Professor Lin Chong-An: Selflessness and Emptiness — Lecture 5: The Selflessness and Emptiness of the Madhyamaka Prasangika School

Selflessness and Emptiness: Lecture 5

The Selflessness and Emptiness of the Madhyamaka Prasangika School

Lin Chong-An (2007)

The Color Disk Analogy: Imagine a disk divided into three colored sections—red, green, and blue. When spun quickly, it appears as a solid white disk. We can explore this teaching through three levels of observation.

(1) The First Level ○ Analogy: Observe that the white disk is not substantially existent, only nominally existent. It is established as a white disk only in dependence on the spinning colored surface beneath it. By the same reasoning, the red, green, and blue sections of the disk are also not substantially existent—they are nominally existent, each established by convention in dependence on the others. Both the apparent white disk and the underlying colored disk are empty of substantial existence. ○ Dharma Principle: Observe that a person is not substantially existent, only nominally existent. A person is established only in dependence on the five aggregates of body and mind. The nominally existent person is established in dependence on the nominally existent five aggregates. A person is not an independently substantial entity; this is called "emptiness of a person’s self-established substantial existence" = the Prasangika school’s "coarse selflessness of the person."

(2) The Second Level ○ Analogy: Observe that the imputed white disk is not truly existent. The white disk we perceive does not align with the actual nature of the spinning disk beneath it: it arises from the observer’s persistence of vision. This subjective contribution is called "establishment through mental imputation." By the same logic, the various colors of the disk are also not truly existent—they too are established through mental imputation. ○ Dharma Principle: Observe that the imputed person is not truly existent. The person we perceive does not align with the actual nature of the aggregates that make them up: this imputation arises from the observer’s mental construct. Similarly, the body, mind, five aggregates, and all associated phenomena are also established through mental imputation. They do not correspond to any independent, truly existent nature, and are therefore empty of true existence (empty of ultimate truth) = the Prasangika school’s "coarse selflessness of phenomena."

(3) The Third Level ○ Analogy: Observe that the imputed white disk does not exist from its own side. Beyond the mismatch between its perceived and actual nature, it also shifts slightly or significantly depending on the act of observation. There is no purely objective, self-sufficient existence. It is "merely established by conceptual imputation," and is therefore empty of inherent nature. By the same reasoning, the colored disk also does not exist from its own side, and is empty of inherent nature. ○ Dharma Principle: Observe that the imputed "person" does not exist from their own side. Beyond the mismatch between their perceived and actual nature, they also shift in response to observation, in ways both large and small. There is no purely objective, self-sufficient existence for a person. They are "merely established by conceptual imputation," which is called "the person’s emptiness of inherent nature" = the Prasangika school’s "subtle selflessness of the person." ○ Dharma Principle: Observe that the imputed "five aggregates" do not exist from their own side. Beyond the mismatch between their perceived and actual nature, they also shift in response to observation, in ways both large and small. There is no purely objective, self-sufficient existence for the aggregates. They are "merely established by conceptual imputation," which is called "emptiness of the five aggregates’ inherent nature" = the Prasangika school’s "subtle selflessness of phenomena." ○ Analogy: The subtlest view of dependent origination: We understand that the white color of the disk arises from the spinning of the colored disk, that it also arises from the observer’s persistence of vision, and that when we observe it, the white disk is shaped by the act of observation itself—it is not a purely objective, independent entity. ○ Dharma Principle: The subtlest view of dependent origination: We understand that the person and the five aggregates are dependently established, that they are established through mental imputation, and that when observed, they are merely established by conceptual imputation, inevitably shaped by observation rather than existing as purely objective entities.

Modern scientific experiments confirm this: the observer always influences the observed, and no purely objective existence is possible.

[Practice]

1. Cultivate samatha (calm abiding) through practices such as walking meditation.
2. Cultivate the correct view of selflessness through hearing and contemplation, clarifying the distinctions between the "self separate from the aggregates," the "self identical with the aggregates," the substantially existent self, the truly existent self, and the inherently existent self.
3. Next, use the calm abiding you have cultivated to develop insight (vipassana), bringing samatha and vipassana into unity. This gives rise to fundamental non-conceptual wisdom, through which you directly realize emptiness of inherent nature and eradicate ignorance at its root.