.  As this karma begins to ripen, we then begin to accelerate our transition into this new world because it is easier to assent to the pure world if we are experiencing it as our living reality.  We create virtuous feedback loops which gradually transport us or move us to the pure land.  Eventually, we come to abide in the pure land at all times. 

Then, we help others do the same!

Emptiness and responsibility, part 4

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, Ultimate stages of the path

In this final post of this series, I will try explain how I practice in the meditation break what I consider to be the most profound part of emptiness, namely how all phenomena are by nature mind.

First, what does it mean to say that all phenomena are mere karmic appearances “of mind”?  “Of mind” means that the conventional nature of all phenomena is mind.  The term “by nature” in a Dharma context roughly means “made of”, or “substance.”  In other words, all conventional objects are “made of” or are comprised of the “substance” of mind.  The nature of a gold coin is the gold, and its aspect is that of a coin.  In the final view of emptiness, we go one step further saying that objects are not just by nature mind, they are by nature our very subtle mind of great bliss.  It even goes one step further, by saying the ultimate nature of all objects is the emptiness of our very subtle mind of great bliss.  The emptiness of our very subtle mind of great bliss is like the gold of the gold coin of all phenomena.  Put in other terms, the emtpiness of our very subtle mind of great bliss is like the Play Dough that gets shaped in the apsect of each and every object.  Just as you cannot separate the coin from the gold or the object from its underlying Play Dough, so too you cannot separate any object from its ultimate nature of the emptiness of our mind of great bliss. 

So how do I practice this knowledge in the meditation break?  First, I try train myself where I remember this wisdom every time I look at an object.  For example, I know with certainty that the World Trade Center is no longer in New York.  So when I see an old picture of the NYC skyline, the mere appearance of the World Trade Center buildings instantly reminds me that they are no longer there.  In the same way, I know for certain (intellectually at least) that all phenomena are nothing other than mere karmic appearances of mind, so the very appearance of any object “actually being there” reminds me that in reality nothing is actually there and it is just the emptiness of my very subtle mind assuming the form of (disguised as) the object.  Like any subject, the more I remind myself of the meaning of emptiness, the more familiar I become with this wisdom, and the more deeply I undestand and the more easily I remember it in a virtuous cycle. 

The second way I practice this is I try stop thinking of myself as somehow separate from everything, but rather to consider Ryan as merely a single wave on the ocean of my the emptiness of my very subtle mind of great bliss.  We naturally identify with our mind.  If we see all of reality as being by nature our mind, we start to identify ourselves as being the nature of everything.  Put another way, we see the entire universe as being by nature us.  I cease to be just Ryan and instead I feel as if I am the ocean of everything.  Every single phenomena is a wave on the ocean of my mind.  Samsara is my mind in the aspect of a turbulant, uncontrolled stormy ocean.  The pure land of my self-generation practice is my mind in the aspect of Keajra (Heruka’s pure land).  This is why it is called a “yoga” of self-generation.  In normal yoga, we put our body in certain positions (sometimes strange and uncomfortable positions) and then hold that positition and learn to relax into it.  In the same way, in our self-generation practice, we put all of our mind into the “mental position” or shape of Keajra, and then hold that position and learn to relax into it.    By adopting this ocean view, the duality between ourselves and all phenomena falls away and we experience reality as if all phenomena were inseparably one (and this oneness is ourselves).

On the basis of this experience, all of the vast path of Sutra comes effortlessly.  In says in the Lamrim texts that bodhichitta, or the wish to become a Buddha so as to lead all beings to freedom, is the quintessential butter that comes from churning all of the Dharma.  When I see all phenomena, which includes all other living beings, as waves on the ocean of my very subtle mind, each and every being becomes an aspect or a part or a limb of me.  This doesn’t mean all beings are parts of Ryan, rather it means Ryan is just one aspect or part or limb or wave of the bigger me which is the ocean of my mind.  The same is then true of all other beings – each is a wave, but we are all by nature the same ocean.  There is nothing about the Ryan wave that is more important than any other wave.  So just as I strongly wish for the Ryan wave to never again experience suffering and to attain enlightenment, so too I naturally wish for every other wave to attain the same state.  If all of my body were in acid, but my nose was not, my nose would not be satisfied with this!  I would want all of myself to be free.  Bodhichitta becomes not some distant mind, but it becomes an issue of simple complete self-preservation.  If I am no longer just Ryan, but am instead the ocean of all living beings, since I naturally wish for myself to be free, if I am all living beings then wishing for my true self to be completely free is the same thing as wishing all beings were free, and vice versa.  I naturally then feel a feeling of deep and natural responsibility for the welfare and freedom of everyone. 

