26 - Q&A

B. Alan Wallace, 19 Jun 2019

Victoria

Today in the inquiry on the nature of mind, two things arose that seemed not consistent with emptiness. One was in relation to the translation that you just gave, it felt like the mind felt intentional, because there’s effort. And so that felt intentional, and therefore that feels like somewhat of an agent. And then the second and final one was that it felt like the mind, rather than the mind feeling like it didn’t exist, it felt like the mind would arise or come into being based on conditions, such as waking, being aware, contact with an object.

Mark

I have a very basic, simple question. I wondered for a long time, and you referenced Shantideva in the teachings this week. You also referenced beings that were adept and academic, and the balance of the two. Shantideva is a bit of an enigma, to me anyway. How did he fit into this question? There isn’t very much known about him I think, but I know you and your wife wrote a translation. My question is where does he fall in the equation of adepts and academics?

Alex

I was wondering about something you spoke about earlier, the 12 links of dependent origination, and also in a more Mahayana context the idea of dependent arising. And I’ve read that the cause or origin of suffering is understood differently in the context of the Theravada and in the Mahayana, and I’m wondering if you might speak about, is there some explanation there in these sort of philosophical or conceptual explanations, could you talk about that? Just very quickly I wanted to say that I’ve heard explanations that according to the explanation of the 12 links of dependent origination, the link or stage of vedana or feeling, of not being able to tolerate or sit with pleasant or unpleasant or neutral feelings, and then acting on that with craving, that that’s where the suffering arises.

Alberto

In Cittamatra if nothing exists out there independent of the observer, how can others influence me, or more specifically, are the teachings residing in my mind? I mean if everything is a product of my mind and arises out of my own consciousness…

Holly

Today you talked about you how were practicing, the children were playing, and you turned right in upon, so you’re going towards it, is one technique. But then was it yesterday or the day before? You said: “my dance card is full”, going right back to the nostrils. So my question is, when to turn towards it and when to say “my dance card is full”?

Lexie

I’d really like to know the question that you asked the Dalai Lama when you first met him.

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