Geshe Michael Roach on how to see emptiness

In these four videos, Geshe Michael Roach shares his experience of seeing emptiness directly and explains the paths to achieving this unique spiritual experience.

The Supporting Causes

In this video, Geshe Michael Roach shares practical advice and personal stories about how to prepare for one of the most profound spiritual experiences — the direct perception of emptiness. According to Buddhist teachings, this experience transforms a person at the deepest level and is a crucial step on the path to enlightenment.

Key Conditions to See Emptiness Directly

Geshe Michael outlines four essential conditions that must be cultivated in daily life to create the causes for seeing emptiness:

1. Serving Others with Kindness

Regular acts of kindness are one of the most powerful preparations. It doesn’t require dramatic actions — small everyday gestures matter: helping elderly people, supporting the sick, showing patience in the store line, and making helping others a natural part of life.

2. Deep Meditation Practice

Seeing emptiness directly is impossible without the ability to enter a deep meditative state. According to Geshe Michael, this means being able to maintain an hour-long, unmoving meditation with total withdrawal from the senses — a state where external sounds, smells, or touch no longer distract the mind.

3. Finding and Serving a Heart Teacher

A spiritual teacher plays a critical role in guiding the student towards direct perception. Geshe Michael emphasizes that a true teacher is like a perfectly fitting glove — unique for every person. Finding this teacher and dedicating oneself to serving them selflessly is a non-negotiable part of the path.

4. Systematic Study of Emptiness

Intellectual understanding is also essential. It requires years of study, especially of Buddhist logic and philosophy, to form the correct view of reality. Geshe Michael highlights a particular field of study — Pramana (the science of perception and logic) — as crucial for understanding how the mind perceives reality and for developing the insight needed to see emptiness directly.

Final Moments Before Seeing Emptiness

In the second part of the teaching, Geshe Michael introduces the Tibetan term Chi Chi Drak, referring to the final stages before the direct experience of emptiness occurs. He explains how understanding the mechanics of perception from Buddhist logic (especially from the Sautrantika school) prepares the mind for this rare and life-changing moment.

The need to understand Sautrantika

Why You Must Study Buddhist Logic to Understand Emptiness — Teachings by Geshe Michael Roach

In this video, Geshe Michael Roach explains why the study of Buddhist logic — especially from the Sautrantika school — is essential for those who want to see emptiness directly. Without this intellectual preparation, according to ancient masters, it is impossible to reach the ultimate insight.

The Critical Importance of Studying the Second School

Geshe Michael quotes his teacher, who said that trying to see emptiness without studying the Sautrantika school is like being hungry but refusing to eat. Without this foundation, any attempt to realize emptiness is like building a house on bubbles — it simply won’t hold.

He explains that one of the key topics in Sautrantika is the analysis of general and specific — in Tibetan chi and che do. While this may sound technical, this teaching provides deep insight into how our mind recognizes objects — and this process is directly related to how we perceive reality itself.

The Process of Recognizing Objects

Using the example of a clock, Geshe Michael shows how our mind identifies objects:

1. When we see something unfamiliar, our mind quickly scans its internal “library” of images and memories.
2. It compares the new object with stored mental images from our past — often based on childhood experiences, such as the first clock our mother showed us.
3. The mind eliminates all other possibilities (banana, car, fan) until it finds the best match — “clock”.
4. This recognition happens within a fraction of a second but is a crucial process in understanding how we create the world we experience.

The Concept of “Clockness” — The Key to Emptiness

Geshe Michael introduces a profound idea: there is a difference between a clock (a physical object) and clockness — the mental image or archetype of a clock stored in our mind.

This clockness is not the object itself but a mental quality or characteristic that we project onto objects based on our internal seeds and past experiences.

According to Sautrantika, realizing the difference between the object and the mental image we impose on it is a vital step toward understanding emptiness. If we can deeply grasp this mechanism, we come closer to seeing the true nature of reality — free from projections and mistaken perceptions.

Chi Jedrak continues

The Moment of Realization: How We Actually See the World — Teachings by Geshe Michael Roach

In this video, Geshe Michael Roach takes the viewer even deeper into Buddhist logic and the process of perception, leading to a life-changing insight about the true nature of reality.

