Visualization

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Alexander Berzin
Morelia, Mexico, September 1998

Visualization Means Working with the Imagination

The topic for this evening is visualization and its place in Tibetan Buddhist practice. One of
the things that characterize the Tibetan form of Buddhism is its extensive use of visualization,
much more than in any other form of Buddhism. Of course all these methods developed in
India, but Buddhism there died out.

In order to understand the various levels and usages of visualization, first we need to throw the
word visualization out of the window. It is the wrong word because the word visualization
implies something visual. In other words, it implies working with visual images and it also
implies working with our eyes. This is incorrect. Instead, we are working with the
imagination. When we work with the imagination we're not only working with imagined
sights, but also with imagined sounds, smells, physical sensations, feelings - emotional
feelings - and so on. Obviously, we do that with our minds, not with our eyes. If we think of
the Western psychological division of the brain into a right side and a left side, Tibetan
Buddhism develops both sides - both the intellectual, rational side and the side of creative
imagination. Therefore, when we speak of visualization in Buddhism, we're not talking about
some magical process. We're talking about something quite practical, in terms of how to
develop and use all our potentials, because we have potentials on both the right and left sides
of the brain. When we work with the imagination, we're dealing with creativity, artistic
aspects and so on.

We work with the imagination on many different levels. We can divide these into sutra
methods and tantra methods. Of these two, those of tantra are the most advanced.

Visualization Methods in Sutra

In sutra, we use our imaginations first of all to help us overcome negative aspects of
ourselves, in other words, disturbing emotions and attitudes. If we are very much under the
control of obsessive desires, let's say desire for young attractive looking people as sexual
objects, we would then try to imagine what these persons will look like when they are 80
years old. Remember, obsessive desire is based on exaggerating someone's qualities, and so
when we have this sexual desire we're imagining that this person is going to look young and
beautiful forever, which obviously is not true. Imagining what the person's going to look like
when old and decrepit, fat, and so on helps us to have a much more realistic attitude toward
the person and to relate to him or her as a person rather than as a young body. This is one
usage of the imagination, and as you can see, it's creative: it's artistic and very helpful.

Likewise, we can use our imaginations to help us to develop positive qualities, such as
compassion. For instance, we can imagine a sheep about to be slaughtered and imagine
ourselves as that sheep about to be slaughtered, and how we would desperately want to be free

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from that fate. Then we could imagine our mother, our father, our friends, and so on as this
sheep. This helps us to develop a strong wish that they be free of having to be killed as well.
And eventually we think about the sheep itself that is to be slaughtered. In this way, we open
our hearts out to developing more compassion for others and wishing they be free from
suffering.

In the sutra path there's a tremendous variety of things that we imagine to help us overcome
negative qualities, develop good qualities, and become more realistic. Like, for example,
imagining if we were to die right now, would we really be emotionally prepared for that?

How to Visualize
Many people say, "Well, I can't visualize. So how can I use these methods?" Actually, if we
take a moment to investigate, we find that we all do have powers of imagination. For instance,
try to remember what your mother or your best friend, it doesn't matter who, looks like. Please
do that for a moment. We all are capable of remembering what our most closely loved ones
look like. So, we are able to visualize.

I remember once I was in India with a friend of mine who really had a problem with
visualizing. We were on a long bus ride together on a very hot day and she was suffering very
much from heat and thirst. So I started to torture her in a sense by saying, "Wow, wouldn't it
be great if we had some nice cold oranges. Can you imagine how refreshing they would taste?
And their smell?" And all of a sudden she discovered that she was able to visualize and
imagine an orange very well. So, we all are capable; it's just a matter of training.

Another use of imagination in sutra is imagining a Buddha in front of us as an object of focus

to gain perfect concentration. The sutra path is divided into the Hinayana and Mahayana, the
"modest vehicle of mind" and the "vast vehicle of mind." In the Hinayana schools, the usual
way to develop absorbed concentration is to focus on the breath, which uses sense
consciousness. We focus on the physical sensation of the breath going in and out of the nose.
Mahayana, however, points out that we have to consider what are we using the concentration
for. We're using it to be able to focus on reality with concentration and to stay focused on
feelings of love and compassion. Therefore, what we want to be able to do is to concentrate
with our mental consciousness, not with our sense consciousness. And so, in Mahayana, the
preferred way of developing concentration is on an imagined Buddha.

When we imagine a Buddha, we imagine a very small Buddha-figure in front of us at the level
of our eyes, about an arm's length away, and we imagine this figure to be not solid, but made
out of light, and alive. We imagine that there's a little bit of corporeality - some weight for that
light - this is just a little trick to help keeping that image stable. If we think too much in terms
of it being just light, the image tends to float around too easily. What's important in working
with this type of visualization practice is that we don't focus with our eyes staring ahead as if
we were looking at the Buddha in front of us. Rather, we look down toward the floor and
imagine something in front of us at the level of our brow. Try that for a moment. Look down
in front of you and hold your hand in front at the level of your eyes. Now, while looking down
at the floor, you can concentrate where your hand is and imagine that your hand is there, even
though you are not seeing it, can't you? So, it is possible. That's what we do when we visualize
a figure in front of us.

But, we're not just imagining an apple in front of us, we're imagining a Buddha. This is very
significant because in Buddhism, as you know, we tend to do many things simultaneously. By

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focusing on a Buddha to gain concentration, we also focus on the qualities of a Buddha. This
helps us to keep our perfect concentration on those qualities as well. What's more, by focusing
on a Buddha, our concentration can be accompanied with a very strong taking of refuge. In
other words, "This is the safe direction I want to go in my life." We can accompany our
concentration with a bodhichitta aim as well, in other words, "I want to become a Buddha like
this figure I'm imagining in order to be able to benefit everyone." If we can accomplish perfect
concentration on the figure of a Buddha, keeping in mind the qualities of a Buddha, and we
want to go in the safe direction a Buddha indicates and become a Buddha ourselves in order to
help everybody - if that's the package that we're gaining concentration on - then that has much
more far-reaching benefits that just concentrating on the sensation of the breath going in and
out of our nose. So, this is a vast method. That's why we call it "Mahayana": a vast vehicle of
training through vast techniques.