This post is already too long, but I will just throw out one last way in which I try practice this.  The practice of pure view is a mental ‘yoga.’  I put my mind in the mental position or shape of viewing myself and all beings as being already Buddhas in the pure land and then I engage in the mental action of believing this to be true.  This mental action actually functions to re-shape the Play Dough of my mind into this new aspect.  Each time I engage in this action, I plant the karma on my mind which when it ripens causes the ocean of my mind to take on the form or aspect of the pure land.  With enough training and enough familiarity, the shape of my mind is gradually transformed from samsara into the pure land.  Both are the same nature of the emptiness of my very subtle mind of great bliss (equality of samsara and nirvana), but one is by nature suffering and the other is by nature great bliss.  Bliss is better!  🙂

Emptiness and responsibility, part 3

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, Ultimate stages of the path

In the first post of this series we looked at how emptiness can be understood as all phenomena are mere karmic appearances of mind, which is broken down into three parts, “mere appearance,” “karmic appearance,” and “of mind.”  In the last post we looked at how to actually practice “mere appearance” in our daily life, in this post we will look at “karmic appearance” and in the final post of the series we will examine “of mind.”

“Karmic appearance” shows the relationship between our actions and what appears to our mind.  Every action we engage in plants a seed on our mind which when it ripens takes the form of a certain appearance.  For example, if I yell at somebody, I create the karma for the appearance of somebody yelling at me in the future.  I also create the karma for the appearance of a rebirth that is of the same nature as the action I created, in this case a hot anger ripens as the appearances of a rebirth in a hot hell.  Likewise, if I engage in the action of being a good father, I create the karma to have the appearance of a good father for myself in a future life and, since it is virtuous, I create the cause for an upper rebirth.

If we understand this deeply, we realize that the world we inhabit is a creation of our own karmic actions.  The lower realms are the karmic appearances/creation of negative actions, the upper realms are the karmic appearances/creation of virtuous actions, and the pure lands are the karmic appearances/creation of pure actions.  One of my teachers always used to say, “if you don’t like your karma, change it.”  In the same way, if you don’t like your (karmically appearing) world, change it!  How?  By changing your actions.  We need to karmically create our pure land through engaging in pure actions.  If our world is anything other than a pure land, we have only our own past impure actions to blame.  It’s our karmic dream, it is coming from our mind, and ultimately from our actions, therefore we are responsible for all of it.

If we understand that everything that appears to our mind is part of our karmic creation, we will realize that we have a responsibility for everything that appears since our mind/actions created it all.  This is how we avoid the extreme of apathy or indifference that can sometimes come from thinking that nothing is really happening to anyone.  We have created a world of suffering that, while by nature is a dream, the people of the world believe to be real, and therefore they experience pain.  When we look at the wars, famine and disease in the world and realize we are ultimately responsible for all of, a very powerful bodhichitta wishing to clean up the karmic mess we have created for others will arise in our mind.
So how do we “karmically create” our new, pure world?  We harness the power of karma to our advantage.  If I give a flower to somebody, I create the cause for somebody else to give a flower to me in the future.  But when that being of my dream gives me a flower, they also plant on their mind the tendency similar to the cause to give more flowers to others in the future.  So they then give other flowers, create more good karma for themselves, which continues to ripple through the dream like a wave.  If I keep pumping out virtuous and pure actions, others in the future will continue to pump out virtuous and pure actions themselves until eventually everybody in my dream is always pumping out virtuous and pure actions.  The karmic result of engaging in virtuous and pure actions is to inhabit virtuous and pure lands.
In other words, if from this point forward I choose to only engage in virtuous and pure actions and I have the mental persistence to continue with this course of action for as long as it takes, it is a karmic inevitability that I will transform this world of suffering in which I have condemned all beings to misery into a completely pure world of bliss in which I have freed all beings forever.
Venerable Tharchin says, “when we understand how the Dharma actually works, generating effort becomes effortless.”  If we understand the relationship between karma and appearance we will understand the inner mechanism of reality and realize directly how to change it.  We know it can be done and we know how to do it and we know nothing can stop us.  This gives us an indestructible confidence and purpose that we then carry with us in all of our daily actions until we have attained the final goal!

