In the tradition of the hearers, the sravakas, and the pratyekabuddhas, the solitary sages, the only aspect of emptiness that is taught is the emptiness of the self, of the individual.  However, that is not the tradition of the great vehicle. The great vehicle explains that everything, without exception, in both samsara and nirvana, is empty of being either one or many. Whatever it is, be it something in existence or something involved with the state of enlightenment, everything is empty of any inherent existence. Its existence transcends being either one thing or many and, therefore, it does not truly exist.  It has no essence. It is like something that appears in a dream.  It does not truly exist. If we can know that and then meditate on profound emptiness, that is what it means to be lucky. 

Now, why is this adjective "profound" used in front of the word "emptiness?"  Because, if we do not listen to the teachings on emptiness, and if we do not analyze them with reasoning, then there is no way we can understand them.  It is profound in that way.  It's not something that is accessible without applying our intelligence towards trying to understand it.  But if we can actually meditate on this profound emptiness, meaning that we use our intelligence and we listen to the teachings and we analyze with reasoning, then we are fortunate. After first giving rise to relative bodhicitta, then by meditating on the selflessness of the individual as the basis, we meditate on the emptiness of all phenomena. Through that process we can gain the enlightenment of the Buddhas. Therefore, to be able to meditate on emptiness is something that makes us incredibly fortunate, and that is what it means to be lucky. 

If we were to examine this from the perspective of logical analysis, the object of our inquiry would be whatever we are looking at, whatever we want to understand more about, whatever we are focusing on in order to find out its true nature. In technical terms, this can be called the object of inquiry or it can be called the basis of inference. So the focus of our logical reasoning is this object whose nature we are trying to discover.  And, by reason of the fact that it is neither one thing nor many things, we can determine that it is of the nature of emptiness. It has no existence. Therefore, we can create a logical reasoning, a seamless reasoning, a flawless reasoning. The way we do that would be to say that:

Given all of the phenomena in samsara and nirvana,
all are empty of inherent existence,
because they are neither one nor are they many.
This proves to us that our object of inquiry is empty of inherent existence.

We can also make a reasoning like this:

Given any and all of the suffering that we experience as sentient beings,
none of it really exists,
because all of it is neither one thing nor is it many one things.

An example is the suffering we experience in a dream.  Why is suffering neither one nor many? If we look at suffering, all the past suffering is finished.  It is completely gone.  So that suffering doesn't exist. The suffering of the future hasn't happened yet. So that suffering doesn't exist either. What's left is the suffering of the present.  And if we try to find this suffering of the present, what happens?   We look, and we find a smaller and smaller moment of it, as our analysis gets more subtle. We try to find this precise moment of the present suffering, and we just find smaller and smaller and smaller moments.  In our search, we can never find one truly existent indivisible moment of suffering. Therefore suffering is not one indivisible thing, and since you can't even find one thing, how could you have many things? Therefore, suffering is neither one, nor is it many, and consequently it is empty of any inherent existence. 

We might, in response to this, advance the following type of reasoning.  We might say:

Suffering does too exist. 
Suffering is not beyond being one or many. 
It really does exist, because I experience it, because I experience it directly, manifestly. 

But that's not a good reason.  It does not follow that, just because you experience suffering, the suffering is real.  An example is the suffering we experience in a dream.  The suffering we experience in a dream, however bad it might be, does not exist really.  It's neither one nor is it many.  Even though it looks like it's real, even though we think it's real, even though we experience it, it does not really exist. So the fact that it looks real, the fact that we are attached to it as being real, and the fact that we experience it: none of these things prove that it really exists.  It's just a dream. Similarly, even though our daytime experiences of suffering look and feel real to us, and we are attached to their reality, this doesn't turn our suffering into something real. It is not real.

Rinpoche has composed a verse to help us to understand this easily. Rinpoche says that:

Because it is neither one nor many  
Anger does not truly exist
Just like the anger in a dream. 
Because it transcends being one or many
Desire does not truly exist
Just like the desire we experience in a dream. 
Because it transcends being either one or many
Stupidity does not truly exist
Just like stupidity in a dream. 

Because it transcends being one or many
Pride does not truly exist—pride has no self- nature
Just like pride in a dream. 
Because it transcends being one or many
Jealousy has no self-nature
Just like jealousy in a dream. 
Because it transcends being one or many
Doubt has no self-nature
Just like doubt in a dream. 
Because they transcend being either one or many
Wrong thoughts, bad thoughts, have no self-nature
Just like bad thoughts in a dream.

The first step is to make the Mahayana path your sturdy base in the way it has been explained in the verses above.  It is the base for the practice of Vajrayana because, before practicing the Vajrayana, we must be able to bring together emptiness and compassion.  If we don't bring together the understanding of emptiness and the practice of compassion before beginning the practice of Vajrayana, then Vajrayana practice is a practice absent of profundity.  Vajrayana becomes a practice that lacks any type of profundity. That's why the Mahayana practices of loving kindness, compassion and emptiness must come first. Then, when we begin to practice the Vajrayana, the basic view is that the totality of appearance is the infinite expanse of purity.  This means that the vessel, the outer physical environment, is the immeasurable palace, and the beings who live in this vessel are all deities, male and female.  When we know this very well, when we know it correctly, when it is not just an opinion, but when we know that this is the actual way things really are, then the four empowerments (the vase empowerment, the secret empowerment, the wisdom empowerment, and the word empowerment), which are the introduction to the true nature of mind, will ripen our continuum.  This is the practice of profound creation and completion meditation. When we practice these two stages, then this is what it means to be lucky. 

The fruit of this creation and completion must ripen at the appropriate time, but this depends on your pure vision of your vajra brothers and sisters. It must increase. If pure vision dawns in your mind, this is what it means to be lucky.  How can pure vision dawn in a practitioner's mind?  Pure vision arises when the practitioner knows:  that whatever appears is just of the nature of appearance and emptiness, undifferentiable, that all the appearances of the outer physical environment, whatever they might be, are the same in that they are just appearance-emptiness, undifferentiable, that the physical forms of all the beings in the environment are appearance-emptiness, undifferentiable, that the minds of all sentient beings are of the nature of clarity and emptiness, undifferentiable.  Knowing these things causes pure vision to arise and when that pure vision arises, then that is what it means to be lucky. 

In short, all the appearances of this life are just like a dream. They are just like the moon's reflection on a pool of water.  They are just like a rainbow.  The mind is radiant clarity.  It is clarity and emptiness undifferentiable.  When we realize these two things, the nature of appearances and the nature of mind, pure vision arises.  The reason for this is that when we realize that appearances are just appearance-emptiness undifferentiable, how could it be possible that any one appearance would be impure or that there could be something wrong with it, because it is all just appearance-emptiness.  So the absence of any more thoughts of something being impure prevents any type of wrong thought occurring, because we view everything to be just pure appearance-emptiness, and that is what pure vision or sacred vision is all about. 

This last verse is Rinpoche's aspiration. Knowing what it means to be lucky day and night without distraction in order to accomplish great benefit for the teachings and for all beings, may all of us practice the dharma of the lucky ones.