Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Because things appear to us not as a dream but as real from their own side, which is how it
has been since beginningless time, realizing emptiness is vital. It is more important than any
job, than all the money in the world, than anything. To cut the root of suffering, ignorance,
and be free forever from the oceans of samsaric suffering, there is nothing more important
than realizing emptiness.
We need to cut the wrong belief that whatever object that appears to us is real, which is how
it appears. As I have said, in the first moment the I appears as merely imputed; in the second
it appears as real, as a real I; then, in the third moment, we believe that I to be real. That
wrong concept is the root of samsara.
This is true of every sentient being who has not realized emptiness. Hell beings are the same;
animals are the same; humans have better brains but they too are the same in this unless they
have realized emptiness. No matter whether it is a king, a president, a scientist or whoever,
everybody believes this I to be real, to be true.
Because we believe this I to be real, attachment to the I arises and, when somebody does
something undesirable, anger erupts. That wrong concept of a real I is the root of all
suffering—the suffering of rebirth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness and the
suffering of death. Having to become old comes from this; having to die without choice
comes from this. Cancer and AIDS come from this. It is the root of the suffering of change,
of all the temporary pleasures that never increase and never last.
Those two sufferings—the suffering of pain and the suffering of change—come from
pervasive compounding suffering. Because our aggregates are under the control of karma
and delusion they are pervaded by suffering and the contaminated seed of delusion. Because
there is a continuity of consciousness from past lives, our mindstream carries the imprints of
the karma we have created, which compounds this life’s and future lives’ suffering. Meeting
desirable and undesirable objects, attachment, anger and ignorance arise, which motivates
karma, which leaves an imprint on the mind, and then that produces future lives’ suffering.
So, pervasive compounding suffering, the foundation of those other two sufferings, comes
from this wrong concept of a real I.
Samsaric happiness can neither increase nor give us any real satisfaction, no matter how
much effort we put into it. The happiness of Dharma, on the other hand, lasts and increases,
and when we achieve enlightenment it is completed. Therefore, no matter how difficult it is,
Dharma practice is extremely worthwhile.
The twelve limbs
Of the twelve dependent related limbs 106 I have described the first one, ignorance. The second
is compounding action, which creates karma and leaves an imprint on the consciousness, the third
link. Sequentially, the others are name and form, six sense organs, contact, feeling, craving, grasping,
becoming, rebirth and aging and death.
Looking at the twelve dependent related limbs of this life, in a previous human life we
practiced the compounding action of virtuous deeds, such as morality and so forth, and just
before the end of our previous life, craving and grasping, the eighth and ninth limbs, arose,
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