and blood, filthy and loathsome. For animals water is merely for drinking, and for
human beings it is for drinking and washing. For the gods this same water is
experienced as nectar. And to the buddhas and bodhisattvas who reside in the
pure-lands, water, as buddha consort Mamaki, appears as pure buddha-nature. It is
similar with all the other elements.
Are all these various perceptions valid? Everything that appears to the six kinds
of beings does so according to their various karma and is valid for themselves. But
the higher the level of rebirth, the thinner the karmic obscuration and the greater
the degree of validity of one’s perceptions. In Beacon of Certainty, Jamgon Mipham
says,
As more and more delusion is clarified,
According to the view from below,
The higher the level, the greater the validity:
And that proposition we may accept.When Surchung Sherab Drakpa’s fame was universal, a contentious scholar
called “Bajetong” came to him to discuss the nature of reality. He found Sherab
Drakpa doing circumambulation around a temple. Approaching, he asked
permission to sit on the mat that he laid down, saying that he had some questions
to ask. Surchung Sherab Drakpa gave him permission to question him about his
doubt. The geshe picked up a stone and said, “You Nyingmapas believe this stone
to be Buddhalochana. Isn’t that so?” Surchung Sherab Drakpa replied, “In the
ultimate vision, it is, of course, Buddhalochana.” “Then it is not actually a stone?”
the geshe asserted triumphantly. “If we look at its illusory appearance, it is solid
stone,” the master replied. He then asked the geshe, “Do you dare to deny or
denigrate the power of karma?” At this, the geshe lost confidence in his
hypothesis. Later he became one of Surchung Sherab Drakpa’s eight lineage-
holding disciples. It is very important, therefore, to know the distinction between
the apparent condition and the true condition, between the conditioned state and
the reality, between relative and ultimate, and between mental fabrication and the
natural state of all material things.
1.8 ALL PHENOMENA ARE UNREAL: ALL IS JUST A DELUSIVE DISPLAY OF MIND
Some people say that an event cannot be accepted if it has not been seen with the
eyes. A couple of decades ago, the Nepalese teacher Kapil, a communist ideologue,
maintained publicly that there was no rebirth because no one alive can personally
vouch for it. If it truly existed, he maintained, then it could be positively affirmed
through the powers of the senses: since no one has seen it, it doesn’t exist. I say
that this argument—that all unsensed things are thereby nonexistent—is not
worthy of consideration. If we insist on believing only what we see or hear, then
we must give up belief that our ancestors once existed in this world. Even if we
were to live to the age of 150—and no one does—this world is so vast that it is
highly unlikely that we would have actually met our ancestors and therefore be