Visualization Methods in Tantra

Tantra is the main area in which we find the use of imagination, and so the rest of this talk is
going to be about tantra. I think that even if we're not yet involved in tantric practice, or don't
even have an intention to be involved with tantric practice at this point in our Dharma training,
it can be very helpful to have some idea of what goes on in tantra practice. This will help us to
dispel any misconceptions we might have about it, such as it's all magic, exotic sex, and that
sort of stuff. Having a clearer idea of what it is helps us to decide on a more rational basis
whether or not we would really like to involve ourselves with this level of practice.

The use of imagination in tantra is a very sophisticated topic, so I'd like to present it in a fairly
sophisticated way. Let's start on a general level. In tantra, we use our imaginations to imagine
various Buddha-figures, yidam (yi-dam) in Tibetan. These Buddha-figures are sometimes
referred to as "deities," although the Tibetan term being translated here, lhag-pay lha
(lhag-pa'i lha), actually means "higher deities." They are higher in the sense that they are not
samsaric gods in a samsaric god-realm, but are beyond the uncontrollably recurring rebirth of
limited beings. So, they're not creator gods and they're not like ancient Greek gods or anything
of the sort. Rather, all these figures represent the full enlightenment of a Buddha and each of
them also represents prominently a particular aspect of Buddhahood, like Chenrezig or
Avalokiteshvara embodying compassion and Manjushri embodying discriminating awareness
or wisdom.

When we work with these Buddha-figures, we either imagine them in front of us or on top of
our heads or, more frequently, we imagine ourselves in the form of one of them.

"Clarity" and "Pride"

When we imagine these figures, we need to work on two aspects simultaneously. These are
usually translated as "clarity" and "pride." This is somewhat misleading. One of the biggest
problems that we face as Westerners dealing with Buddhism is that most of the translation
terms are misleading.

First of all, "clarity" doesn't mean what we usually understand clarity to mean. The word
translated as clarity here doesn't mean "in focus," but rather it means "having or making
something appear." This means that our minds actually make an image appear. That's one side
of the story we have to work on, getting an image to appear. When we work with these
figures, what we try to do is to focus on what our minds make appear and, as our

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concentration develops, then the focus, the details, will improve automatically. There is no
need to strain to get all the details and everything in focus. To start with, all we need is a
rough image of something appearing, even if it is just a ball of light.

The second aspect, "pride," doesn't mean arrogance. Rather, it means feeling ourselves
actually to be this Buddha-figure or feeling that something is actually present, on our heads or
in front of us, for instance. This is a special usage of the word pride as found in the chapter on
joyful perseverance in Shantideva's Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior. There, this Indian
Buddhist master wrote:

I shall triumph over everything

And nothing shall triumph over me!
As a spiritual offspring of the Triumphant Lion,
I shall maintain this pride.
Wandering beings conquered by pride
Are disturbed: they have no pride;
For those having pride don't fall under the enemy's power,
But instead, have power over the enemy, pride...
But those who hold on to their pride in order to triumph
over the enemy, pride,
Are the holders of pride, the triumphant heroes.
And those who kill off the enemy, pride,
even though it's gargantuan,
Bestow then the fruit of triumph in full
on wandering beings, whatever they wish.

Thus, if we're visualizing something in front of us, such as a Buddha, we not only have
something appear, but we really feel that this Buddha is actually there with all the qualities of
an enlightened being.

These two aspects, as we've described them - that something is appearing and feeling that it's
actually there - are common with sutra, as when we imagine a Buddha in front of us to gain
concentration. But, as said earlier, the major use of imagining these Buddha-figures in tantra is
to imagine that we ourselves are these figures.

We can understand what to "hold the pride of the deity" means by looking at the Tibetan word
that's translated as "pride," ngagyel (nga-rgyal). This word is made up of two syllables, the
first, nga, means "me" and the second, gyel, means literally, "to triumph." When we speak of
pride as a disturbing emotion, what it really means is considering ourselves as triumphant or
better than others - in other words, "self-importance." In this context, however, the term
means "triumphing over the self" - in other words, triumphing over the ordinary concept of
ourselves, in the sense of overcoming and ridding ourselves of this concept. This means to no
longer feel that we have all the limitations, the shortcomings of our ordinary self, like being
confused, being unable to understand things, and so on. Instead, we imagine that we actually
have the qualities of this Buddha-figure - that we are Manjushri for instance: We have clarity
of mind and discriminating awareness; we are able to understand everything.

We can see from this example how misleading the word "visualization" is, because it would
lead us to think that the only thing involved is actually seeing the image. Because we're
training our imaginations, we're not only imagining this figure in the sense of it appearing, but
we're also imagining what it would be like actually to be that figure with all its qualities. For

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example, feeling like Chenrezig, we feel that we have compassion and love. So, the use of the
imagination here is quite broad.

Of these two, imagining that something is actually appearing and imagining feeling that we
have the qualities of what appears, the feeling of having the qualities is the most important.
We only need a vague image to help us keep focus, but we put our energy into trying to feel
like we have discriminating awareness, for example, and clarity of mind, and then, as our
concentration grows stronger, the details of the image will become clearer automatically.

Training the Imagination for Visualization

In order to be able to visualize a Buddha-figure, of course we have to know what that figure
looks like. But visualization of ourselves in some special form is not as difficult as we might
think. For example, try to feel your head. First, let's start by imagining something on top of
our heads. The way to do that is to put your hand on top of your head. Can you feel your hand
on top of your head? Now, take your hand away. Can you still feel the top of your head?
That's how you imagine something on your head. Focus there. All you need is some feeling of
something being there. It doesn't have to be in focus in order to do the meditation. So it's not
really that difficult.

