The reason that there is always fighting is not because of appearances, but because of the characteristics of appearances. Understand appearances and the characteristics of appearances. Phenomena are merely appearances and the characteristics of appearances are the aspects of appearances.

Appearances are “something there, something that is always happening.”

For example, fire and water. Both are appearances. The characteristic of water is that it is wet and fluid.

The characteristic of fire is that it burns and is hot. The characteristic of wind is that is light and is always moving. The characteristic of the sky is that it is openness. All of these elements are appearances, but the sky remains open.

Maggots in the sewage tank, for them this is a happy and enjoyable place for them to be. In the human perspective, it is disgusting. So, the sewage on one level is mere appearance. But the characteristic depends on the phenomena of sentient beings. So, for the maggot, the characteristic of the appearance for the sewage is that it is a home. Human beings see the characteristics of the phenomena as the appearance of being gross, but from the phenomena of appearances, it is just appearance. The phenomena just appear. But from the perspective of characteristic, this is where disagreements occur. So be able to distinguish.

Be skillful if real to the characteristic of appearances. This is like nang la drup, establishing the divinity of all appearances, the characteristic of your appearance as the characteristic of appearance. You slowly refine progression of stages from the lower to the highest realm. For example, hell realm to the hungry ghost realm to the human realm to the god realm to the spirit realm. If you don’t separate the two, they get meshed together to what people experience are the characteristics of appearances. They do not experience just appearances.

As practitioners, you need to be able to discern appearances and the characteristics of appearances. You can choose the sewage as garbage or you can choose sewage as pure pristine water.

~ Thinley Norbu, November 1999