In love with the world - 9. Emptiness, not nothingness

Contributors

Carlo, Carles

Key points of chapter 8

• Notice that obstacles are not what Rinpoche expected (shyness, oddness)
• Trying to fix sensations
• Stress to get in the taxi, but once in, it run too fast
• Stress to get in the train, but once in it was too crowded and disconformable
• Sitting in the station, but he became too anxious
• The problem is trying to fix looking outside instead of turning look inside
• At every step Rinpoche is in between something (monastery and taxi, the road, in the station, in the train..), so actually we are always in between
• It is necessary to drop the fear of failure, in order to go thru the experiences
• Rinpoche thing he "is working on it", adding wood to the fire
• Use of body scan, to settle mind when sitting in the station
• Realize he is maybe odd, as he was too clean and well dressed compared to the other low class travellers

Summary

1. Mind the gap, 6 floor department store:

• Hell realm: Steam Pipes, Pistons no exit signs.
• God realm: Pink Marble Floors, nice plants, luxurious.
• In between: escalator and stairs represent the gap where we can decide and change direction, up or down.

2. Natural State of mind: Mind appears as a sky with clouds, When gaps appear between the clouds and the sun can shine through è this is the natural state of the mind

American lady story: we tend to forget naked awareness, naked awareness provided us a taste of freedom, wakefulness which was with him in the Gaya Station and in former god realms.

3. Mingyur Rinpoche takes a step back è  no playing superman, books himself a room, too much effort to sustain a picture

4. Nagasena story: He says he is not his hair, blood, intestines, excrement etc. but a designation => Quote: (p.79) „The monk now asked the King how he had arrived at his spot(…)“ Is [the chariot] the axel, the hub, or the reins? The King replies the chariot is just a denotation for something, Nagasena agrees. Mingyur Rinpoche is not his robes, meditations, titles etc. either 

Ultimately there is no person to be found at all.

5. Emptiness: empty minds, empty bodies, empty emotions but not nothingness.  If we allow to let come empty waves of feelings and invite them, we have empty water being poured into the empty ocean è No problem.

Mingyur Rinpoche criticize we say our dreams are not real but we say our emotions and afflictions are real. We should all relate differently and then there would be no problem with our emotions. If we watch the emotion, it dissolves into emptiness

6. „Dukkha“ To realize that everything is change we just have to look at the circumstances, which are always changing. If we don’t see it, we suffer.  In a different chapter he refers to the Buddha explaining we have to accept that everything is impermanent, if we mistake impermanence for permanence, this causes „Dukkha“

-we learn this lesson again and again

7. Nubri-Mingyur Rinpoche-ca—coo story: Broken branch, playing in the grove è book! grandmother, trust for the branch, broken phone

Question

How is it we say our dreams are not real, and we have so difficult to do the same with our emotions?

Meditation

Emptiness