Now, to imagine ourselves as a figure, try to be aware of your head, and also your arms and
legs, and your body. Can you be aware of your whole body? That's how you imagine that
you're a Buddha-figure. Now we may not be able to see our face, we may not be able to
visualize it, but can you feel that you have eyes, nose and a mouth? So, that's how you
visualize it, how you imagine it.

Even when these figures have many arms, that's not so difficult either. Let's try Chenrezig
with four arms. Put your hands in front of you. Do you have a feeling of that? Now put your
hands out to the side. Now imagine this being a double-exposure photo. Put your hands in you
lap. Can you still feel those four arms? It's not that difficult. This is how we work with our
imagination with these figures.

Even when it gets more complicated, it really isn't terribly difficult. Let's imagine three faces.
Put your hands on the side of your face. Try to have a feeling first of the face on the front of
your head. Now take your hands away. Can you feel a face on both your cheeks as well?

Sometimes we imagine that we're inside a mandala, which is being inside the palace in which
one of these Buddha-figures lives. That's not too difficult either. The key to this is that we're
not working with our eyes. Now we're all sitting in this room, aren't we? Can you have a
feeling that there are four walls around us? That's how you visualize a mandala. You don't
need to actually have a visual image of a wall behind you to have a feeling that there's a wall
behind. And can you be aware of the fact that there's a garden and a road outside? That's how
you visualize things outside the mandala: it's just a feeling of those things being there. So, this
is the actual process of training the imagination.

The Image Arises within Voidness

For all of this to be much more significant and meaningful, it is crucial to generate all these
feelings, images and so on within the context of our understanding of voidness.

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Voidness doesn't mean nothingness, but rather voidness is a total absence. What are absent are
impossible ways of existing that our minds make up and project onto objects and events, as
well as onto ourselves and others. The Sanskrit and Tibetan terms for this total absence are
usually translated as "emptiness," but this is a bit misleading. "Emptiness" implies something
that is empty, like an empty bottle, whereas although there is something that is devoid of
impossible ways of existing, the term here connotes only the total absence of these impossible
ways. The Sanskrit term shunya and the Tibetan translation of it, tongpa (stong-pa), after all,
are both also the words for "zero." This distinction between voidness and emptiness has an
important ramification in terms of how we meditate on this crucial Buddhist teaching.

Let's look at a simplified example of what voidness means. Suppose I have done something
destructive and, filled with guilt, I believe that I'm a monster. Nobody, however, exists as a
monster. That's totally impossible; there are no such things as actual monsters. When we focus
on voidness, we focus merely on "no such thing." What our minds are projecting does not
correspond to anything real; there is a total absence of an actual referent to our projections.

It is important to dispel all the crazy fantasies we have about ourselves, such as that we are
monsters. This is especially so in tantra where we work with our self-image, which is what
we're dealing with when we imagine ourselves as one of these Buddha-figures. We
contemplate how our usual self-image is crazy, without any real referent. We understand, "I'm
not a monster, because there are no such things as monsters." And then we recite in a tantric
visualization practice (a sadhana), "Within voidness, I arise as so-and-so."

Often this phrase we recite is translated as, "Out of voidness, I arise as so-and-so," but the
phrase doesn't mean that we leave our understanding of voidness. Rather, it is within the
sphere of all this craziness being gone, coupled with the understanding that it never
corresponded to anything real, that we then imagine ourselves as one of these figures. This
means that, within this state in which all impossible modes of existence are absent, I now arise
as what is possible in relation to my bodhichitta aim.

With bodhichitta based on love and compassion for all limited beings, we focus on our
individual enlightenments that have not yet happened, but which can happen on the basis of
our Buddha-nature qualities. The Buddha-figure that we visualize ourselves as represents that
not-yet-happened enlightened state. In other words, our actually being an enlightened being
and having all the positive qualities of such a being is possible, not impossible. Why is it
possible? Because we all have Buddha-nature, which means we all have all the potentials and
capacities to be like that. We then label "me" on the basis of those Buddha-nature factors on
our mental continuums and on our individual not-yet-happened enlightenments that can be
inferred on the basis of those factors.

This is very important because, when dispelling all these fantasies about ourselves, we also
dispel the disturbing emotions that go along with that. When we think, "I'm a monster," we
have a great deal of self-hatred and low self-esteem. When we realize that we are not a
monster - there are no such things as monsters - then disturbing emotions like low self-esteem
and self-hatred have no basis. So we dispel that. The same method works with other disturbing
emotions, such as when we think, "I'm God's gift to the world; I'm so wonderful." This is
macho arrogance. We have to dispel that as well. Then, within that absence, we arise as this
Buddha-figure based on the fact that we do indeed have the potentials to become it as part of
our Buddha-nature.

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This is not self-deception because we know we're not there, we're not yet a Buddha. But it is
not distorted or crazy either, because we have the potentials to achieve it. Of course, we could
argue that we also have the potentials to be reborn as a dog. But it's not the same thing, since
there's no benefit to be gained by imagining that we are a dog. There is, however, great benefit
to be gained by imagining that we have perfect compassion or perfect wisdom. Imagining and
practicing now as if we had perfect wisdom and so on helps us to develop these qualities more
quickly.

Obviously, it is absolutely essential not to deceive ourselves feeling that we're there already;
otherwise we never make any progress. Just as when trying to gain concentration in sutra, we
imagine a Buddha in front of us, here we imagine all the qualities of a Buddha so that it helps
us to keep them as our safe direction. Similarly with the bodhichitta aim, the wish to achieve
enlightenment to help all limited beings, imagining ourselves endowed with these Buddha
qualities makes that focus on our not-yet-happened Buddhahood even stronger. This is the
direction we want to go in and we want to achieve this goal in order to be best able to help
everyone.

