Travel Day 1065 – Kopan Monastery, NEPAL
It was already time for the second class at Kopan, but this time around it seemed to be a bit more intense since we had twice as much time and only half the amount of people in the class…
Kopan Monastery exists but it’s not there
The topic was basically the same as it had been in the first course, only that instead of just Dealing with Disturbing Emotions, we intended to go deeper and look at the base while Cutting the Root of Disturbing Emotions. Our overall schedule of the classes were exactly the same as before, only our study material was different and so we received a book about Virtue and Reality by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Eight Verses of Thought transformation by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa…
While the Eight Verses were an ancient Bodhichitta text, teaching us quite radically that we needed to look for the root of our problems inside ourselves instead of outside, the Virtue book on the other hand was more recently written by the head Lama of Kopan Monastery. And as we read the book parallel to the class, the topic seemed to narrow down more end more to the realization of the ultimate truth of things, emptiness…
Vitue and Reality, Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In order to fully cut the roof of disturbing emotions, we discussed that we would need method and wisdom combined while we were practicing the D-dharma. Through method we could attain the holy body of a Buddha and through wisdom we could attain an enlightened mind, free from ignorance, the true cause of suffering and all disturbing emotional thoughts. Method in this case would come from the loving compassion practiced in Bodhichitta while wisdom would come from the realization of the ultimate reality, the right view of emptiness…
Actually trying to understand the concept of emptiness ended up covering most of the teachings as it seemed to be a very essential, but at the same time extremely difficult concept to understand. As per the Buddhist definition all phenomena are empty, completely empty of existence. They do exist, but they don’t exist inherently, meaning they don’t exist from their own side. They only exist as a dependent arising…
This is a Non-Inherently existing Stupa
In fact nothing in this world exists inherently, which is also why everything is impermanent. If there would be any inherent existence, then everything would be stuck, unchanging and permanent. We would not even be able to move. Since this is clearly not the case, nothing exists inherently, meaning nothing exists for its own side, nothing exists from its own characteristics and nothing exists because it is not truly established…
It was somewhat easy to understand these concepts while looking at a rainbow, but when talking about a car, it was actually quite difficult: The car exists, but it is not there. It’s a non-inherently existent car that only exits because it has a valid base that is merely labeled. The car is a dependent arising and emptiness is the true nature of the car…
Find all Kopan Monastery 2013 Photos here.
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