Tue July 21st, 2026: Summer Mysticism Study Classes: 'Mula-Madhyamika Karika' By Swami Yogatmananda

[00:00:55]One meish.

[00:01:04]Fore send Shi Shanty, shanty, shanty.

[00:02:19]May my mind be firmly established in my speech.

[00:02:30]May my speech also be firmly established in the mind.

[00:02:38]May there be perfect correspondence between my thoughts, words and actions.

[00:02:52]May the selfgent truth manifest in me.

[00:03:06]Let the truths of scriptures come to me.

[00:03:17]Let me never forget whatever I learned from them and live my life day and night according to their teachings.

[00:03:39]I shall speak what is appropriate.

[00:03:45]I shall speak the truth.

[00:03:51]May that protect the teacher.

[00:03:54]May that protect me.

[00:03:58]Oh, peace.

[00:04:01]Peace.

[00:04:03]Peace.

[00:04:19]Let us feel the impermanence of all phenomena and the permanent of the absolute essence to help us in feeling this.

[00:04:54]Imagine that I am a wave amongst infinitely many waves on an infinite ocean.

[00:05:24]like all waves.

[00:05:35]I am born.

[00:05:43]A date is decided for my birth.

[00:05:52]I grow.

[00:05:58]I establish relations with all other waves.

[00:06:10]I give them names.

[00:06:14]Some become my parents.

[00:06:18]Some my siblings, some friends, colleagues, many friends, many enemies.

[00:06:48]Many unrelated.

[00:06:59]But all really do not have any existence of their own.

[00:07:19]continuously changing.

[00:07:35]The ocean is their essence.

[00:07:49]As a wave, I am always suffering and in perpetual fear.

[00:08:14]But as I give up the identity of the wave, all suffering is gone.

[00:08:38]Peace.

[00:08:41]Peace.

[00:08:43]Peace.

[00:09:01]So let us begin with the three. Buddhist traditional salutations.

[00:09:16]Please repeat.

[00:09:31]The seren I take refuge in the enlightened one.

[00:10:04]I take refuge in the teachings of the enlightened one.

[00:10:11]And I take refuge in the tradition of the enlightened one.

[00:10:20]Dear friends, we shall continue from where we had to leave because of the time constraint uh in on last Tuesday this discussion on Nagar's mad ka is a particular verse form that is called karika There are many types of karikas in Sanskrit and this is of course a great Sanskrit text originally and what we are actually using for our studies is a jarfield's translation uh from the Tibetan text rather than the Sanskrit text. So he has explained a little bit why did he choose the Tibetan text but uh it doesn't matter much uh the karikas are madame matyaka means concerning the middle path madhyama means middle and the middle path that is shown by Buddha. It is path. So path is uh one has to walk or drive or go on the path. Path is meant for that.

[00:12:03]Uh otherwise the path doesn't lead anywhere like the story I told long ago when the GPS and was was not there. We used to stop and ask at the gas station where is this road goes? So somebody asked that uh does this road go to New York?

[00:12:29]And the man at the gas station was a bit humorous. He said I have been working here for 25 years. Before that, my dad also lived here for many more years.

[00:12:45]None of us ever saw the road going anywhere. The road just remains here.

[00:12:51]Huh? But if you go on the road in this direction, uh then you will reach New York. So it is like that the path the middle path uh it helps us only if we walk on it. It is very important you know a very practical thing just by reading uh it doesn't help much unless it inspires us to act. So this is the path to be traversed strong and one part that we are taking up the discussing that part earlier was the uh four noble truths of Buddha.

[00:13:45]They uh it is the essence of what is called the Buddha Dharma. And uh this is the uh salutation mantra here that we see every time. And the translation I prostrate to the perfect Buddha.

[00:14:05]The best of teachers who taught that whatever is dependently risen is uh unseasing, unborn, unmanifested, not permanent.

[00:14:25]What happened?

[00:14:27]Uh yeah.

[00:14:31]Not coming, not going without distinction. Oh, why it is going? It is a loose connection here.

[00:14:43]So, and free from conceptual construct.

[00:14:49]So, it is Well, it appears and disappears like what we were discussing. Uh yeah, like all that we were discussing, it appears and disappears because of some connectivity either here or there, either of the ends.

