The Workshop is in the Mind

Something To Think About Series #317

Thought of the day from Venerable Robina Courtin

Venerable Robina is known for her clarity in presenting Buddhist concepts in a straightforward, no-nonsense and compassionate way, and will teach on the topic of dependent origination and emptiness.

Lama Tsongkhapa writes lyrically about Lord Buddha's teachings on dependent arising – the "king of logics" to prove emptiness, as Lama Yeshe puts it. With this perfect view, Je Rinpoche says, we can never "fall into the abyss of the great mistake" of nihilism, one of the commonest misconceptions about emptiness.

Over two sessions, we will investigate how in his gradual path literature he skillfully leads us to the eradication of ego-grasping, the primordial assumption of a fear-driven, bereft, separate self, which simply doesn't exist. We start by applying the law of karma – an example of the first level of dependent arising: cause and effect -which gradually counteracts our pervasive feelings of hopelessness and self-pity, causing us to realize that we are the source of our own happiness and suffering.

Next, we get to the root of the problem by becoming our own therapists: delving deep into our mind and identifying our delusions – attachment, aversion, jealousy and the rest – and recognizing that they are fabrications rooted in ego-grasping.

Now, combining our practice with Bodhicitta, we are equipped to understand the subtler levels of dependent arising and to use this logic to uproot ego-grasping itself.

Summary of the teaching - The teachings in the first and second scopes of the Lamrim.

The first one, Karma is the implicit teaching that we really start to get, it's a brilliant example of dependent arising, so it can help us loosen the grip of ego already.

Second, when we get to the middle scope we start studying the mind, how these neuroses, delusions, afflictions, are these conceptual states of mind that distort and exaggerate the status of things; we start to understand emptiness and dependent arising, and how ego grasping is the root misconception.

Attachment exaggerates the deliciousness of the cake, aversion exaggerates the ugliness of the cake (after five pieces), and they are both (and all the delusions are) rooted in the deepest assumption, which is ignorance, that imposes upon the delicious cake, intrinsic, inherent delicious cake. Ignorance exaggerates the very ontological status of the delicious cake itself. That's underneath the other delusions, and that's why it's much harder to unpack it.

So start with the body and speech, control your body and speech, then begin to control the branch delusions, and now we begin (plus with Bodhichitta) to be prepared to get to the root delusion, to uproot that by realising emptiness and getting the hell out of Samsara and becoming a Buddha.

Questions about - eons of practice, defining sentient beings, subtle impermanence not being emptiness, and is ego grasping purely a human form of suffering?

Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity, North Island, New Zealand, 10th-11th May 2025.

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