Now that it has been established that phenomena are not nothing, for they nevertheless appear; we now go on to show that they are not permanent. All phenomena resemble echoes. They have no intrinstic nature, even in the very moment that they are perceived. They have no enduring permanence, and are ineffable. Because they are not truly existent entities, they are like the resounding of an echo.
Once again, this topic will be explained in three sections: according to ground, path and result.
Let us first establish the ground. When people speak or shout in front of a rocky outcrop, the echo of their cry resounds. But the sound resonates without being located anywhere: either outside or within. In just the same way, co-emergent ignorance, concomitant with the empty and luminous character of the primordial ground, which itself lacks intrinsic being, acts as a cause. With the result that the ground’s own radiance manifests as different hallucinatory appearances. Since they appear, even though they have no existence, whether in awareness or anywhere else, it is in the manner of an echo that Samsara arises. In truth, they are but the clear appearance of something nonexistent, and nothing else.
When people stand before a cliff, their songs or speech, their laughter, lamentation, are circumstances for the sounding of an echo. Yet from their voice the sound does not reverberate. Understand that all things are like this.
The resounding of an echo cannot be located anywhere, either in the people, or the cliff, or somewhere in between them. And yet it is perceived. Existing, as it were, thanks to certain conditions. In the same way, if all outer phenomena, as well as the thoughts within the mind, are examined — the gross outer objects analyzed into their component parts, and the subtle mental phenomena examined for their shape, color and so on, they are all found to be without the slightest degree of real existence. They are like space, beyond the reach of conception, and expression.
If reasoning investigates appearing things, not one of them is found. Their ultimate condition is precisely this non-finding, their final and primordial nature. This empty condition of things transcends the ordinary mind. Those who propound the objective reality of phenomena maintain that they have two aspects: they say that phenomena exist on the relative level, but not on the ultimate level. This, however, is untenable. For such phenomena have no existence, even in the very moment that they are being experienced. It is only the mind that conceives the phenomena as having these two aspects: for it is obvious that the latter are not part-and-parcel of the phenomena themselves. This is why when the mind realizes that nothing is established as really existent phenomena are not themselves diminished. It is the mind that discerns these two aspects within phenomena. And although the mind may discern the emptiness of phenomena, the emptiness in question is a mere concept, and is not actual emptiness in itself.
By contrast, the majama-kayas say that with regard to appearing phenomena, no assertion is to be made. This, it should be understood, is the hallmark of the genuine Middle Way. As master Nagarjuna has said, referring to the experience of the Arias, since things are as they appear to them, analysis does not apply.
Samsara is like an echo. It is just a kind of reverberation occuring through the play of dependent arising. When the primordial nature of the mind, a skylike expanse, in which the dual-like qualities of enlightenment are spotaneously present, is conditioned by co-emergent and conceptual ignorance, the habitual tendency to the mistaken duality of apprehended object and apprehending subject takes form, and beings wander in Samsara, which is just like an echo.
Owing to different habitual tendencies, there arise the appearances of the six classes of beings who stray from one existential state to another. Owing to the fact that the mind is defiled, and thanks to positive actions leading to happiness, one rises to the higher realms. Because of negative actions one falls into the lower realms. They are afflicted who, owing to their positive and negative actions, pass throug the different states of existence, one after the other.
The various worlds arise from actions. And actions come from various intentions.
When it is realized that phenomena are groundless and rootless, they are viewed as a vast, fleeting, ungraspable display. Impossible to qualify as either wide or narrow, high or low. Within the purview of ultimate reality, everything is perceived as being even or equal. And one is comfortable, and at ease.
When things appear, and when one has neither hope nor fear in their regard, they are all similar to the resounding of an echo. Since everything subsides, without being identified as this or that, all is levelled, being even, primordially pure, and without true existence.
