41 Merely Labelled By The Mind 29-Apr-2004

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leads a meditation on the Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha. He discusses how phenomena are like an illusion: they don’t exist in the way they appear. Afterwards, he invites a debate on how the I exists by asking, “When you label I, does it exist on the phenomenon on which you label I, or does it exist on the phenomenon on which you don’t label I?” He highlights that you can’t find the I on the aggregates. As another example of the object to be refuted, Rinpoche discusses how a table appears to be real, but when you look for it, you can’t find it. He says that Ling Rinpoche introduced the object to be refuted as when you see the base and the label as undifferentiable.
Rinpoche says that of all the reasonings to analyze whether something exists or not, dependent arising is the king of logics. He says it’s the shortest one and is very simple but powerful. When you think of how the I is a dependent arising, then it proves the object of ignorance (that which apprehends that the I is truly existent), so it destroys that. The I exists, but it doesn’t have true existence, because the I is a dependent arising. It’s not nonexistent, but it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind.
Rinpoche gives several examples of ways to meditate on emptiness, including the example of how President Bush exists (which he used in the early Kopan courses). Through analysis, we can see that Bush is merely labeled by the mind; it only exists because there’s a valid base.
Rinpoche explains how the senses contact the object, the base, then right after that the mind imputes and makes up the label. The next second, it appears from the base as real, not merely labeled by the mind. So, that’s how all the appearances we have are false. Everything is empty of existing from its own side.
Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at fpmt.org/