Intellectual Understanding Isn’t Enough
Lama Yeshe explains how we reinforce our delusions through repetition, and that contemplation with method and wisdom provides the experience we need for successful meditation in this teaching from Kathmandu, Nepal, December 14, 1976 to January 8, 1977. This teaching is published in chapter 14 of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe.
"The environment (sensory world), sentient beings, the self-existent entity and cognition (in general)—all these appearances of mental consciousness strongly grow (from the repeated imprints of superstition); these (appearances) do not exist (in the way they are perceived). (Therefore) because the object does not exist (as it appears), the subject (perceiving the object) also does not exist (as it appears)."
– U tha nam che, Chapter 1, Stanza 4
Each time we have delusion, our appearances become thicker and thicker. For example, our memories of our home or the neighborhood supermarket will frequently come into our minds. These memories come from imprints that have been placed on our consciousness and remain there continuously. When we sit down and try to meditate on a subject again and again, these memories come up again and again. We don’t want them, but we can’t stop them. Intellectual understanding isn’t enough; we need method and wisdom. We start with our intellectual understanding. Then we practice contemplation, from which experience comes.
Roughly speaking, we talk about two types of sense objects: inert material forms and sentient beings, beings with mind. These objects in the external sense world appear to our consciousness. But the appearances of these things don’t exist in the way they are perceived. The various appearances of the material world, sentient beings, the self-existent I, all our sense perceptions—all these appearing things do not exist in the way we perceive them. We can say this in another way: that is, the entire sense world does not exist as perceived because we only perceive our limited dualistic view. This is especially true with regard to our perceptions of the ego—“I am”—and each other.
Nevertheless, our deluded perceiving consciousness continues to grow because the imprints of dualistic appearance are repeated billions of times. For example, when we see the color white, the object of our sense consciousness is manifested from our consciousness. The imprint is manifested from our consciousness into a color, which then appears to us. There’s no color white sitting there waiting for us to perceive it. When our consciousness looks at the environment, the environment comes into existence.