Lama Zopa Rinpoche

not only labeled the aggregates of the baby “George” but merely labeled them. If your mind
hadn’t labeled those aggregates “George,” George would not have existed.
Before the baby was conceived, before the aggregates came into existence, even though you
might have already decided on the name for the baby, that name has no valid base. George
does not exist, even if there is a mind that has given the name.
Therefore George only comes into existence by depending on the aggregates, the valid base,
being there, and depending on the labeling valid mind that merely labels “George” onto
those aggregates. Only then does George come into existence. So George exists in mere
name.
In that first moment it is just the merely imputed George, but you do not know that, you do
not realize that. Then, the next moment, the real George appears from there. A merely
labeled George should appear—that is the reality—but that does not happen. What happens
in the next moment is that George appears to exist from its own side. This George that
didn’t come from the mind, is not merely labeled by the mind, has never been labeled by the
mind and totally exists from its own side is totally false.
So, the first moment there is the merely labeled George and then, the next moment, the
negative imprint left by ignorance projects a real George. That is the hallucination. Then, in
the third moment, you believe that real appearance. It appears real and you believe it to be
real. You believe this is real George, but there is no real George. There is no real George
existing from its own side at all. That never happened. That is the king of delusions, the
basic problem. That is the root of all the delusions. All other delusions such as attachment
arise on the basis of that wrong object.
Attachment arises on the basis of believing a real George to be there, but the object of
attachment is not there.
In the Lamrim Chenmo there is a very good explanation of how delusions are all built on the
basis of the wrong concept. There is no object of attachment or anger. It does not exist. The
mind has projected it; the mind has created it. We have totally made it up and we have
created the suffering ourselves.
The real George is a good example of this. It is totally false but on the basis of it there is so
much attachment. We think, “My child,” then when something disturbs our attachment, we
get angry. Like that, all the other delusions arise. In that way, we live our whole life
completely in the hallucination.
There is no real Lama Zopa. There is no real Jamyang Centre appearing from its own side.
There is no real teaching appearing from there. All this is totally empty. There is no real
home appearing from there. There is no real car that you drive, existing from its own side.
There is no real shop, no real shopkeeper, no real money, no real coming and going. There is
no real university, no real degree, no real job. There is no real cancer. Maybe that example is
better. There is no real cancer, no real AIDS.
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