[00:15:22]Okay. now.

[00:15:27]Okay, let's hope it stays.

[00:15:31]So, it is without identity and free from conceptual construction.

[00:15:42]It is the that is the teaching of Buddha that and that is to be understood very uh correctly and clearly.

[00:15:56]Uh it is the understanding is uh not easy because of our uh very strong feeling and attachment that this everything as I see is real permanent existing and therefore so many People get a big jolt when they see that it is not real.

[00:16:36]When something that uh really big jolt and they people had to take have to take treatment. Not that they get much help by it but still at least it is a psychological consolation that I am taking the treatment like when one goes to doctor you feel okay yeah I am taking under some treatment so you start feeling better.

[00:17:12]So it is uh because whatever I thought to be real for so long thought means it is thought is a very mild word that which I saw to be very much real. It was part of my life gone.

[00:17:35]Uh it is so many became you know kind of insane disoriented when uh the twin towers collapsed in New York. It was part of their life all the time they took that vista to be granted that it doesn't exist.

[00:18:04]What happened to it?

[00:18:06]It is exactly when the world vanishes.

[00:18:09]You know, Shankar Achara describes it.

[00:18:13]When somebody gets the knowledge, then it all vanishes and the person exclaims, "Oh, what happened to all this universe?

[00:18:28]I was just seeing it. I was that eye is gone. When the universe is gone, all gone.

[00:18:38]Where did it vanish?

[00:18:41]So that is how it vanished.

[00:18:45]So this vanishing of it is to be felt.

[00:18:52]And uh if not uh what we suffer by taking the unreal to be real we suffer.

[00:19:04]There is no escape unless we see that it is unreal. So that is the first noble truth to see that everything is all full of suffering.

[00:19:20]jump. Then the second is well there is a cause for it. Uh this seeing that which is not permanent as permanent instead of seeing it as a wave.

[00:19:38]Uh we see it as real something unchanging something. I am such and such.

[00:19:46]We are fond of making such assions.

[00:19:51]Uh I am such a and such personality. You don't know me. I am such and such.

[00:19:58]Earlier I used to feel also like that.

[00:20:02]Then I saw the hollowess of it that which is impermanent you hold it on to permanent. I am such and such. No, you are a wave. You don't have any uh you know real shape as such it changes.

[00:20:24]No real size, no real shape, no real qualities.

[00:20:29]You are changing all the time.

[00:20:33]So what you think that it is my nature?

[00:20:37]My nature is like that. There is no such thing at all.

[00:20:44]So but this is a misconception that we live with it and then thus we keep on getting blues after blues.

[00:20:58]Uh so and yet we find it difficult to give up that thought. So that is a conceptual construct. The reality is free from that. So to know that is the that cause of the suffering then there is the condition that is without suffering. The truth is there establishing in it. Yeah. But now how should I get that truth in my life?

[00:21:33]That is the fourth noble truth. That is there is a path that is this middle path and the discussion therefore uh is not a theoretical discussion uh although it appears in many scholars that is the you know speciality of scholars.

[00:21:56]scholars they discuss only they do not go to change their lives they uh they will map the path but they will not have to go on the path. So uh it is this book is not for that Nagarjuna lived a life of great achievement of Buddhahood.

[00:22:24]So that is described here. So we saw last time that what it is meant uh there was the uh opposition to this idea of emptiness.

[00:22:40]Uh that well if all this is empty then Buddha is also empty. Buddha's teachings four noble truths also are empty.

[00:22:50]Everything is empty. What you say is also empty.

[00:22:54]And it was the reply is continuing that it is and we told that it is that yes what is not real is about the pictures on the screen that there are the two truths that is spoken of and it is here that Nagarjunov speaks uh for the first time of the two realities.

[00:23:27]One is the phenomenal and another what can call it as a nominal. It is a nomina and phenomena. So uh it is [snorts] the reality that never came into existence. It never is going out of existence. And this phenomena uh so in Vanta Shankarajara calls it the paraparamaric and the conventional vavharic.