Pure and Impure Appearance-Making

In order to understand the much deeper significance of working with our imaginations, we
need to understand how our minds make things appear, because this is what we're doing with
our imaginations, we're making things appear. The way that our minds make things appear is
by mixing two things, which are usually called pure appearances and impure appearances. To
really appreciate the significance of this we need to take the Tibetan word that's translated as
"appearance," nangwa (snang-ba) both as a noun and as a verb, but more as a verb. Although
we can speak about pure and impure appearances, if we just leave it at that, it sounds as if they
exist out there by themselves. What we're actually talking about is the mind's making these
things to appear. So we have pure appearance-making and impure appearance-making.

Whether we want to or not, the impure appearances exist and although we may want to ignore
them, or not believe in them, they're there. So we have to deal with them. What we want to do
is to stop our minds from making things appear in an impure way. We can do this because we
can work with our minds. If this is the only point that you remember of the following
discussion, you will have learned something very, very important.

Appearance-making, that's what we're talking about in Buddhism. This whole discussion of
tantra and of voidness is how to get our minds to stop making things appear in a crazy,
impossible way - in other words, to stop projecting fantasies.

Pure and impure appearances have two meanings. We usually don't distinguish these very
clearly, and therefore, we get very confused. Let's deal with one meaning at a time. If we put it
in simple language, one meaning is that an impure appearance is an appearance of things as if
existing in a solid manner - in other words, a crazy projection of something impossible. Pure
appearance-making is making things appear nonsolidly, the way they actually do exist. So,
"impure" is making things appear in a way in which they don't exist, a non-existent crazy way,
and "pure" is making them appear in the way that they do exist.

We can understand this better with a superficial example: when we see somebody we don't
like, our minds make two aspects appear - what the person looks like and how they exist. Let's
leave aside, for a moment, the appearance of what they look like. Concerning the appearance
of how they exist, our minds mix two appearances. In addition to how they actually exist as

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just a human being, our minds also project onto that person that they exist as a monster. What
we see then, in terms of how they exist, is a mixture of these two modes of existence. But
what predominates is that they look to me like they're a monster, a horrible person.
Conversely, we see a beautiful looking person and not only do our minds give rise to an
appearance of how they actually exist, but they also project onto them their existence being
established as "the most beautiful, sexy person I've ever seen." Based on that, we develop
sexual desire. However, if we analyze, we realize that this is not how they actually exist. This
is because if they really existed that way, as inherently sexy from their own side, then
everybody should see them as sexy, including the baby and the dog. But, obviously, they don't
see that person as sexy. So that is a projection from our minds that is mixed with the actual
appearance of how they exist. This is one level of how our minds mix pure and impure
appearances. The pure appearance is how they actually exist and the impure one is an
impossible way of existing.

The other meaning is that impure appearance refers to the ordinary appearance of what we
look like and a pure appearance is our appearance as a Buddha-figure. The impure appearance
that our minds give rise to may be either accurate or distorted, depending, for instance, on
whether or not we are wearing our glasses if, in fact, we need glasses to see clearly. Here, we
are not speaking about distorted impure appearances. But, when we speak of accurate impure
appearances and pure appearances regarding what we look like, these are like two different
quantum levels. For example, we have a visible gross body, that's one quantum level. But we
also have an invisible body composed of energy channels that in Chinese medicine are called
"meridians." This is another quantum level of our bodies. We know that these energy channels
exist because they function: you can stick acupuncture needles in certain points of this subtle
body and it affects even our gross body. A pure appearance in the form of a Buddha-figure is
just another quantum level regarding our bodies. So, the second meaning of pure and impure
appearances refers to these two levels of what we look like, the two quantum levels: the
ordinary level and the level of our appearance as a Buddha-figure.

If we factor together these two quantum levels of what we look like with the first meaning of
pure and impure appearances as regarding how we exist, then we can have a pure appearance
of how both quantum levels actually exist and an impure appearance of some impossible
mode of existence that our minds project onto either one of them. We can see how, without
being clear about these distinctions, we could become confused about this issue of pure and
impure appearances.

It is important to realize that perceiving a mixture of impure and pure appearances of how
things exist involves both our eyes and our minds. Both visual and mental consciousnesses
mix the appearance of a nonsolid identity with the appearance of a solid identity. We can
understand this through a very simple example. When we see something, what are we actually
seeing? We're seeing several things mixed together. The first thing we're seeing is
innumerable dots of light from each of the cells in our retina and we perceive them appearing
with a nonsolid manner of existence. Mixed with that, our minds put these dots together and
perceive as well the appearance of not only a conventional object, but the appearance of a
conventional object that truly exists as something solid. We're not just talking about seeing
somebody as a monster; we're talking about how our ordinary sight works.

One of the important points that Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug tradition, made is that
the object to be refuted by voidness, the thing we have to work on, is how our minds operate
every single instant of our lives. It's not something that only happens when we're insane;
Tsongkhapa is not just talking about paranoia. He's talking about how our minds ordinarily

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work. Our minds put together all the dots and project onto them not just a conventional figure,
but a conventional figure that appears to exist solidly as this or that. All the senses work like
that. When there is the sound of a voice, all these little hair-like structures inside the ear
vibrate and send electrical pulses to the brain; the brain puts these together into words and
then we understand them.

Now, the problem here is that we believe that things exist solidly, the way that the mind puts
them together and makes them appear. Let's take this point to the level of emotions. Going
back to our example, there are all these dots of light and we see the dots combined together
into a conventional object, which we take to be a spider. That's accurate. But then we project
onto the appearance of the conventionally existent spider an impossible manner of existence,
as being solidly "a spider." We scream, "Ah! There's a spider" and project onto this accurate
appearance of what it is something impossible: "It's a monster and it's going to get me." All
sorts of paranoia and fear build on that.

