Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This is how they appear to us one hundred percent and we totally accept this. We don’t
doubt it at all. We believe that all these things are one hundred percent real.
This is the foundation of our suffering. This concept, this ignorance, is the biggest problem
in our life. All other problems are built on that foundation. Attachment arises for the real
desirable object, because it not only appears to us as real but after appearing that way we
believe it to be real, that this is the truth. Anger arises toward the real undesirable object. It
appears to us as a real undesirable object, a real dislikeable object, then on the basis of that
appearance we believe it to be real. And ignorance arises toward real indifferent objects. In
that way, all our problems build from that foundation.
For ordinary people like us, everything that is false in life appears true. Whether something
exists or is a fantasy, we believe it to be one hundred percent true. On the other hand, for
our mind, for us, ultimate reality, emptiness only, shunyata, does not exist at all.
It is like stars in the daytime. Because the sun is too bright, even though the stars are there,
we cannot see them. In reality, nothing has real, true existence from its own side. The I,
action, object—nothing is real from its own side. It has never been real. Right from the
beginning, from beginningless rebirths, it has never happened that anything has ever come
into existence from its own side, for even a second.
Maybe I should give a few examples. Say, we want to rent a house. When a house is built
there are many empty rooms. As we are shown about the house by the owner he names the
rooms, “This is the bedroom. This is the kitchen. This is the office.” Like that, we learn the
names of the different rooms.
Before the name was given, we have the appearance of an empty room but after the owner
has given it a name, such as “office,” we then have the appearance of an office. Then later
we move stuff in, like a desk and a computer, whatever we need to make that room into an
office. That doesn’t mean we can call any place we have our computer, such as outside or in
an airplane, our office. But it is like that with this room we call the office and it is the same
with the kitchen, the bathroom and so forth.
First the name is given and then, immediately after that, we have the appearance of the
office or the kitchen. Being introduced to each room by the house’s owner, we are “taught”
the names of the rooms and the rooms appear to us as just that and we believe in that
appearance.
It should appear to us as merely labeled by the mind, which is exactly what has just
happened—the empty room was labeled by the mind. Now the big question is this: why
doesn’t the room appear like that? We don’t remember, or we don’t know, that it was merely
labeled by the other person’s mind and then our mind accepted the way it was labeled.
When it appears it should appear as merely labeled by our mind. That is the correct view, but
that is not how it appears to our mind. It appears to be not merely labeled by our mind; it
appears as a real one, existing from its own side, as a real office, a real bedroom, a real
kitchen, a real toilet—each room existing from its own side, not merely labeled by our mind.
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