[00:24:03]Conventional is depends on the context and your understanding of the what is going on your particular space time awareness all that. So it is here it is evening uh in Australia it is morning.

[00:24:28]So depends on where you are with that that determines whether it is uh day or night. So it is whatever commonly we see say as truth they are conventional things.

[00:24:46]The absolute cannot be told.

[00:24:51]It is there is nothing to tell about it.

[00:24:54]One has no way of indicating it either.

[00:24:59]So therefore it is the absence of all this makes it manifest. Friends as we feel the absence of all phenomena the emptiness of the phenomena then the absolute the essence of all that comes up. Today we will be nagar juna is talking about that essence that it is uh we saw this last time uh no this is we didn't see now we are seeing going to see this uh for him to whom emptiness is clear everything becomes clear for him to whom emptiness is not clear nothing becomes clear.

[00:25:58]Yeah. Him includes her also. Yeah. Do not Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do not think that it is all uh so uh it is.

[00:26:12]So the knowledge of emptiness uh it is very important the Buddhas that realization under that bodhi tree what made him Buddha was that uh in Pali it is a shabam dukam it is all is suffering All is empty.

[00:26:52]All is empty of content.

[00:26:56]Uh there is no content to it of whatever we see.

[00:27:03]And then the last statement is nirvanam shantam that uh getting rid of this ignorance is peace.

[00:27:18]Getting the rid of this ignorance is peace. Nirvana where this uh subject object both uh they are gone and the uh opponent was telling no no it is you know the emptiness if everything is empty then all these noble truths they also are unreal and empty.

[00:27:49]Uh and Nagar Juna says see what is told as empty is the phenomenal existence and not the real existence not the reality that reality the atman or whatever you call it that which is beyond phenomena like the waves yes they come and Oh, but the ocean doesn't go doesn't come doesn't go like waves.

[00:28:26]The screen doesn't come and go when the movie starts or the whatever happens in the movie. The screen is not participating in it.

[00:28:40]And yet without screen there is no movie, without ocean there are no waves.

[00:28:45]So it is and this opponent is kind of wants to say then ocean also doesn't exist.

[00:29:05]of your errors. This is a nice translation.

[00:29:10]You pressurize us to accept this when you for us all your errors, you are like a man who has mounted his horse and has forgotten that very horse.

[00:29:33]Where is the horse?

[00:29:37]I don't know. Where is the horse? That is how the condition of most of us is.

[00:29:53]uh we ask that question uh in fact that is considered to be a sign of being a scientist uh a scientific person that question the existence of God never question the existence of I and the world but that which comes and goes there is no reality to any of that that is considered as real. No question gets asked about it. Uh when mention God and everybody is surging ahead with the big noise that there is no proof of the existence of God then you get the fame as being a real scientist. So uh it is but that is like the analogy you are riding on the horse and forget the horse. Uh the ride is real. Uh rider is real but that on which you are riding is not seen not understood as real. So that which is really everything. Now where is ocean?

[00:31:18]All only waves seem to be real. Waves are real. No doubt about it. I experience them.

[00:31:38]imagination.

[00:31:39]So that is how uh it is we the opponent is being told by Nagarun.

[00:31:49]No your assertion is like that that if emptiness is accepted then everything goes away. Even the four noble truths, even the Buddha, even the sana, even the dharma, everything is unreal. Then so it is said told that discern what is being shown as empty.

[00:32:17]That the phenomena is all empty. I mine that is empty.

[00:32:27]There is it is a wave I and mine. It is wave. It is not real.

[00:32:46]All things will be without perception of causes and conditions.

[00:32:55]This is a philosophically a very rich statement.

[00:33:01]Uh one has to pay deep attention to understand it that seeing the things as essence. Now I don't find any other example as powerful as Sri Raak Krishna for the modern people that he was seeing everything as the essence that is God.

[00:33:32]All is pervaded by God. God is the unchanging essence of every constantly changing form.

[00:33:54]becomes all meaningless question. Uh do you ask that how that screen became this man? How this screen became fire?

[00:34:09]Screen did not become anything without becoming anything. It is the substratum of everything.

