In order to understand the much deeper significance of working with our imaginations, we need to understand how our minds make things appear, because this is what we’re doing with our imaginations, we’re making things appear. The way that our minds make things appear is by mixing two things, which are usually called pure appearances and impure appearances. To really appreciate the significance of this we need to take the Tibetan word that’s translated as “appearance,” nangwa (snang-ba) both as a noun and as a verb, but more as a verb. Although we can speak about pure and impure appearances, if we just leave it at that, it sounds as if they exist out there by themselves. What we’re actually talking about is the mind’s making these things to appear. So we have pure appearance-making and impure appearance-making.

Whether we want to or not, the impure appearances exist and although we may want to ignore them, or not believe in them, they’re there. So we have to deal with them. What we want to do is to stop our minds from making things appear in an impure way. We can do this because we can work with our minds. If this is the only point that you remember of the following discussion, you will have learned something very, very important.

Appearance-making, that’s what we’re talking about in Buddhism. This whole discussion of tantra and of voidness is how to get our minds to stop making things appear in a crazy, impossible way – in other words, to stop projecting fantasies.

Pure and impure appearances have two meanings. We usually don’t distinguish these very clearly, and therefore, we get very confused. Let’s deal with one meaning at a time. If we put it in simple language, one meaning is that an impure appearance is an appearance of things as if existing in a solid manner – in other words, a crazy projection of something impossible. Pure appearance-making is making things appear nonsolidly, the way they actually do exist. So, “impure” is making things appear in a way in which they don’t exist, a non-existent crazy way, and “pure” is making them appear in the way that they do exist.

We can understand this better with a superficial example: when we see somebody we don’t like, our minds make two aspects appear – what the person looks like and how they exist. Let’s leave aside, for a moment, the appearance of what they look like. Concerning the appearance of how they exist, our minds mix two appearances. In addition to how they actually exist as just a human being, our minds also project onto that person that they exist as a monster. What we see then, in terms of how they exist, is a mixture of these two modes of existence. But what predominates is that they look to me like they’re a monster, a horrible person. Conversely, we see a beautiful looking person and not only do our minds give rise to an appearance of how they actually exist, but they also project onto them their existence being established as “the most beautiful, sexy person I’ve ever seen.” Based on that, we develop sexual desire. However, if we analyze, we realize that this is not how they actually exist. This is because if they really existed that way, as inherently sexy from their own side, then everybody should see them as sexy, including the baby and the dog. But, obviously, they don’t see that person as sexy. So that is a projection from our minds that is mixed with the actual appearance of how they exist. This is one level of how our minds mix pure and impure appearances. The pure appearance is how they actually exist and the impure one is an impossible way of existing.

The other meaning is that impure appearance refers to the ordinary appearance of what we look like and a pure appearance is our appearance as a Buddha-figure. The impure appearance that our minds give rise to may be either accurate or distorted, depending, for instance, on whether or not we are wearing our glasses if, in fact, we need glasses to see clearly. Here, we are not speaking about distorted impure appearances. But, when we speak of accurate impure appearances and pure appearances regarding what we look like, these are like two different quantum levels. For example, we have a visible gross body, that’s one quantum level. But we also have an invisible body composed of energy channels that in Chinese medicine are called “meridians.” This is another quantum level of our bodies. We know that these energy channels exist because they function: you can stick acupuncture needles in certain points of this subtle body and it affects even our gross body. A pure appearance in the form of a Buddha-figure is just another quantum level regarding our bodies. So, the second meaning of pure and impure appearances refers to these two levels of what we look like, the two quantum levels: the ordinary level and the level of our appearance as a Buddha-figure.

If we factor together these two quantum levels of what we look like with the first meaning of pure and impure appearances as regarding how we exist, then we can have a pure appearance of how both quantum levels actually exist and an impure appearance of some impossible mode of existence that our minds project onto either one of them. We can see how, without being clear about these distinctions, we could become confused about this issue of pure and impure appearances.

It is important to realize that perceiving a mixture of impure and pure appearances of how things exist involves both our eyes and our minds. Both visual and mental consciousnesses mix the appearance of a nonsolid identity with the appearance of a solid identity. We can understand this through a very simple example. When we see something, what are we actually seeing? We’re seeing several things mixed together. The first thing we’re seeing is innumerable dots of light from each of the cells in our retina and we perceive them appearing with a nonsolid manner of existence. Mixed with that, our minds put these dots together and perceive as well the appearance of not only a conventional object, but the appearance of a conventional object that truly exists as something solid. We’re not just talking about seeing somebody as a monster; we’re talking about how our ordinary sight works.

One of the important points that Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug tradition, made is that the object to be refuted by voidness, the thing we have to work on, is how our minds operate every single instant of our lives. It’s not something that only happens when we’re insane; Tsongkhapa is not just talking about paranoia. He’s talking about how our minds ordinarily work. Our minds put together all the dots and project onto them not just a conventional figure, but a conventional figure that appears to exist solidly as this or that. All the senses work like that. When there is the sound of a voice, all these little hair-like structures inside the ear vibrate and send electrical pulses to the brain; the brain puts these together into words and then we understand them.

Now, the problem here is that we believe that things exist solidly, the way that the mind puts them together and makes them appear. Let’s take this point to the level of emotions. Going back to our example, there are all these dots of light and we see the dots combined together into a conventional object, which we take to be a spider. That’s accurate. But then we project onto the appearance of the conventionally existent spider an impossible manner of existence, as being solidly “a spider.” We scream, “Ah! There’s a spider” and project onto this accurate appearance of what it is something impossible: “It’s a monster and it’s going to get me.” All sorts of paranoia and fear build on that.

The basis for this scenario is putting the dots together first into a spider and then projecting onto it a solid identity of not only a spider, but also of a monster that is going to get me. In other words, we’re not denying the accurate appearance of the dots on another level as being the appearance of a spider. But the spider is merely a limited being that has a whole life of its own. It’s out there on the wall trying to find food and then it’s going to go home to feed its babies and so on. But we put the dots together and see them instead as being solidly “a spider.” We then no longer view it as merely a limited being with an ordinary spider life of its own. Rather, once we’ve made it into a solid monolith of “a spider,” then we hang onto that framework that it’s solidly and inherently existent as a monster. Based on that come our paranoia and fear.

It is the same with the feelings that we have about ourselves. We mix a pure and impure feeling about how we ourselves exist. The pure one is that we’re open to many possibilities; we have many facets of personality and talent; and so on. On top of that basic general feeling of what’s actually there, we mix the feeling of having a solid monolithic identity: “I’m God’s gift to the world” or “I’m a loser.” Then we identify with that monolithic feeling and we become completely neurotic. All our disturbing emotions follow from that.