Lama Zopa Rinpoche takes us through a meditation on emptiness. He explains how everything appears inherently existent but is merely labelled by the mind and doesn’t have even an atom of true existence from its own side. Using various examples (the self, the five aggregates, actions, objects, phenomena, forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, colors, samsara, nirvana, lower realms, upper realms), he explains how they are all merely imputed by the mind. Nothing exists inherently. In emptiness, even emptiness itself doesn’t exist. Even the mind that is imputing the phenomena is also merely imputed by the thought. From beginningless rebirth we have been believing all these appearances as reality, so we have been following the wrong concept. We have been living life in hallucination, which is why we haven’t achieved liberation from samsara.

Rinpoche urges us to put the teachings on emptiness that we’ve heard into our daily life view, our view of the sense of the eye, ear, nose, tongue. In this way, it becomes a meditation for twenty-four hours. The point is not only meditating during the sitting meditation but also connecting it to our daily life. Rinpoche says that extensive studies and meditation on emptiness are insufficient; we need something to transform the rest of our daily life, so we need to meditate on emptiness while working during our busy life.

The minute you allow your mind to believe that the objects around you are true, it becomes the basis for attachment, anger, and all other delusions to arise. This creates the cause of samsara. The minute you practice mindfulness that these are hallucinations, you liberate yourself from the oceans of samsaric suffering, delusion, and karma.

Rinpoche advises that practicing mindfulness of emptiness is essential, especially during this retreat. He likens the retreat to army training, except here you are training to defeat your delusions, which have been harming, controlling, and torturing you from time without beginning. So, if we practice mindfulness of emptiness during the session, break time, going out, in the room, outside, walking, eating, then that becomes a real retreat, a very powerful retreat.

From April 10 to May 10, 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extensive teachings during the Mahamudra Retreat at Buddha House in Australia. While the retreat focused on Mahamudra, Rinpoche also taught on a wide range of Lamrim topics. This retreat marked the beginning of a series of month-long retreats in Australia. Subsequent retreats were held in 2011, 2014, and 2018, hosted by the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo.

Find out more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his teachings and projects at https://fpmt.org/