[00:34:23]It is similarly you see this if you see the essence then all the idea of origination the birth growth interaction war and peace and all will be gone because the screen the unchanging reality that is the essence of it All if the word essence, it is always the word has uh unless one understands it in attunement with the life of Buddha uh the word carries no meaning you know it is it is a sound and has not much in itself doesn't have much meaning unless Unless there is the association of experience to it then it becomes meaningful.

[00:35:31]It is uh somebody was you know I had gone to my mobile dispensary work in the Ashama in Nagpur and had put on uh this uh canvas shoes on my my feet and one child uh there when you see a swami many get assembled there. Then uh pointing out to the shoes, he used a word to indicate that it is cloth. Uh that it is the shoes of that thing that he was referring to as cloth. That word was not familiar to me. So I asked him what does it mean? Now he didn't immediately think of a parallel uh word that he would tell me uh but he connected it to experience and then the meaning became clear you know. Oh that he was talking about that palo the word for cloth. So he said, "Oh, Paulo of a shirt, Paulo of a frog, palo of pants that is Paulo." And then he further blue palo uh green pal red and then it became clear when you connect to the experience then uh the sound the word gets meaning otherwise not. So this word that uh emptiness gets meaning when we see it in the light of these such great uh souls the Buddhas the enlightened ones. So uh it is in that life we see the meaning uh of the this word essence the what Sri Raak Krishna used to say that God alone is the essence it is actually definition of God that essence of everything is being called God like my predecessor Swami Sa G used to say God he had this you know uh habit and skill also to make the puns that God g of our dwelling that is God.

[00:38:35]I read on a truck. I was very new in this country just a few days and on a truck I read we trust in God.

[00:38:49]Wow. Here you trust in God. Then I was told that truck is that company which says guaranteed overnight delivery. G O D.

[00:39:03]God [snorts] guaranteed overnight delivery. So it is the how you have the conr meaning you know it is. So therefore essence we have to train ourselves to see the essence like uh when you see the cloth transcend the uh changing variables and look at the substance they it is uh the only the cotton or whatever that is. It is all uh see so everything is to be seen as God appearing in this form.

[00:39:58]That form is changing and it substance the god pervades all of that. It is when we see somebody it is ash is God really appearing in the shape you have the shape you know shape that we call ash like you make from clay say a cup then cup is the shape but what is the substance Huh?

[00:40:38]>> God.

[00:40:40]>> Clay god, you know. Yeah.

[00:40:43]So it is this is Charlie, you know. It is. Yeah. So it is. So that is how it is that it is Charlie actually God appearing as Charlie.

[00:41:01]Rishali God in the shape [snorts] of Rishali you know. So that rishali is just a shape and the substance is what?

[00:41:14]God and same substance in everything.

[00:41:20]Not just rishali but the chair on which he is sitting is also the same god.

[00:41:31]All the clothes she has put on that also is the same God.

[00:41:38]Like we were seeing yesterday while walking right at the river there a very wellmade statue of a guy sitting on the bench. And do you remember what a nice sculpture it is?

[00:42:00]It is. And then it is all stone.

[00:42:04]Uh the coat of that man is also the same stone as the nose and the eyes of that man.

[00:42:14]Yeah. If you haven't seen that is a great sculpture, you know, one should see that. It is so all different parts, the shoes, the shoelace, all that is what the same stone. Uh it is like that same thing. God is all this shapes. The shapes change. The shapes get names. And what doesn't change is that which doesn't have name actually.

[00:42:49]and we give name but that doesn't have really any name.

[00:42:55]So uh that is the concept that uh the uh the perception of all things will be without the perception of causes and conditions.

[00:43:09]all the the stone then all the the shape uh the size all that goes away. It is just a substance and there is no particular form to it. There is no particular time that it was born.

[00:43:32]This substance ever present that God alone is this substance or this substance is called God.

[00:43:45]So that is how How can we say essence is God? The his essence the word essence >> that is what you have to say you can put it god is some word that is more form familiar that's all but essence >> out there >> essence is not disproving that is what this whole statement is uh the disproving of the forms permanence the forms are not permanent and therefore they are not real. This is an argument many find you know it it is philosophically unchallengeable argument but psychologically it is very difficult to make people convinced of that impermanence one understands but things are impermanent we are not ready to accept that they are not Okay. The Buddhist and Vantist they ask a counter question. Then tell me what is not real.

