Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
   

Quote of the Week
October 8, 2010


 

Samsara Does Not Truly Exist

If samsara actually existed, it would have to have a beginning,
an end, and some span of time in the middle. Analysis, however,
cannot find any beginning to samsara. Whatever our current
situation in samsara, it had to have its own causes, and those
causes had to have their own causes, and so on--nothing in the
cycle of existence occurs without causes to bring it into being.
We can therefore never find an ''original cause'' that would
constitute the beginning of cyclic existence, because if there
were one, it would have arisen without a cause itself, which is
impossible. Thus, there was no point when samsara began, and
how could something that never began ever end? Without a
beginning or an end, how could there be any period of time in
the middle? Since it has neither beginning, middle, nor end, samsara
does not truly exist.

     --From The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's
Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, p.72, translated by Ari Goldfield