Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Not understanding this specific emptiness is the root of our suffering, the root of the oceans
of samsaric suffering, the sufferings of rebirth, old age, sickness, death and so forth. And
that is only the suffering of pain, which is not the only suffering in samsara. There is also the
suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering, which is the cause of the other
two.
We are afraid of cancer and many people die from it, but they don’t know that the root cause
of cancer is not understanding this particular emptiness. It is also the root cause of AIDS
and all the other diseases that medicine has no cure for, not to mention all the other
sufferings of samsara, not just sickness. It is where all our relationship problems and
depression come from. It is the cause of anorexia, bulimia, obesity and all other eating
disorders. This ignorance is the very root of the problems experienced by every individual,
by every family, by every society, by every country, by the entire globe. Whatever suffering
there is, this ignorance is the root.
All problems come from this root, which is a wrong concept, therefore this wrong concept
is what we need to eliminate. By studying, reflecting and meditating, by realizing the ultimate
truth, we can come to realize that this concept is totally wrong.
I don’t understand emptiness well so I can only explain it in a simple way. There is a base—
the five aggregates—that exists and, depending on that, the thought of the I arises. For
instance, if the base, the aggregates (in this case the body), is sitting, then the thought of the
I arises, the merely labeled, “I am sitting.” We label this on the sitting aggregates.
When the aggregates stand up, again there is the thought of the I. The aggregates are the
base upon which the I is labeled. There is the subject that labels the I and the aggregates that
are the object. When the aggregates are standing, the thought of the I merely imputes, “I am
standing.” When the form aggregate is standing, the thought of the I doesn’t label, “I am
sitting.” No. The thought of the I is dependent on what we do. When walking, the thought
of the I merely imputes, “I am walking.” Whatever action we are doing—eating, standing,
sitting, sleeping, lying down—the aggregates are doing the action and then, on top of that,
the thought of the I is merely imputed and we believe it.
When the aggregates are jogging to become skinny—maybe that’s not correct, maybe it’s to
become fit—then the thought of the I merely imputes “I am jogging.” When the aggregates
are talking, depending on that action, the thought of the I merely imputes, “I am talking.”
We put the I on the action of talking, or “I am in silence” or whatever it is.
When we are meditating, in dependence upon the mind meditating the thought of the I, the
subject, applies the label, “I am meditating.” We call the merely-imputed I and the merelyimputed
action of the I “meditating.”
So, depending on what the aggregates—our body and mind—are doing, depending on the
action, the labeling thought merely imputes the I and merely imputes the action of the I.
From the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep in the evening, all day
long, depending on what our body and mind does, the labeling thought merely imputes the I
and the merely labeled action of the I, whatever the I does. The I and the action of the I—
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