[00:45:21]Uh that which you do not perceive at all. You cannot say about it that it is real or unreal. That which you perceive it changes.

[00:45:37]And therefore it is impermanent. And that is why we call it unreal. If you say that it is not unreal, tell us what is unreal.

[00:45:49]You have no better definition. And therefore this definition stands. In logic there is a rule that because you have to come to conclusion. So if the conclusion which is uh least uh challengeable uh is considered to be the one that is acceptable because anything else you accept uh that has more problems. So therefore the idea that uh impermanence is same as unreal.

[00:46:32]As I mentioned, logically it is not possible to challenge this.

[00:46:39]But psychologically because we do not want psychology depends on what we are attached to, what we consider in our mind as such and such. We understand and uh like to and you know feel comfortable that it is all changing. It is all impermanent.

[00:47:06]But we do not want therefore to conclude that it is unreal.

[00:47:12]But that is the idea behind being unreal. It is impermanent.

[00:47:19]And therefore just see as impermanent deeply and you will lose all attraction for it. You will lose all attachment to it and that is enough that is considering it as unreal psychologically.

[00:47:39]So it is uh and this is I have dropped a couple of karikas in between effects and causes and agent and action and condition and arising and seizing and effects will be rendered impossible.

[00:48:03]Now he is showing that if we uh accept your contention then uh if you see that even the essence doesn't exist then the causes and effects will not be there. The agent and action will not be possible. Conditions and arising and seizing not possible. uh if you looking at the example that we were discussing if you throw away the screen the movie is impossible.

[00:48:46]So the he is showing the nagar juna is showing the opponent that what is told to be empty is all the phenomena that which is causing coming to effect and then going out of the effect merging in the cause. So uh that is decision of everything. Moreover, uh you see that will be told later uh that there will be no ceation of suffering.

[00:49:25]That is the second noble truth. Uh because if the suffering is real, then suffering has come into being and then if you see that it is real, there is no going away of the suffering.

[00:49:43]No cation of suffering possible.

[00:49:47]So it is effect will be impossible, cause will be impossible. And so there is nothing like cause and effect.

[00:49:57]And then he gives the formula uh that whatever is dependently coarizon that is explained to be emptiness.

[00:50:13]These are all in logic they are called vacuous statements.

[00:50:21]Do you know vacuous statements?

[00:50:23]Joti in mathematics you use this term.

[00:50:27]It is a vacuous statement. So it is true vacuously means it is true but it is meaningless to say true because there is no content there like you may say that in that empty room everyone is blind. What does it mean? Uh there is nobody there. Is it a false statement? No, it is not false but it is vacuous statement. So it is not false.

[00:51:04]It is not true. There is no way to determine it as true or false. It is vacuously true. Yeah. Because it cannot be proved as false. Everybody in that room is blind.

[00:51:22]There is nobody there. So the statement is vacuously true. So it is the uh the middle path is not like that. It is but they all things which are dependently existent are like that.

[00:51:45]They they depend on each other. We were discussing it in the dining hall and with some pe of our friends that sipping tea that look you know what is it like A where does A live? Oh near B.

[00:52:08]Okay where does B live?

[00:52:12]Near A.

[00:52:14]Oh but how to go? Where did the two live? They live side by side near each other. Now that is a statement which has no value as such because it doesn't tell you anything where they two live. So therefore it is dependently coarizon.

[00:52:38]There is father, mother and so forth that with the dependence of that this form uh comes as such grows like a wave and then merges like a wave gets on the way causes many things gives effect to many things. So it is all dependent reality. It is very difficult to understand this uh codependency of everything. It is all coeps one depending on other and the other also depending on the same thing. That is how uh subject and object cause and effect teacher and the taught the psychologist and the patient psychopatient they rise and fall what together.

[00:53:45]It is like somebody our teacher used to give this example.

[00:53:55]What is the meaning that somebody is a great singer? Oh, is it so? Let us listen. No, he never sings. What is the meaning of calling the fellow as a singer? And there is no singer means somebody something is being sung then that is singer.

