The root of enlightenment is the development of Bodhicitta. You begin with emotional compassion towards sentient beings by knowing their sufferings. Later, when you know the cause of suffering, your compassion will change into wisdom-compassion, which means non-emotional compassion.

The cause of suffering is the ignorance in the minds of sentient beings. Although ignorance creates suffering, it does not really exist. It is an illusion. The knowing of this reality about ignorance can remove it – just like darkness is eliminated when there is light. Because darkness itself does not exist, it is removable. You could not push darkness away either. But as soon as the sun is out, darkness is gone. The development of wisdom within your mind is like the rising sun— in its presence, ignorance disappears.

Examine an emotion

Suffering is an illusion. You feel compassion for the beings who suffer, but there is no reason for you to become emotional yourself. Because suffering does not exist, it can be removed. Even your emotions do not really exist. You may not be able to actually experience other people’s emotions, but you can certainly experience your own. Your emotions need no introduction, as you already know them. In fact, you can examine them in a thorough way.

When you experience an emotion, find out how it exists. You can research it by your mind because it is fresh and within you, and you experience it. See whether the emotion is in your skin, or in your bones, or in your blood. In which part of your body is it located? When you look, you will not find the emotion anywhere. By the time you decide to have a good look at it, the emotion is already lost. So where did it go? Is it hiding somewhere in one corner of your body? Where is the emotion? When you examine both negative and positive emotions in this way, you will not find them as having any real existence.

When somebody makes you angry, is that anger coming from a place inside him to you? Or is the anger inside you? Examine it. Did he throw the anger at you? Check it! Or is your anger like a light that can be switched on? If so, where is the switch? Analyze and examine every part of your mind relative to the anger that is there. Rummage through all parts of yourself to see if the emotion really exists somewhere in you, or not. What caused your anger? Is the anger caused by somebody, if so, how?

You can examine an emotion with the kind of precision I have just described. Every emotion can become an object of your mental examination. None of the emotions truly exist. Instead, what you will find is just emptiness – the emptiness of anger and the emptiness of every emotion. This is the way to develop the wisdom in your mind by means of your emotions.

An emotion is easy to examine, but so is a non-emotional thought – neither exists. The reality of all thoughts is non-existence, yet superficially, they appear clearly like a mirage. Depression, anxiety, all thoughts and emotions are like waves of the mind. When the wave comes, you feel it. When it has subsided, you don’t experience it.

The wave or thought is from your mind; this is why you can experience it. When it is there, examine it, and you will find nothing. Don’t try to find it in a deliberate or aggressive way, as if you have to find it. That would be too emotional and extreme. You look, and finding nothing, you keep that awareness. This is how you maintain an analytical, and accurate view of mind.

It makes no difference whether the mental happening is positive, or negative. What makes you happy should be examined. What makes you sad or cry, should also be examined. Finding nothing, you might feel at a lost, and that feeling should also be examined. In other words, examine anything and everything. You will find nothing. Keep that view, and you will have a fresh experience of the real nature, or the pure part of your mind. When you do, you will also see that the minds of others are the same. All suffering are just waves of the mind, having no true existence. They are like reflections, reflections from a crystal, mirages, or dreams – none of them exist solidly in the least.

Rinpoche (to the general audience):

"What is happening in your mind right now?
Are you realizing something now?
Or are you feeling surprised?
Can one of you tell me what is on your mind now"

Answer from the audience:
"Joy."

Rinpoche:"Joy is also to be examined. Everything should be examined."

(Q): With all this analyzing of emotions, you always look for something physical – whether it has a form or whether it can be felt. And in the end, you conclude that it doesn’t exist because I cannot touch it, etc. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t exist at all. It could exist in a way that I cannot touch.

(A): This has to do with theory, and for now, we are not talking about theory. Whatever it is that is happening to you, whatever it is that you experience, your emotion, or your thought, examine it. You don’t have to go into the theory of it. Follow the fresh experience. Just check it. See what is there.

(Q): Sometimes when you are afraid, you cannot react, or act. Even if theoretically, I know it is just an expression of my mind, but in that moment, I cannot analyze it.

(A): Fear is also just a thought. Does it appear as a monster? No. It is one kind of mind – your mind, so you can examine it.

If it is like a tiger, one that is about to eat you, or a ghost that is frightening you, then of course, you have to run away and there is no time to focus on it.

But your feeling afraid is different because you are not in a dangerous life-threatening situation. Why don’t you use your fear for meditation then? It is easy – the greater the fear, the easier it is to focus on it. It is your own mind, so you can think about it.

(Q): But it frightens me even more because I don’t know what’s behind it.

(A): If someone were standing in front of you about to shoot you, then you’d run away rather than be shot. There is a difference between this scenario and your case of being afraid.

In your case, nothing is happening to you, except for the illusion of fear in your mind. That fear is your own creation, so use it and focus on it.

Your habit of thinking fear, is a very strong sensation. Therefore, in the beginning, when you try to focus on it, you might think or feel that you are not able to work with it. But after trying a few times, you will be able to do it. There is nothing there! The size of your fear is much smaller than the size of your nose.

This is actually an analytical way to see the nature of mind, which is part of the Mahamudra practice. Try to practice it from time to time. The main practice is Shi’nay, but also do this kind of analysis sometimes.

I now repeat the Shi’nay points, which I taught yesterday. Then, we will do Shi’nay meditation together.

• You can sit either in the cross-legged posture, or in the half-crossed posture, or on a chair, or in the Zen meditation posture, any one of them is fine.
  
  
• In the cross-legged posture, then the right hand is in the left hand, and they rest on the ankle of your left foot, which is facing up.
  
  
• The back should be straight.
  
  
• The shoulders are up.
  
  
• The arms are slightly stretched.
  
  
• The neck is bent down a little.
  
  
• Your eyes look along your nose to the ground. The eyes are not looking at your lap but along the line from the tip of your nose towards the ground.
  
  
• Press the air in the stomach down and keep it in the abdomen below the navel, so that the stomach is kept in.
  
  
• Exhale and inhale. Visualize the breath that leaves your nose as a beam of crystal light, and focus on that.
  
  
• It goes out, one end almost touching the ground and the other end coming out of your nose. When you inhale, one end almost touches your navel and the upper end is just inside your nose.
  
  
• Focus on the breath you are visualizing, and keep mentally aware.