The basis for this scenario is putting the dots together first into a spider and then projecting
onto it a solid identity of not only a spider, but also of a monster that is going to get me. In
other words, we're not denying the accurate appearance of the dots on another level as being
the appearance of a spider. But the spider is merely a limited being that has a whole life of its
own. It's out there on the wall trying to find food and then it's going to go home to feed its
babies and so on. But we put the dots together and see them instead as being solidly "a
spider." We then no longer view it as merely a limited being with an ordinary spider life of its
own. Rather, once we've made it into a solid monolith of "a spider," then we hang onto that
framework that it's solidly and inherently existent as a monster. Based on that come our
paranoia and fear.

It is the same with the feelings that we have about ourselves. We mix a pure and impure
feeling about how we ourselves exist. The pure one is that we're open to many possibilities;
we have many facets of personality and talent; and so on. On top of that basic general feeling
of what's actually there, we mix the feeling of having a solid monolithic identity: "I'm God's
gift to the world" or "I'm a loser." Then we identify with that monolithic feeling and we
become completely neurotic. All our disturbing emotions follow from that.

Generating Ourselves as a Buddha-Figure

What we need to do first is to stop believing that we exist in the impossible ways that our
minds project we exist. For that, we need to focus on voidness, which means we need to focus
on the fact that these fantasy projections of ours don't correspond to anything real. It is very
helpful to use a rude word that shocks us into seeing that this is ridiculous, namely to think,
"This is bullshit! I'm not like this. Nobody is like this." It's bullshit that I'm God's gift to the
world, and it's also bullshit that I am this monolithic solid thing. What that leaves us with is
the feeling that the way we actually are is open to many different possibilities based on
Buddha-nature, talents and so on.

Within that absence of all this bullshit, we then arise with an identity based on the openness of
these Buddha qualities. That's how we arise in the form of a Buddha-figure. And we have the
pride of the figure, in other words, we try to feel that we are like this. Rather than feeling that
we are this monolithic God's gift to the world, we feel that we are open to many possibilities,
and with the development of these possibilities, we can become a Buddha. So that's how we
"visualize" ourselves as a deity, how we imagine that we are one of these Buddha-figures. It's
a very sophisticated process.

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The Inseparability of Samsara and Nirvana

The Sakya tradition, one of the four traditions within Tibetan Buddhism, speaks about the
inseparability of samsara and nirvana. This is taken on several levels. On one level - we've
discussed this already, I'm just putting it into another framework - is the inseparability of how
our minds make things appear solidly and non-solidly. "Inseparable" here means that they're
mixed together. If we look at anything, from one point of view we see that there's a solid
appearance-making of it; if we look from another point of view, there's a nonsolid
appearance-making of it. Even when we're a Buddha, even though our minds will no longer
make things appear to exist solidly from their own sides, nevertheless a Buddha will see that
for others it is the opposite. The minds of limited beings make things appear as if their
existence were established solidly from their own sides, and this makes inseparable samsara
and nirvana.

The other level of the inseparability of samsara and nirvana is the inseparability of our gross
ordinary appearance and our subtle appearance as a Buddha-figure. Within ourselves, we have
two quantum levels. One is the gross level of how we ordinarily appear; the other quantum
level is the subtle appearance that we have in terms of these Buddha-figures. So, out of the
clear light mind, our energy appears in a gross and a subtle form. The gross is impure; the
subtle is pure. The gross is samsara; the subtle is nirvana, used in a special sense. We're not
talking about the subtle body with the channels and so on that we find in other tantra systems,
we're talking about a pure subtle body. Buddha has this also. Buddha appears as a
Nirmanakaya, a Corpus of Emanations, in ordinary looking forms, and as a Sambhogakaya, a
Corpus of Full Use, in those incredible Buddha-figure forms that only highly realized
bodhisattvas can see. The Sakya tradition makes this point more clearly than the other
traditions do.

I think the easiest way to relate to this is considering two quantum levels within our bodies
that are mixed. If we look at the whole package of our bodies from one point of view, we see
an ordinary person and if we look at it from another point of view, we see a Buddha-figure.
That's one of the keys for understanding the tantra vision of seeing ourselves as a
Buddha-figure or seeing our spiritual mentor as a Buddha, and so forth. When we work in
tantra with visualization, with imagination, we are switching to a pure level from an impure
level, not only in terms of the appearance of nonsolidity; but we are also switching quantum
levels to the plane of a Buddha-figure.

Our minds can make this mixture of the two quantum levels appear as having either solid or
nonsolid existence. The problem is, however, that our minds are automatically going to make
this appearance that we have as a Buddha-figure, based on Buddha-nature, appear as a solid
identity. Then we might feel that we now have this solid identity like, "Yes! I have clarity of
mind." "Yes! I have wisdom. I'm Manjushri." .It doesn't have to be as emotional as that, it
could be quite subtle, but still there's this feeling of solidity. When we're doing this, we forget
about all the other aspects of ourselves, so we think that this is "my monolithic solid identity."
However, we know that we're not there yet.

Applying This in Ordinary Daily Lives

This is a marvelous method for gaining insight into how our minds normally work, because
we can apply the analogy of what we're experiencing with this Buddha-figure to our ordinary
perception in life. This helps us not to grasp at that solid feeling of our ordinary identities of

The Inseparability of Samsara and Nirvana 10

 Visualization

"I'm a loser" or whatever, because we know by analogy that, although we might solidly feel
like a loser, we don't actually exist like that, just as we know that although I might solidly feel
as though I'm Manjushri and I'm so wise, I'm not really like that yet. Transferring this insight
to our ordinary experience helps us to understand voidness in our ordinary life, as well as to
overcome our disturbing emotions.