[00:54:14]It is like that and no singing.

[00:54:20]It is somebody you know that a teacher whom does it teach? No students at all. Then there is no teachership. Uh do you agree with it?

[00:54:33]And she is a teacher you know. So uh if she is a teacher then she has to have what students no students no teachership. So it is like that they are dependently coaring and therefore that is all emptiness.

[00:54:57]See that all that is empty but that does not exhaust the essence.

[00:55:06]The essence is uh that being a dependent designation. It itself is the middle way.

[00:55:17]That is the middle path. You have to travel on that. know that uh it is neither real nor unreal.

[00:55:29]It is dependently coarizing.

[00:55:33]Uh so in that sense it is called empty.

[00:55:38]It doesn't have any independent existence.

[00:55:43]So and if therefore this conclusion I have skipped a few verses again. uh if the world were not empty then action would be without profit.

[00:55:58]Uh it is uh it is because it is empty uh then the the because it is empty if it is not empty then action would be without profit.

[00:56:17]uh the act of ending suffering and abandoning misery and defilement would not exist.

[00:56:37]No cause and effect. Cause and effect.

[00:56:41]What does it indicate? Uh please friends, I beg pay a little more attention to this uh great idea here that if the world is not empty means it has an independent reality then there is no action because it will not change anything.

[00:57:06]uh the action means it is changing uh like tilog came here an action. So uh if there is no change, if it is not empty and then that condition is all reality, there is no action possible because action means change and change means emptiness and uh the act of ending suffering Uffing uh now having suffering is not mentioned but ending suffering because suffering is being experienced.

[00:57:55]Uh but we want to end suffering isn't it?

[00:58:02]You want to have more suffering.

[00:58:05]No, you want to end suffering. Everybody wants to end the suffering. But if this uh world was not empty then it would not be possible.

[00:58:20]Think of it friends. It is only because the world is a dependent existence which is the meaning of emptiness. Then only it is it is possible.

[00:58:38]So the act of ending suffering, abandoning misery and defilement would not exist.

[00:58:46]Uh so this is the great method of Nagarjana.

[00:58:51]He took up the challenge of the opponent and then is giving the answer uh by showing that look this is a great method used in mathematics logic as reduio and absurdom that if we accept your idea your statement then it will lead to this.

[00:59:24]Do you accept this conclusion?

[00:59:28]No, I don't accept. Then give up your because if you take your assertion to be real, this is a binding conclusion that you cannot escape from. So it is and this is the last verse of this uh chapter on four noble truths.

[00:59:55]Uh whoever sees dependent arising also sees suffering and its arising and its cation as well the path.

[01:00:09]So if you do not see this phenomena as empty means dependently existent.

[01:00:22]It is interdependent.

[01:00:25]It is both of them unreal.

[01:00:28]When you see that then only you can see the suffering its arising and its sization as well as the path.

[01:00:43]So uh we shall conclude here uh from next Tuesday. Next Tuesday we will take up uh the discussion uh in this muladyakar on uh the on time again a very intricate idea time we so close to our experience [snorts] we always what is time yeah everything I also am looking at the clock uh that now we have to stop so it is Now uh what is time? It's a that measure of change and let us see the nagar juna. We human beings are very very clever.

[01:01:32]Uh our speciality is shooting on our own foot. So that is a human skill. Will you call it skill that shoot on our own foot? So that is uh We do not see the change. Instead, we try to measure the change, call it time and think that the time is real.

[01:02:01]Now, it is also equally like this uh illusory. So, any questions about what we discussed? Oh, Abijit has a question.

[01:02:14]Come on.

[01:02:18]So it seems um that what Nagarjuna is saying that if we accept this dependence coexistence dependently arising then we can come to a dependently c seation as well. So in that case we are on to something. We have a path, we have a method by which you know we came together, we dissolve together and then everything goes back into uh emptiness. But I think what it was trying to say before is like the counterargument that if you say you came out of an essence then there is no end because that essence will continue to remain and you will not achieve emptiness.

[01:03:02]>> Yeah.

[01:03:02]>> So I think he was trying to deny that there is no essence. No, he is saying there is essence.

[01:03:09]>> Yeah, >> essence is he accepts essence but it is not phenomena.

