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Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche teaches through verse, pointing out the essence of a teaching.  Enjoy the quotes.

 

Empty-Appearances

KTGR looking outKhenpo Tsültrim
Gyamtso Rinpoche

 

Quote of the Week

May 3, 2013 

 

 

Empty-Appearances

When we say that things are empty-appearances, we say they are like dreams, illusions, the moon reflected in water, and rainbows. All of those are examples. What do they illustrate? The appearances of this life.

The appearances of this lifetime--our experiences, sensations, feelings, and perceptions--are not permanent in the sense of being unchanging and eternal. While they are not truly existent, they are not utterly nonexistent.  

Avoiding those two extremes, they are mere appearances that come about through the interdependent relationship of many causes and conditions. That is what empty-appearances signifies.

 

Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Public Talk #1 (unpublished transcript), June 24, 2001, Karmê Chöling, p. 10.  

Translated by Ari Goldfield (edited for the Weekly Quote).