By projecting this imagination of a Buddha-figure and focusing totally on that and on the
feeling of being that, we temporarily stop projecting our ordinary appearance of a solid
identity. This is not the same as stopping the projection of our ordinary appearance when we
go to sleep. That's not so helpful; it doesn't do anything. What's significant here is that, not
only do we stop projecting our ordinary solid appearance, but we've generated this special
appearance within the context of our understanding of voidness. This starts to build up a habit
of generating even our ordinary gross appearance within the context of the understanding of
voidness, just as we have done with this special appearance. Thus, we take a break from our
habitual ordinary solid appearance-making. Even though we might feel solidly like this
Buddha-figure generated within the context of voidness, our grasp on it is much weaker than
usual because we remember we've generated it while understanding its voidness. Thus,
visualization in Buddhist tantra is not the same as "the power of positive thinking" or "creative
visualization," with which we imagine the ideal golf shot before taking the shot. Those
methods lack the understanding of voidness, not to mention that they lack a bodhichitta aim.

Viewing Ourselves as a Buddha-Figure All Day Long

In tantra practice, we try to visualize ourselves as a Buddha-figure not only in meditation, but
all day long. Likewise, we visualize all others as Buddha-figures and our environment as a
mandala - the palace and pure surroundings of a Buddha-figure. Nevertheless, we need to
walk around and function and do ordinary things in life. The view of inseparable samsara and
nirvana suggests a good way to understand how to do this.

If we're going about our daily lives while seeing ourselves only as a Buddha-figure and
everything around us as a mandala palace, we're probably going to soon be hit by a car. What
we need to do instead, while walking around all day, is to see the two quantum levels of pure
and impure appearance superimposed on each other. This is symbolized quite nicely in the
Nyingma tradition manner of visualizing mandalas, for instance. In those visualizations, we
visualize the walls of the mandala as consisting of two levels of image superimposed on each
other. One level is as five thin walls pasted together, with each wall being a different color
light. Another level is as three thin walls pasted together, with each being made of skulls in
different stages of decomposition. We superimpose and visualize both levels simultaneously.
This trains us to see other types of different levels superimposed. This is not so difficult to do
when we use our imaginations and doing so trains us to see both the ordinary level and the
Buddha-figure level of appearance superimposed in daily life. The Gelug tradition provides a
technical description of how it's done.

Anuttarayoga tantra, the highest class of tantra, has two stages of practice. On the first stage,
the generation stage, we see ordinary appearances with our eye consciousness, but our mental
consciousness superimposes on them the image of Buddha-figures and mandalas. We
conceive of these impure appearances as being pure. Then, on the second stage, the complete
stage, starting with its first step called "body isolation," we're able to actually work with the
energy-winds of the eye consciousness and generate them in the form of a Buddha-figure. In
so doing, the pure appearances of Buddha-figures and mandalas are no longer cognized
through a conceptual process.

Applying This in Ordinary Daily Lives 11

 Visualization

If we study the different Tibetan traditions we get different views that, when put together,
make our understanding as to how the process of visualizing ourselves as Buddha-figures
actually works much more completely. It's like the three blind men describing the elephant.
One touches the legs, one touches the trunk, one touches the ears and, when we put together
all the information they derive, we get the picture of the elephant.

The Benefits of Superimposing Appearances

The benefit of seeing these two levels simultaneously all day long - the superimposition of the
ordinary appearance and the appearance of a Buddha-figure - is that it helps us to understand
that we also mix together an appearance of ordinary solid reality and nonsolid reality. In other
words, it helps us to gain the insight that we do not exist in the world simply in the way in
which we ordinarily appear to exist. On another level, it helps us not to identify solidly with
our ordinary gross appearance, let's say of being old and fat and incompetent. Rather, it helps
us to feel that we also possess these various Buddha-qualities, but of course within the context
of our understanding of voidness. This, in turn, helps us to deal with our lives with a much
more positive attitude, without risking the danger of inflation of our egos.

Furthermore, by focusing on a Buddha-figure in meditation, let's say on ourselves as a

Buddha-figure, it's much easier to develop perfect absorbed concentration than by focusing on
our gross bodies. That's another advantage. The reason for this is that our gross bodies are
constantly changing. Our body position is always altering slightly, even while sitting in
meditation. Also, one day we're feeling good and the next day we're feeling not-so-good, and
so on. There are various aches and pains, not to mention itches. Because of these constant
changes, we don't have a consistent stable object to focus on for gaining absorbed
concentration. By contrast, if we focus on this Buddha-figure that we imagine, that
Buddha-figure doesn't change. We can always go back to the same visualization. What we're
imagining always stays the same, so it's much easier to develop stable concentration on it.

It's also much easier to gain full concentration on the voidness of the imagined Buddha-figure
than it is to achieve total concentration on the voidness of our bodies. Voidness itself doesn't
change; but here, if the basis for voidness - in other words, the thing that doesn't exist in
impossible ways - is something constantly changing like our bodies, then the voidness of it
gets somehow - the word they use in Tibetan is "infected" by that instability. By contrast, if
the basis for voidness is something that doesn't change, then it's much easier to keep stable
focus on its voidness. So, by focusing on the voidness of the Buddha-figure, it's easier to
understand voidness itself.

The Gelug Prasangika Interpretation

What are we doing when we identify ourselves with a Buddha-figure? We are labeling
ourselves, calling ourselves a Buddha-figure on the basis of our Buddha-natures. Yet we can't
find that Buddha-nature and we can't find a solid Buddha inside us. We understand, however,
that this is a valid labeling of ourselves as a Buddha-figure. We're labeling ourselves as a
Buddha-figure, the second quantum level, on the basis of our Buddha-natures. But we can't
find that Buddha-nature and we can't pinpoint this second quantum level of being the
Buddha-figure, and yet we understand that this is a valid labeling. We assume that quantum
level as a Buddha-figure because we have the Buddha-nature factors that will allow us to
achieve that level. Thus, we exist as a Buddha-figure merely in so far as we can be validly
labeled as such. There's nothing solid and findable inside us making us that.

