Basically, there are three things in the evolution of all this.

• First of all, as a start, our mind merely labels the object.
• Second, the negative imprints left by previous concepts of inherent existence project the appearance of inherent existence that the object we’re looking at now exists from its own side, that there’s a real bell there—not a bell from our mind, but a bell from the side of the bell. This is a totally, totally wrong idea—a complete hallucination projected onto the bell.
• Third, we allow our mind to believe that this is one hundred percent true. We allow our mind to hold on to this, to grasp this, as completely, one hundred percent true—that there’s a real bell over there, that that’s the reality.

This is ignorance. At that moment, we are making our mind ignorant, unknowing. We are making our mind ignorant as to the actual nature of the bell, which in reality is totally empty from its own side. What exists is merely labeled by the mind. The bell, which is totally empty from its own side, exists merely in name. Being unaware of this is an example of how we make our mind ignorant.

Hallucination

Just as this applies to the example of the bell, so is it true for all other phenomena. Starting from our I, the way we see ourselves, everything we perceive is as hallucinated as our view of the bell. Our view is completely wrong and so too is the belief that we hold on to. Starting with the subject, I, whatever we perceive in the course of a twenty-four hour day does not exist the way in which we believe.

Think of everything we see during the course of one day; all the objects of form with which our eye sense comes into contact - shapes and colors, billions and billions of things wherever we look.

No matter which of these billions of objects we observe, we see each one in just the same way as I described our view of the bell. Just as we don’t see the bell as merely labeled by the mind, similarly, we don’t see anything else we look at in its true nature, as merely labeled by the mind and totally empty from its own side. Even though, were we to analyze the bell’s mode of existence logically, scientifically, we would understand the way in which it exists, that’s not how we see it. The bell we see is something else altogether. In the same way, we misperceive every other object of form that appears to our eye consciousness. When we go into a supermarket or department store where even one section contains thousands of objects, we don’t see even one of them in the way it exists. We’re in a totally different world from the one that actually exists; our world is something else completely. What we see does not exist in the supermarket or the department store. In reality, what we see exists nowhere.

Everything we see is cloaked in hallucination. We go into a store and our mind labels things "this, this, this, this, this," but a layer of inherent existence completely covers all these objects merely labeled by mind. To us they appear as not merely labeled by mind, as existing from their own side—an appearance that is totally non-existent, a complete hallucination. This hallucination encases the entire world of form, a world that exists merely in name.

It’s the same with sound. Before I was talking about forms, visual objects of the sense of eye. But we perceive much more than that. We have four other senses—hearing, smell, taste and touch. Thus, sounds also exist merely in name and not from their own side. But again, we hallucinate with every sound we hear, believing it to be inherently existent, when it’s exactly the opposite.

Every object of every sense exists merely in name, as a valid base merely labeled by the mind. But as long as we don’t develop the wisdom realizing emptiness, we’ll never see sense objects in their nature, the way they exist.

Instead, we cloak these merely labeled sense objects in the hallucination of existence from their own side and hang to that as true, allow our mind to believe in our own hallucination that there really is something there. Because we do not practice mindfulness meditation on emptiness or dependent arising—mindfulness on the hallucination that it is a hallucination—we constantly make our mind more and more ignorant.

For example, when we dreaming, we can practice mindfulness that this is but a dream. Similarly, during the day, we can practice mindfulness that what we’re seeing is but a hallucination. If we do this, we’re not meditating on something that exists as a hallucination—we’re meditating that a hallucination is a hallucination. As a result, what comes into our heart is an understanding of emptiness, the ultimate nature of the circle of three - I, action and object. By doing this, we stop making our mind increasingly ignorant. We stop constantly creating the basis for emotional thoughts, delusions, attachment—those unnecessary minds that bring no benefit, only harm, and motivate karma that becomes the cause of samsara and all its realms of suffering.

What is the mind?

What’s true for the physical senses, as above, is also true for the mind, the perceiver, itself. The mind is a phenomenon too. What is the mind? It is a phenomenon that is not body, not substantial, has no form, no shape, no color, but, like a mirror, can clearly reflect objects. Objects appear to the mind and the mind can perceive these objects. As long as a mirror is not dirty, it will reflect whatever object comes before it clearly. Similarly, since the mind is unobstructed by substance, form, objects can appear to it. The phenomenon that is mind perceives objects.

So, that is the base. In relation to that phenomenon, our thought creates, merely imputes, the label "mind," and that’s how the mind exists. The mind also exists merely in name; what we call mind has been merely labeled by thought. It’s like when a person is given a name. Mine is Zopa. Actually, it’s Thubten Zopa, and my abbot gave it to me. According to tradition, when an abbot ordains new monks, he gives them his first name. My abbot’s first name was Thubten, and then he added the Zopa. With his mind, he labeled me "Zopa." You received your name in a similar way. Whether you named yourself or your parents gave it to you, your name is a mind-created label.

In the same way, then, what’s called mind is also a name. We think there’s a real mind—a real mind existing from there. That’s how it appears to us and, without a shadow of doubt, we believe one hundred percent in this appearance. But if we analyze this phenomenon called mind, it’s no different from the name given to you by your parents, which was created by their mind. What you call mind has been merely labeled by your thought in relation to its base, that formless phenomenon that has neither shape nor color, whose nature is clear and that has the ability to perceive objects. That is the base and "mind" is the label. They’re two distinct phenomena, not one. They’re not separate, but they’re different. That’s what we have to realize—that these two phenomena are different. This is what we have to discover through meditation. By doing this we can begin to free ourselves from the hallucination that is the root of all suffering. This is how we start to liberate ourselves from samsara.

Schools of Buddhist philosophy and the object of refutation

I started this discussion by saying how everything exists as merely labeled by mind, and then went on to clarify that simply labeling things is not enough to bring them into existence, that just because something is merely labeled, it exists. Then I went on to mention the three things required for something to exist: a valid base, not receiving harm from another’s valid mind, and not receiving harm from the wisdom realizing emptiness.

Now, going back to the bell. As I mentioned before, the way the bell appears to us and the way in which we believe it to exist are slightly beyond the way it actually exists, which is in mere name, as merely labeled by the mind. This difference is a very subtle hallucination that, in Buddhist philosophical teachings, is called the "object to be refuted," or the "object of refutation."

There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy—Vaibashika (che-tra-mra-wa), Sautrantika (do-de-pa), Cittamatra (sem-tsam) and Madhyamika (u-ma-pa). The fourth of these is the Middle Way school and is divided into two: Svatantrika (rang-gyu-pa) and Prasangika (thal-gyur-wa).