[01:03:17]Essence is not coming arising or going away. Essence is uh always there. It is not subject to time.

[01:03:30]>> Yeah. But I think that was the point he was trying to refute. No, no. He was refuting the time that idea that refuting the idea of emptiness of this phenomena.

[01:03:46]Uh that emptiness of the essence. Uh they it is like throwing the baby with the bathwater that uh everything is unreal, everything is empty and so these noble truths will be all empty. Uh the path will not be there and there is no cation of suffering and so forth.

[01:04:12]>> It's not saying everything is empty.

[01:04:14]Everything is dependently arisen and then they will dependently go back to emptiness.

[01:04:21]>> Yes, it is the very it is not dependently going back to emptiness. It's being dependence means it is empty. There is no going back to emptiness. It's being depends.

[01:04:43]that is and that which therefore is independent existence itself. This is because we are you know uh very much used to the vanta terminology it finds very difficult >> well I think that's the point that initially it says there is nothing called independence >> that is anything that is particular is not independent it is dependent arizon but this substratum this you will feel when you See the that mandukish where it is described that which cannot be spoken of that which cannot be indicated that has no word to describe that is real.

[01:05:38]So if you try to tell about it you are it is it becomes phenomena you cannot really tell. So that is therefore he's used the word essence [snorts] as something that transcends uh the interdependence.

[01:05:58]So this is uh one has to get used to this uh Buddhist terminology of this emptiness that is being very much focused that and when you see the emptiness of everything then the sense of absolute essence arises. It is experienced.

[01:06:29]So it is that is in vanta terms it is called cleansing of the dust.

[01:06:38]Free the mind of all this dust of uh thinking this as real this as real this.

[01:06:46]No they are not real at all. God that therefore I intervened with this Sri Ramak Krishna statement that see the God as real. Learn to see the ocean as real.

[01:07:08]Uh the waves are empty does not mean that was the objection of the opponent.

[01:07:15]If waves are taken out, ocean also will be gone. No, the waves uh are interdependent and dependent on ocean also. But ocean is independent.

[01:07:33]So that is what is mentioned there that you have to walk a lot you know from one end to other end. uh good exercise interdependency you know >> maraj I have a question on that idea of the middle path >> idea of >> middle path so >> middle path yeah >> yeah I mean u from other readings it seemed that middle path was described as something which is not too austere like you know you're not trying to get too too much into austerity or not too much into indulgence and you take a middle path that is how it has been otherwise is kind of understood or read. But here the definition of middle path seems to be different.

[01:08:19]>> So maybe can you elaborate?

[01:08:20]>> Different. You are right. It appears to be different. Uh but uh when you say that not too austere and not too indulgent, what you are saying is uh it is all empty.

[01:08:40]Uh why they are if you say lot more int indulgence it is also empty. Uh the other end of the script spectrum uh too much austerity that also is empty. So middle path is holding on to the truth instead of all.

[01:09:05]Uh the is this real or is that real?

[01:09:12]And maybe a follow up on what Abijit was asking. Um I mean again historically the way we have understood it is that Buddhism focuses on the idea of emptiness as the essence whereas the Vedanta focuses on the completeness of the essence that that's consciousness that's complete.

[01:09:28]>> Yeah. Well >> but and they seem to be contradictory in that sense. But here again I think the way you are describing essence it's more the vantic way of describing the Buddhistic idea. No, it is as nagar has described the word essence is put by nagar not by yoga.

[01:09:48]Yeah. And it is therefore uh it is that emptiness of everything uh is a contentious point even amongst Buddhists. Yeah. Nobody in Buddha's own statements there is no uh negating that only the interpretation of the silence of Buddha uh he maintained a sublime noble silence. Now the silence gets interpreted that he negated it. Some say it silence indicated he affirmed it. It all is how you interpret the silence.

[01:10:38]Silence is the middle path means you practice the path and you will know. Uh saying yes or no will not help you. It is this is our weakness friends that we go by the words instead of finding the meaning of the word and as I mentioned you need the experiential connection to get to the meaning of it.

[01:11:09]Anybody else has any question?