It is then that all appearances and all experiences seem like one vast spectacle. When the root of the mind is cut, all clinging to an outer object naturally subsides. Then once and for all, everything that appears is for the yogi, just a dramatic spectacle. Since there is nothing to grasp, and nothing to identify in all these appearances. There is no defining them.
Since they are without any essential core, they are loose. Since they are unreal appearances, they are intangible. Since all fixation on them evaporates, they are uncertain. And since, in phenomena, there is no reference point, they are evanescent.
When the Buddha’s offspring see the truth of ultimate reality, they deeply understand, and thus, are always happy. It is then that one’s experience of phenomena in all their variety becomes different from the perceptions of ordinary people. Sense objects that to ordinary people seem to be truly real, appear to practitioners as elusive and false.
People who assume that things exist permanently always perceive things as truly existent, and truly permanent. For practicioners, on the other hand, such phenomena appear as the nonexistent but appearing radiance of emptiness. The ultimate nature of things that is seamlessly the same, unfragmented and unconfined. And what a delight this is.
All appearing things are by their nature, pure, and free of name and substance. This is what is meant by objectless supportless view, and is what I, Samantabhadra, teach.
Now with regard to the practice of the path, as previously explained, one should practice guru-yoga, praying to one’s teacher sincerely and from the bottom of one’s heart, that one might succeed in seeing that everything is as unreal as an echo. Then in the main practice one should meditate on the fact that everything that can be seen and heard is echo-like. It appears but is without any intrinsic being.
Praise or slander, addressed to one by others, is just like an echo. One should learn to take all such things and meditate on them as being of equal value.
O, Subhuti, whether Boddhisattvas who practice transcendent wisdom are slandered and decried by some, or whether they are praised and lorded by others, they should meditate that all remarks are devoid of intrinsic being. They are like echoes.
Unpleasant speech is the gateway to anger. One should therefore understand that this too lacks intrinsic being. When one is the object of unpleasant speech, the words in question have no existence, in either the inner or the outer sphere. There is no cause for unhappiness. And since the bad intention that provoked them has neither substance nor color, and is incapable of inflicting any injury, there is no point in being upset. It should be understood that if one is unhappy this has arisen from one’s own mistaken thought, that one is being criticized. In other words, the harm is self-inflicted.
Words are empty, they cannot be pinpointed. There is nothing in them to be either gratified or depressed about. One should simply carry them on the path as being just empty sound that fades away all on its own, leaving no trace behind.
As Shanti-deva says, with things that in this way are empty, what is there to gain, and what to loose? What is there to give me joy and pain? May beings like myself discern and grasp that all things have the character of space.
When one has become completely habituated to this kind of meditation during the daytime, one will also come to understand that even in one’s dreams, all things are like an echo. One will be able to assume different identities in one’s dreams, and to transform the latter at will. It is then that one will, in the immediate term, have patience, that is to say, acceptance, in respect of the words one hears. And thanks to this, all anger and irritation will subside.
O Kashyapa, those Boddhisattvas who understand that phenomena are like an echo, are patient with the words they hear. They are not made happy by my words, they are not angered by the words of others, and when they hear the teaching on emptiness, they are not alarmed. This is the first level of acceptance in respect of the words one hears.
The state of peace that’s utterly untroubled, unconditioned, is one great sea of excellence. A sea of sublime patience. May all beings, leaving none aside, embark upon the mighty ship of concentration, and voyage on the path to liberation.
In the vast sky of their perfect aspiration, may intelligence’s lightning flash, and from the massing clouds, may the refreshing waters of the doctrine’s peaceful reign, bring increase to the harvest of disciples blessed by fortune.
May compassion’s tree, with boughs of benefit and bliss; may concentration’s flowers, and wisdom’s perfect fruit, may fragrance and cool shade — four ways by which disciplines are attracted, delight the flocks of birds, the minds of beings.
This concludes the chapter that is like an echo. A commentary on the sixth vajra point, of finding rest in illusion. A teaching of The Great Perfection.