Questions About Life

Is there something you would like to ask or to know more about?

We at Ling Khangtsen will do our utmost to provide our viewpoint in accordance with the Dharma. Our answers may not always satisfy you, but be assured we will answer your queries most sincerely and as soon as we are able to.

Do write to us anytime, and if you have questions, do send them to Questions About Life

Question: I have been studying Buddhism for several years, and have a question regarding emptiness and the Buddhas.

The teachings say that nothing exists from its own side, that things are empty of any self nature, but rather occur due to causes and conditions. I assume this applies to the Buddhas as well.

My question is: Is there a consciousness of Lord Shakyamuni Buddha that is separate from the other Buddhas, say the Medicine Buddha or others? How do they exist as far as emptiness is concerned?

Thank you for your great kindness in addressing this question.

Our humble view: Thank you for writing to us about this very important and profound subject. We may not be learned enough to provide a clear explanation but we shall try. Firstly, it is helpful to know that "emptiness" does not mean "nothingness". We need to ask ourselves, "empty of what?".

The emptiness of the Buddhas does not mean that Buddhas don't exist. The emptiness of a car does not mean the car doesn't exist. Persons/objects/phenomena DO exist as a kind of "sense-data" but do not have fixed, specific characteristics by themselves. They do not arise until our minds engage with this sense-data and label them as "person or object or phenomena".

Persons/objects/phenomena arise due to 3 factors coming together: Causes & conditions, parts of the object and mental projection. For example, let's take a car. A "car" arises when causes & conditions (which give rise to the object and our meeting it); parts of the object (e.g. 4 wheels, seats, ability to transport etc.) and finally, our gluing all this together and mentally labelling the object as "a car". If we introduced the car to a dog, it would only see a big object, it would not see "car". But to us, we call that same object "car" because of our familiarity with such things and our mental labelling.

To your question whether the consciousness of Shakyamuni Buddha is separate from other Buddhas, the answer is yes. The understanding of emptiness by Shakyamuni Buddha and other Buddhas is the same but each attains this understanding separately. Also Shakyamuni Buddha and other Buddhas are empty of inherent existence i.e. they do exist but they require (as one of the 3 factors) our minds to engage and mentally label them as such.

We hope this provides a basic answer to your questions. We also appreciate your thinking about this subject as it is valuable to all of us on the Path to enlightenment.

With regards & prayers,

Ling Khangtsen

Question: Do you have any advice as to how to truly develop and live from wisdom and compassion with no partiality toward either friend or enemy, especially within the presence of war?

Our humble view: Thank you for your very important question. Our humble view is that the presence of war itself is the most convincing reason why everyone needs to develop compassion and rid the world of such terror.

There are various way of cultivating such compassion. They require reflection on key points such as:

- If one believes in karma and past lives, then to consider how all sentient beings have been our mother or loved one at one time. This mother/loved one has protected us from harm in the past and helped us survive. It is now our turn to repay their kindness;

- If one doesn't believe in karma and past lives, then perhaps one could then reflect on impermanence, which can be seen around us everyday. Loved ones can be lost or turn into enemies or strangers; whereas strangers can (even unwittingly) help us and thus become more helpful and precious than loved ones. Since change is constant, there is little logic in fixing labels such as "friends" and "enemies" onto others and clinging onto such labels. Once we label "enemy" onto a person, we get emotional difficulties and pain. So why create pain for ourselves in this way? It may be better to have a more balanced view - this will help us to be realistic as well as unburdened by hostility.

One other point: War is often based on anger; it is based also on attachment to concepts/persons, an intolerance of differences and a failure to see the other person's potential. As anger & attachment are basically flawed, they can never produce good results like happiness. Apple seeds don't produce orange trees. It is worthwhile reflecting on the disadvantages of biased love (attachment) and anger; and reflecting on the advantages of unconditional love. This will help to inspire us to develop unconditional love & compassion whether in times of war or peace.

Question: Since hygiene and medical science has advanced so much, why is there still so much sickness in the world and new health hazards coming up?

Our humble view: According to the law of cause and effect (karma), results are always similar to the cause. As we humans find it increasingly easy to harm and kill (other humans, animals etc.), similarly, the result of increased sickness and life-threatening ills becomes prevalent in our world.