Viewing Ourselves as a Buddha-Figure All Day Long 12

 Visualization

So, what actually is this Buddha-figure that we are? If we can't actually find it, we can't
actually see it, it's merely what the valid label, or our imagination of it, refers to. In this way
it's easier to understand that, in general, our existence as this or that, as a mother, as a laborer,
as whatever, is established by valid mental labeling alone and not by the power of something
solid and findable inside us. For example, suppose that we conventionally exist as a mother.
What establishes that we exist as a mother? We exist as a mother because we can be validly
called a mother based on the fact that we have children. There's nothing inside us that we can
point to that makes us "mother" by its own power, independently of anything else.

This is very important to understand, because if we unconsciously imagine that there's

something inside us making us "mother" by its own power, then we have to be "mother" all
the time to everybody. Then all the neurotic syndromes come up because of identifying with
being solidly "mother." We only exist as mother in as much as we can be called "mother" and
such a label or name is valid because it is dependent on the fact that we have children. This
reasoning leads us then to be validly established as a friend on the basis of our friends, as a
business woman on the basis of our work, and so on. And so this allows us a tremendous
amount of openness to be of help to everybody. We call this type of existence "dependent
arising."

What I've been describing is the Gelug interpretation of the Indian Madhyamaka Prasangika
school of tenets. There are four Indian Buddhist schools of philosophical thought. In addition,
there are four Tibetan Buddhist traditions, and each of them has a different way of
understanding each of the four Indian schools. This gets rather complicated. But the Gelug
presentation of the Prasangika view is that the existence of all phenomena is established
merely by mental labeling. There is nothing findable on the side of any object that by its
power, either alone or in conjunction with mental labeling, establishes the existence of
anything.

We can understand this much more easily by working with imagination of ourselves as a
Buddha-figure, because it is quite obvious that we can't find anything inside ourselves that's
making or establishing us as a Buddha-figure, not even a findable Buddha-nature. We can
establish that we exist as a Buddha-figure merely by the fact that we can validly imagine
ourselves that way and validly refer to ourselves in that way and validly feel that we are like,
on the basis of our Buddha-nature factors. Dependent merely on that fact - this is what we
mean by "dependent arising" - we can say that we do exist as a Buddha-figure, despite there
being nothing inside us, solid and findable, that's making us exist in that way.

There are deeper levels of understanding the importance of visualization and imagination, but
this is deep enough for us to gain an appreciation of how sophisticated the use of imagination
is in Buddhism.

Summary
In summary, this has been our survey of the process of visualization, the use of imagination in
Buddhism. As we can see, it is a very worthwhile and sophisticated method of practice. At all
levels of working with it, from the simplest level of imagining how a young attractive person
is going to look like at 80 years old, all the way up to the most sophisticated level,
visualization helps us to overcome our disturbing emotions and consequently our problems
and difficulties. It enables us to use our potentials more fully to be of best help to everyone.
Although using the imagination is by no means an easy method, it is a very effective one for
attaining liberation and going on to become a Buddha.

The Gelug Prasangika Interpretation 13

 Visualization

Questions
Question: Following your last reasoning, shall we conclude that Buddha-nature itself is also
void?

Alex: Yes, everything is void of impossible modes of existence. Whatever actually exists,
which means whatever is validly knowable, there's nothing findable inside it that establishes
its existence. Something findable inside an object is an impossible way of establishing that
that object exists, because there is no such thing as something findable inside it. What
voidness negates is the impossible way of existing, by which there is something inside, solid
and findable, that by its own power establishes its existence and gives it therefore a solid,
permanent identity that has not and can never be affected by anything. So, the only thing that
we can say, if we have to say something about what establishes that things exist is mental
labeling alone.

This doesn't mean that mental labeling creates them, since we can mentally label someone a
monster and that doesn't make them a monster. What establishes the existence of something is
that it is merely the referent object of names and concepts, as validated by valid cognition of
that referent object. This fact pertains to everything, including Buddha-nature, enlightenment,
Buddhas, and even voidness itself. Obviously, we need to think deeply about this in order to
understand and realize that it is true.

We tend to wonder, perhaps from our Western scientific point of view, "What makes me,
me?" And we might say, "Well, it's the genetic pattern of the chromosomes in my cells; it's
my unique genome. That's something inside me that makes me who I am." But Buddhism
would say "Hey! Look a little closer than that. These chromosomes and genes are made up of
molecules, and the molecules are made up of atoms, which are made up of subatomic
particles, which in turn are made up of fields of energy. Where is there anything findable?"
There is nothing solid, findable inside us making us who we are. There's nothing solid inside
the chromosomes making them chromosomes.

So, we exist as who we are because people can conceive of us and think of us and label us and
call us by our name and it's a correct label. And that's all! Nothing else is needed to establish
our existence. That is what is meant by "mental labeling only." Buddhism has a very
complicated and full discussion on how do we know that a label or a name is correct. But
again, just because I call that cushion a dog doesn't make it a dog. But valid ways of knowing
is another huge topic in Buddhist studies and we cannot go into that tonight.

Question: We don't have any understanding of what a Buddha is; we can hardly imagine what
can that mean or what can that be. Whatever we think a Buddha is, is only a projection of our
minds. So, if I can only project that, then when I visualize a Buddha-figure, that's a mere
projection. How can I know if this projection of a Buddha-figure is correct or incorrect? In
other words, do I have to merely trust my Buddha-nature - that because of my Buddha-nature,
the way I project the Buddha-figure in front of me is correct, or what?

Alex: I think that the Sakya approach of inseparable samsara and nirvana can help us with this
question. According to the Sakya system, not only are samsara and nirvana inseparable - with
samsara and nirvana being understood to have many different levels of meaning - but also the
basis, path and result levels are inseparable. So, when we are seeing someone as a Buddha, the
basis level of that is Buddha-nature, the potentials that will allow that. The resultant level, the
final level, is the actual state of Buddhahood that people can attain and which now exists as a

Questions 14
 Visualization

potential. The pathway for going from the basis to the result is our different levels of more and
more accurate conceptualization and realization of that Buddhahood.