Emptiness and responsibility, part 2

Kadampa Ryan 3. Tantra, 4. Practicing in Daily Life, Ultimate stages of the path

In the last post, we looked at what is the meaning of emptiness, namely all phenomena are mere karmic appearances of mind.  In the next three posts, I will try explain how I use this understanding practically as a solution to daily problems.  There are three main parts to the meaning “mere karmic appearance of mind”, namely “mere appearance”, “karmic appearance” and “of mind.”  Each one of these has its own main daily practices, which will be explained over the next three posts, but they all have as a common denominator to assume responsibility for everything and everyone.

First “mere appearance.”  Again, the meaning here is that all things are only (mere) appearances to mind, like dreams or mental holograms, and there is nothing other than these mere appearances.  So how do we practice this? 

The first distinction I make is between the appearance of a thing and my opinion of a thing.  One can argue (wrongly, in the end) that the appearance of something does not depend upon our mind – the thing is just there regardless or independently of my mind – but everyone would agree that our opinion of what appears is entirely dependent upon our mind.  As Hamlet says, “things re neither good nor bad, but thinking makes them so.”  Some people like Obama, others don’t, which shows different people can have different opinions of the same thing.  So our opinions of things are entirely created by our mind, therefore we are entirely responsibile for them.  We can have a good, bad or useful opinion of things.  It is true, from a worldly conventional perspective, getting cancer is bad and getting a rewarding job is good.  Of course they are not inherently so, but everyone more or less agrees about this.  But it is also entirely besides the point.  Everything can ge “good” for us if we change our outlook to be what is useful for our spiritual training.  This is a choice of mind, a choice to change our opinion of things by looking at them through a new optic of what is useful.  We don’t have to deny the conventional good and bad (though sometimes that is necessary too), it suffices to realize good and bad don’t matter, what is important is what is useful.  When cancer strikes, of course from a normal conventional perspective it is bad, but our experience of the cancer depends entirely on our opinion of it, which in turns depends entirely upon our mind – how we choose to relate to it.  If we choose to ask the question, “how can I use this for my spiritual training?”, then we will find ways in which the cancer is useful, and therefore welcome.  It will still be painful, no doubt, but through choice of mind, we can make that pain useful.  The pleasant and unpleasant experiences of our life are fleeting, but the mental habits and karma we create for ourself endure life after life.  Seeing that our mental habits and karma are more important, we are able to remain (more or less) happy in mind even through the most awful of things, cancer.  The same approach can be taken with whatever happens to us in life. 

Another powerful practice we can do with “mere appearance” is the power of “it doesn’t matter.”  We are all way too serious about everything.  We are all “drama queens” about pretty much everything.  Everything is so heavy and dramatic.  We make a big deal about whatever happens, and as a result we create all sorts of problems for ourself.  When we understand everything is just mental phantasamgora, a mental light show, we are able to take a step back like we are watching a movie.  If something terrible happens in a movie, of course it is bad in the movie, but ultimately it does not matter since it is just light being projected onto a screen – nothing is really happening.  In the same way, all of reality is just our mental movie being projected onto the screen of our very subtle mind.  Something terrible may happen in our movie, but ultimately it does not matter since it is just mere appearance – nothing is really happening.  We can still appreciate the good movies and laugh at the really bad ones, but we don’t get wrapped up in them or swept away by them.  We are able to let go, maintain some perspective and distance, and feel safe in our seat no matter what happens to appear.  So no matter what happens, I just keep repeating to myself like a mantra, “it doesn’t matter.”  I am able to let go.  This does not mean we become indifferent or apathetic towards what appears (we will talk more about this when we get to “karmic appearance”), but it does allow us to cut the drama.

So during the meditation break, I try focus on these two practices:  viewing things through the lens of what is ‘useful’ (instead of good and bad), and realizing how whatever happens is just a mental movie I am watching, and so ultimately ‘it doesn’t matter.’  Through these, we can assume full responsibility for our own experience of whatever happens to us and stop blaming others or external things.