QUESTION
Hello Venerable Robina,
I have a question which needs to be resolved in my head and thank you for helping me in this regard.
Manifestations come maybe from a seed but: Where the seed comes from?
What generates the first manifestation? Energy? Vibration?
The sutra of rice grain speaks about “from the grain…” but the grain comes from where?
That is my headache for the New Year. 🙁
Happy Holidays to you with so much love…
Q
ANSWER
Good to hear from you, Q.
If we posit the natural law of cause and effect — which certainly Buddhism does — then there can’t be such a thing as a first cause. We all want one! But it’s a misconception.
If we could get back to a very first moment of something, it implies it didn’t have a cause, and that’s just not viable.
Of course, relatively there is the first moment of something, when all the conditions come together and something starts to function, but it all comes from previous causes.
Therefore everything that exists is a beginningless process: this comes from that, which comes from this, and so on: all matter and all minds.
As His Holiness jokes in his discussions with scientists: “Big bang? No problem! Just not the first big bang, that’s all!”
What do you think?
Love,
Robina
QUESTION
I think that I have to meditate more profoundly and integrate this wisdom, to make it a natural part of me. It is a piece of a puzzle that is a great joy for me to study.
I feel some way like an orphan since Lama Zopa is not teaching anymore!
And it is why I appreciate your response, so fast and so clear… It makes me remember that books and computers will never replace the words of a teacher. I need guidance again and always. Would you help me?
The fact that you respond makes me feel so strongly that I need a teacher to guide my steps, and how wrong I am to think that I can manage now by myself like a lonely cowboy, a navigation through the Dharma, even if I am studying for a long time and write a calendar to follow… and don’t!
Lama Zopa sent me a plan to study for life, however these days, something is missing and I am struggling with sadness… “There are some pebbles in the way of my mental continuum…” 🙁
With love, I wish you the most joyous and healthy New Year.
Thank you!
Q
ANSWER
Q: I’m so glad to be able to help you, so keep in touch.
Marvelous that you have all the instructions from Rinpoche. Keep them in your heart and know that they’re for lifetimes!
Much love,
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,
I read again your response to my question and the missing marble just fits perfectly. It is comforting to feel Eureka! I get it! Where was my brain running loose!
A small question and a response that opens an immense field… Thank you!
Certainly more questions will show up, I have so much to learn and I am so happy to be forever involved in this quest!
It is a benediction, I am grateful forever. 🙂
Q
ANSWER
Good, Q!
The Christians have extensive teachings on how there can be a first cause, which of course they say is the creator. But for the Buddha this is not viable. And an unnecessary embellishment.
We create ourselves, moment by moment. His Holiness says the law of karma is like self-creation.
Each moment of this moment of mind or that bit of matter is necessarily the result of a previous cause: no choice but beginninglessness!
Keep moving!
Love,
Robina