[01:11:13]So >> Maharaj that uh last time you mentioned about varic satya and paramatic satya.

[01:11:20]So varic satya is kind of a um be um keeping that domain and not ex going beyond that domain to paratic satya. So wherever is required use that varic for yourself that is middle path means keep you have to see that it is >> for but use varic wherever needed >> one has to be aware of the different distinction between the two that particular karik we saw last time that one has to know that the distinction between the two truths what is to be applied where uh it is uh confusion between this is what our many senior swamies always stressed uh do not confuse the relative with the absolute.

[01:12:18]What is made as a statement in the absolute sense do not apply it to the relative sense that it is yeah all is God simple way is then how do we treat uh those evil people who are plenty in the world we find so that is do not bring them to your home and worship them with flowers and sandal paste and hymns. Uh yeah, they are certainly they are also have God in them. They also are God appearing in that form. So know that as the absolute truth. Uh but in the relative field you have the variations and therefore uh you do not eat garbage.

[01:13:23]It is yeah because that is all is God.

[01:13:28]No doubt but the pizza also is God and garbage also is God.

[01:13:38]So what Teresa go and eat garbage? No.

[01:13:41]Uh it is no. So it is like that. That is the relative truth.

[01:13:49]You have to hold on to relative truth in that plane while keeping the absolute truth in mind. While you see the movie and do you go to theater to see the movie or to see the screen?

[01:14:07]What movie? Isn't it? uh buy a hefty ticket uh and go and see the movie and cry. If you see a very unpleasant uh scene uh miserable thing then people cry. Adishwaranji used to say they buy what is that drama play there? Broadway show. uh Broadway show they plays and those tragedies of Shakespeare and all and they buy $200 $300 ticket and to go for what and keep on crying there for crying they spend to $300.

[01:14:58]So it is that is relative you know it is so while and yet while seeing that movie you are aware that it is movie it is not real and therefore you see somebody crying in the movie you do not get up from your seat and give that try to give that fellow a tissue paperh meaningless.

[01:15:29]What Marcela you keep this distinction uh when you are in movie theater that is it is screen no doubt absolutely you are aware of that that is why you don't go and give a tissue to the crying person there it is because it is all screen and yet you see it as movie you didn't go to watch the screen.

[01:15:59]You went there, bought ticket what for for watching the screen. No.

[01:16:07]So similarly this world there is this relativity but one has to become aware of the unchanging screen behind this movie.

[01:16:24]Does it make sense then? Yeah. Yeah. It is like that you know that it is all these are pictures on the screen and then those pictures are interdependent unreal that does not remove the the essential aspect of this screen.

[01:16:53]So that is how uh the vavarik and paric the relative uh phenomena phenomena truth and the absolute truth.

[01:17:07]Yeah.

[01:17:12]>> Yes. To develop that awareness uh it is not you have to go on the path.

[01:17:20]It is walking on the path to see the two different. So therefore there are so many you know all the eight-fold uh qualities to be acquired for that that is live a life whereby the transformation of awareness will come.

[01:17:42]The transformation of consciousness or awareness is therefore uh the sadhana the spiritual practice is when the awareness underos transformation like you got in the car and drove here.

[01:18:03]Uh so transformation uh if you still are uh driving for 1 hour you still remain at 395 Angel Street then is it then you are not driving at all you didn't uh although there you similarly unless we develop those uh qualities in us That sadi amyaku all that that everything has to be uh Samyak means total or harmonious that your dity is the first thing means the right vision the right livelihood everything has to be you know that right about it. Uh so that is how the Samyak word is translated in English. Different translations are there. Uh so thank you very much. Any question upstairs? No question. So let us conclude with the closing prayers.

[01:19:26]Huh? She doesn't have a question.

[01:19:34]May the divine who is father in heaven of the Christians, holy one of the Jewish faith, Allah of the Muslims, Buddha of the Buddhists, Dao of the Daoist, great spirit of the Native Americans, Ahur Mazda of the Zorastrians and Brahman of the Hindus, lead us from the unreal to the real, From darkness to light, from death to immortality, may the allloving being manifest himself unto us and grant us abiding understanding and allconsuming divine love. Peace, peace, peace be unto all.