07/15/2025
All phenomena in this world solely arise due to the process of dependent origination. Everything that we perceive as a positive and good or everything that's painful, negative and difficult in our lives is dependently originated.
And therefore if we can understand how the good arises—positive conditions come together and yield a result in a conducive way—we can see that everything exists in mutual dependence, everything relies on other things even for its very identity.
And based on that kind of fundamental interdependence, we can see all the development and progress we see in the world is solely the result of conducive conditions being brought together in a particular way.
The right causes with the right conditions. Also it is only through conducive circumstances that our struggles and obstacles will be cleared away.
Everything is interdependence and the infinite play of cause and effect unfolds in these different subtle and coarse dimensions of interdependence. And it is only on the very subtle level, through subtle interdependence that we can come to understand that inner freedom or liberation is actually possible.
Through subtle interdependence, we can also understand the preciousness and value of bodhicitta. Recognising all phenomena in nature and their true underlying nature comes through a growing understanding of subtle interdependence. The possibility that suffering itself can be completely exhausted, completely dissolved is also a factor of understanding subtle interdependence.
This is equivalent to understanding suchness or the underlying nature of reality. If we can come to understand that, our mind can become very, very vast and open.
The more we understand interdependence the more gracefully we'll be able to accept the challenges that we face in life. Qualities like faith and trust, like joy in our mind, like an uplifted wholesome mind will also flourish all the way to the supreme mind state of bodhicitta. All of this comes from an understanding of interdependence.
However in our mind the way we ordinarily think and relate is very much to identify with ourself and be sort of caught up in our own world, our own perceptions, my body, me, I am, I exist. We're caught up in those perspectives.
However if we just explore our own body, what is this body?
It's just a result of basic coming together of our mother and father, our education that we have, whatever education we've received is that it comes from the kindness of our teachers.
All the things that we rely on to survive, the food, the nourishment, the clothes, the money, everything we have actually comes from others. All of it comes from others. It relies on others. It was given to us by others. And therefore the urge of kindness, the urge to consider others' kindness is based on solid reasoning.
So also the difficult conditions in the world, the struggles and the rough things that we experience and see, all of the hordes of negative thoughts that can come, throngs of negative thoughts. If we can understand a little bit about the way things appear and the way they truly are underneath, then this will benefit us tremendously in not reacting with anger to those negative conditions.
And suddenly so many skillful means open up to us. Patience, compassion, an elevated wholesome inspired mind opens up.
If we can understand the true nature of subtle impermanence, the true nature of suffering, then we can start to engage in the six paramitas, the six perfections. Then whatever difficult conditions there are, we can understand also that liberation and omniscience are still possible. The way these come about is through a very wholesome mind and a very honest mind.
We all want to be good. We all want to cultivate the altruistic mind, the bodhicitta and we want to practice. But without insight and wisdom then this can stay like an empty hope, just mere empty words. It's like we're just delighting in that possibility. We're inspired but actually deep within our mind the true honesty and subtle wisdom necessary to bring that forth may not occur.
Why is that?
It's because deep within our mind we have this habit of concretizing, of fixating, clinging onto the sense of self in a very tight way, giving it more reality and truth than it naturally has. That's what actually harms us, our own concretizing this sense of self.
But if we understand interdependence, if we understand that all things are just this manifestation of interdependence and that inherent in anything is its own falling apart and its own change is part of its nature and that nothing is really certain, therefore we can’t be really sure about anything.
If we come to understand that, then we can finally see the fault in clinging and concretizing to our sense of self in that tight certain way. And when we can see that, then we can walk the path towards a very open flexible spacious frame of mind opens to us.
Complete teaching video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJI-iIDF8uo