So, when we are viewing somebody as a Buddha, these three aspects are inseparably mixed
together. Our pathway conceptualization of what Buddhahood is like, which is on the basis of
the foundation level - the Buddha-nature factors - is just an approximation of the result,
Buddhahood. It's only natural that the pathway level is an approximation; it can't be anything
else. Of course we need to validate our approximation according to the various descriptions of
a Buddha that we read. We don't want to have an approximation, let's say, that a Buddha is
omnipotent like the description of God Almighty in the Bible. That is not a quality of a
Buddha. If our conceptualization is based on the actual scriptural descriptions and so on, then
we can validly work with it even though it is an approximation.

Question: How can we work with these Buddha-figures when we have this very strong
cultural barrier toward them in their original iconography - Tibetan, Indian or whatever.
Because they're so strange, so alien to us, to our culture and way of seeing, I can't relate to
them. So is it valid that, for example, when I try to develop compassion, if instead of
visualizing Chenrezig, I visualize a face that has been meaningful for me - a face filled with
compassion or love or wisdom or whatever.

Alex: Well, we have to be a little careful here. First of all, all these Buddha-figures were also
alien to Tibetan culture, yet the Tibetans were able to eventually, over time, feel comfortable
with them. Being from a different culture is not an inherent barrier. Second, these figures are
not just to be taken at face value. They are used in a very sophisticated method. All the arms,
faces and so on represent many different levels of meanings and bear profound symbolism.
They stand, for example, for many different realizations that we're trying to have in our minds
simultaneously. To try to have 24 insights simultaneously in our minds is very difficult if we
do it abstractly, not only conceptually but also nonconceptually. We're talking about love,
patience, understanding and so forth. But if we represent these 24 insights or qualities
graphically with 24 arms, it's much easier to imagine all of these at the same time. Therefore,
visualization of these multi-armed, multi-face figures is a device to help us keep all the things
they represent simultaneously in our minds.

So, we need to be very careful not to throw away one of the most important purposes of these
figures, which is to have all these arms and legs and faces. However when the iconography of
these figures went from one country to another - from India not only to Tibet, but also to
China and Japan - the facial features, for example, changed from Indian to Chinese features.
Some of the clothing also changed. The most drastic change was that Avalokiteshvara
underwent a sex change and became female in China. He was male in India and Tibet. So,
there are certain things that on a superficial level can be adapted, but one has to be very
careful. To make any cultural adaptations, as my teachers have pointed out again and again,
requires pretty much thorough knowledge of both the original culture and the culture that
you're going into, and, of course, full knowledge of Buddhism. This requires a very broad
understanding, not just deep but broad.

Question: I understand that there are two ways of dissolving a visualization, and I want to
know if this is correct. One of them is, for example, when we visualize Vajrasattva on top of
our heads, at the end of our practice he melts and dissolves into light and comes to our heart.
Right? That's one kind of dissolution. The other one is like with the merit field, where one
figure dissolves into another. Is that correct?

Questions 15
 Visualization

Alex: There are many different ways of dissolving a visualization. One is certainly that the
visualization dissolves into our heart. This has many purposes in terms of understanding how
appearances come from the clear light mind and so on. Sometimes visualizations, as you say,
collapse into themselves and then either dissolve into voidness or dissolve into us. Sometimes
visualizations expand until they become the size of the universe and dissolve that way.
Sometimes visualizations go off to a Buddha-field. So there are many different ways and each
of them has its own specific purpose.

Dedication
Let us now dissolve our session then with a dedication - another way to dissolve an
appearance. We think that whatever understanding, insight and positive force we might have
gained tonight, may that grow more and more. Particularly, what we've discussed tonight has
not been easy; it's very sophisticated. So we hope that our understanding of it will grow
deeper and deeper as we listen to the tapes or read the transcription and try to understand more
and more, if we are interested in doing so. May we be able to derive more and more benefit
from integrating these teachings into our practice and into our personalities, so that they can
help us overcome difficulties and realize more and more of our potentials to be of best help to
everyone. And may we try to put all the pieces of the Dharma puzzle together, so that we
understand more and more and can derive more and more benefit from the teachings and the
practices.

Take for instance, the advise of looking at the spiritual teacher as a Buddha while the teacher
is teaching - which, by the way, is a practice for only very advanced disciples, not for
beginners. It is for practitioners who already have put the safe direction of refuge into their
lives and who have a bodhichitta aim of working to become a Buddha in order to be able to
benefit everyone. For that kind of practitioner, then, it's very beneficial to see the spiritual
teacher as a Buddha while receiving teachings. But what does that mean?

We need to put the pieces of the Dharma puzzle together. That means switching quantum
levels from the ordinary level to the Buddha-nature, Buddha-figure level. Remember,
inseparable samsara and nirvana. The teacher has shortcomings, but also good qualities,
inseparably. One is the gross level; one is the more subtle level. The subtle level is the good
qualities. Just as in meditation, we would only focus on the subtle level for various beneficial
reasons, likewise while receiving teachings we would also focus just on the more subtle level
of the teacher in terms of this more subtle quantum level of being a Buddha. That will allow
us to focus on and appreciate the teacher's good qualities while receiving teachings, which
will help us to have the most open and receptive mind to try to understand what the teacher is
saying. To focus on the gross problems of the teacher while listening to teachings distracts us
from what he or she is saying. It's not at all helpful at the time of listening to the teachings.

Nevertheless, regarding the teacher as a Buddha while listening to teachings, in other words
focusing on this more subtle quantum level, doesn't mean that we lose our ability to
discriminate between the teacher saying something correct or something incorrect. That's
there. Seeing a different quantum level does not preclude the functioning of discriminating
awareness. So, in this way we need to put together all the pieces of the Dharma puzzle in
order to really understand on a deeper level some of the most confusing teachings.

May our understanding and our process of putting the pieces together grow more and more, so
that we can truly be of best help to everyone.

Dedication 16