There is no emptiness without appearance, and there is no appearance without emptiness. That is what we call the interdependent nature.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the interconnectedness of existence, suggesting that concepts like emptiness and appearance rely on each other.
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche's quote reflects a fundamental principle in many philosophical and spiritual traditions, particularly in Buddhism. It emphasizes that emptiness and appearance are not separate entities but are mutually dependent. Appearance cannot be understood without acknowledging the underlying emptiness that gives rise to it, and vice versa. This interdependent nature illustrates how our understanding of the world is shaped by contrasting elements that define one another.
In practice
In a discussion about Buddhism, this quote can illustrate the concept of interdependence.
To discover your real questions, simply take a time-out. Stop looking ahead of yourself at where you’re going or backward at where you’ve been. When you do stop, there’s a sense of going nowhere. There’s a sense of gap, which is a tremendous relief. You can simply breathe and be who you are.
The true opponent in a debate on emptiness is your own ego.
Sometimes we are too polite with our suffering and allow it to dominate our life.
There is no inherent awakening power in cultural forms that have become dissociated from the wisdom and practicality that gave birth to them. They turn into illusions themselves and become part of the drama of religious culture. Although they can make us happy temporarily, they can't free us from suffering, so at some point, they become a source of disappointment and discouragement. Eventually, these forms may inspire nothing more than resistance to their authority.
It is not about how much you give, it is about how much you can let go with your mind.
It is all up to us. We are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature of our mind. there is nobody else in control of our lives, our experiences, our freedom or our bondage.
Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.
Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.
Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God. . . . We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
Our challenge is to join forces of the old and the new- experience and experiment, history and destiny, the world of man and the new world of science- but always in accordance with the never-changing word of God.
The duty of holding a Neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and amity toward other Nations.
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