The Illusion of Objects — You Are Seeing an Image in Your Mind

Geshe Michael explains that what we think we see — a pen, a clock, a pot — is not the object itself. Instead, we are looking at a perfect mental image (pen-ness or clock-ness) projected by our mind onto shapes and colors we detect through our senses.

This image is too perfect — for example, when we look at a pen, we assume it has a back side without actually seeing it. This is possible because our mind automatically places an internal image onto the object based on our past experiences and mental seeds.

Direct Perception of Emptiness — The Critical Shift in Awareness

Realizing this process is the first step towards the direct perception of emptiness. According to Geshe Michael, when this insight arises under the right conditions (kindness, meditation, serving a teacher, deep study), it can completely transform a person within 24 hours. One enters a new stage of spiritual development — becoming capable of benefiting countless beings.

Important Clarification — Other People Are Real

Geshe Michael warns against a common misunderstanding: this teaching does not mean that people or objects don’t exist at all. Other beings are real and independent — but our perception of them is filtered through our mind’s projections. Understanding this allows us to interact with others with love and compassion while recognizing the mechanics of perception.

Why Do We See the World This Way?

The root cause of this process is karma — past actions, words, and thoughts plant seeds in our mind. These seeds later open and create our experience of reality. When we see a clock or a pot, we are witnessing the ripening of our own mental seeds.

A Glimpse Into Daily Life Before Direct Perception of Emptiness

Geshe Michael describes a typical moment before the breakthrough happens: after years of practice, kindness, meditation, and service to a teacher, a student might simply look at a pot on the stove and suddenly realize — “I’m looking at an image in my own mind.” This moment marks the final preparation for seeing emptiness directly.

Suffering and the end of suffering

What Happens When You See Emptiness Directly — Teachings by Geshe Michael Roach

In the final video of this series, Geshe Michael Roach describes what happens in the extraordinary moment of direct perception of emptiness — and how this experience changes a person forever.

Why This Teaching Is So Important

Throughout the previous videos, Geshe Michael explained that the world we see is not coming from the outside — it is a projection of our own mind, shaped by seeds we planted through our past actions. If objects truly existed outside of us, separate and independent, life would be hopeless and unchangeable. But because reality arises from our own mind, everything can be changed.

This is the essence of Buddhist wisdom — and the foundation for seeing emptiness directly.

The Experience of Direct Perception of Emptiness

Geshe Michael describes the typical scenario leading up to this event:

After years of kindness to others, daily meditation, serving your teacher, and deep study, a simple moment — like watching a pot on the stove — triggers a realization. You understand clearly that what you are seeing is not a pot “out there” but an image in your own mind.

This insight, combined with meditation practice, leads to the direct perception of emptiness — a profound state beyond all ordinary perception.

What Does This Experience Feel Like?

While in this state:

• You cannot perceive anything else — no sound, no body sensations, no awareness of time.
• Your mind merges with ultimate reality — it’s an experience beyond comparison.
• Time disappears — you cannot tell if a minute or a day has passed.

What Happens Next?

Shortly after emerging from the experience of emptiness, several extraordinary things occur:

1. Opening of the Heart Chakra — A powerful stream of clear light flows from the heart, symbolizing deep spiritual transformation.
2. Seeing All Living Beings — In a few minutes, you perceive the face of every living creature in this world — and in countless other worlds — individually, distinctly, and simultaneously. This is accompanied by overwhelming universal love.
3. Seeing Your Future Self — You see yourself as you will be — standing above a world, caring for all beings with love and compassion. You understand how long it will take to reach this state of full enlightenment.

Life After This Experience

After seeing emptiness directly, nothing in life is ever the same. Ordinary problems lose their power — fears, worries, and everyday concerns dissolve in the light of this wisdom. Life becomes filled with indescribable joy and freedom.

But the path to this experience is clear: kindness towards others, serving a spiritual teacher, daily meditation, and dedicated study. This is how one prepares to change their world — and the worlds of countless other beings.