Polynomial

This explanation of “Karma, Interdependence and Emptiness” by the previous Kalu Rinpoche precedes the coming blog about the negation of my ‘self’. I feel it pertinently and precisely points out several very important concepts that need to be addressed before one can look at why the idea of a ‘self’ might actually be a delusion of conceptualisation.

Karma, Interdependence and Emptiness

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Within the concept of karma, there is no notion of destiny or fatalism; we only reap what we sow. We experience the results of our own actions. The notion of karma is closely connected with that of dependent arising, or tendrel in Tibetan. The chain of karma is also the interaction of tendrel, or interdependent factors whose causes and results mutually give rise to one another.

The Tibetan word tendrel means interaction, interconnection, interrelation, interdependence, or interdependent factors. All things, all our experiences, are tendrel, which is to say that they are events that exist because of the relationship between interrelated factors. This idea is essential to the understanding of Dharma in general and, in particular, how the mind transmigrates in cyclic existence.

To understand what tendrel or dependent arising is, let’s take an example. When you hear the sound of a bell, ask yourself, “What make the sound?” Is it the body of the bell, the clapper, the hand that moves the bell to and fro, or the ears that hear the sound? None of these elements alone produces the sound; it results from the interaction of all these factors. All the elements are necessary for the sound of a bell to be perceived, and they are necessary not in succession, but simultaneously. The sound is an event whose existence depends on the interaction of those elements; that is tendrel.

Similarly, all conditioned lives, all samsaric phenomena, result from a multiplicity of interactions which belong to the twelve links of dependent origination. These twelve factors give rise to each other mutually. It is not that each factor causes the one that occurs next in time; as with the bell example, they are simultaneous, coexistent. It is necessary that the twelve factors be present at the same moment in order to produce a conditioned existence. The bondage of causes and results of these interdependent factors that generate illusion is the action of samsara. Everything within samsara is karmically conditioned interrelationship; all our experiences are tendrel. The truth of appearances created by the bondage of dependent arisings is conventional or dualistic truth. This is how we ordinarily live. It is ruled by karma. The empty nature of what exists at the relative level is what we call ultimate truth. Truly understanding dependent arising allows us to go beyond the conditioning of the relative or conventional level and to attain the peace and freedom of unconditionality. When you completely understand dependent arising, you also understand emptiness. And that is freedom.

Therefore wisdom, or knowledge, is not fundamentally separate from illusion. That is why it is often said that samsara and nirvana are not different and that a form of wisdom is latent in ignorance. Logic and reasoning ultimately lead to such statements, which appear to be contradictory and illogical. Logic and reasoning can go on ad infinitum. They are part of the samsaric process and ultimately lead to contradictions. Even so, since they are tools that can bring about realisation of the truth, they are useful and should not be rejected, even if they are eventually released at the time of realising emptiness.

But be careful. The correct understanding of emptiness is in no way nihilistic. If we decide that everything is empty and without reality, that the state of buddhahood has no real existence, that karmic causality is empty, and that therefore there is no reason to bother, this would be a nihilistic view, even worse than the view that takes relative things to be truly existent. Nihilistic conceptions are a more serious mistake than the realist conceptions that take phenomena to exist as they appear.

The correct understanding of emptiness lies between the two extremes of eternalism (believing things to be inherently or truly existent) and nihilism (believing them not to exist at all). This middle way view eliminates wrong ideas and ultimately allows us to go beyond conceptualised notions about reality. But beware: to conceive of emptiness closes the door to liberation.

The great lineage holder of Saraha said:

“To consider the world as real is a brutish attitude.
To consider it as empty is even more savage.”

And Nāgārjuna said:

“Those who conceive of emptiness are incurable.”

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by Kalu Rinpoche

To learn more about the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, please visit Karmapa’s website by clicking here.

And to find out where I sourced this quote from, please click here.