Thoughts about emptiness

Thoughts about emptiness

Thoughts about emptiness

Posted: 08 Sep 2012 11:00 PM PDT

 It almost goes with saying, but the notion of emptiness is one of the most difficult words in Mindfulness philosophy to understand.

First, we have to understand that conditioned genesis or dependent origination means that all phenomena (i.e., the originated) are arisen like an illusion; they are empty of substance or essence (svabhâva).  Also, to be empty of essence (svabhâva-shunya) means that phenomena are conditioned—not unconditioned.  They lack real being.  

Turning to this essence, the Buddha taught that the essence (svabhâva) of nirvana is unconditioned which is empty of any trace of the conditioned.  In light of this, only the unconditioned is real (svabhâva) like the clay of a pot, for example, whereas the originated, conditioned pot, itself, being dependent upon the clay, is subject to destruction.

So how should we consider emptiness?  Generally speaking, there appears to be two kinds.  First, emptiness can refer to the lack of substance or essence (svabhâva-shunya), or the same, a lack of the unconditioned.  Second, emptiness can also refer to the unconditioned's lack of conditionality.  For example, nirvana is completely empty of conditionality.  A conditioned nirvana is absurd.  Using the analogy of water, its waviness is empty of svabhâva.  On the other hand, the svabhâva of water, H2O, is empty of waviness.  A further example will be useful.  In the case of Zen, "empty mind" or wu-shin, means that defilements or klesha have been emptied from mind so that only the purified mind or mind-essence remains which is naturally luminous.

There is also an ontological sense to emptiness which we find in Mahayana, especially in Sutras like the Lankavatara.  We also find the ontological sense in the Pali canon. 

"Ananda, through abiding in (the concept of emptiness), I am now abiding in the fulness thereof"  (ananda, etarahipi [etarahi ca (sabbattha)] suññatâvihârena bahulam viharâmi) (M. iii.1 04).  (trans. I.B. Horner, PTS.  Italics are mine.) 

All of this can get quite confusing if one has not had a deep and penetrating insight into pure Mind which is absolutely empty of conditionality. 

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In a little park in Ghent

Posted: 08 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT

Yesterday i was sitting in a little park in Ghent together with a friend talking about….friendship. The sun was shining gently and cosy on us as if she was warming our love for beauty and truth. And i remembered Narziss and Goldmund, the novel of Herman Hesse, about the remarkable story of two friends.

A few weeks ago i left my job to work for the Buddhist Centre in Ghent and so i had to say goodbye to my colleagues some of whom i have known for years. I definitely wanted to leave my job yes but i didn't want some of my colleagues to dissapear. I wanted to hold them, to grasp them, i wanted them near me, to stay near me, i wanted our experiences with one another to last. I realised that a good part of my life is over. So i looked for all kinds of reasons to justify that things could go on just like they used to do, as if i would still be working there. What a difference with Narziss and Goldmund!

These two people are friends and they don't even see each other that much. Most of the time they are living separate but they are in each others mind nearly all the time, as a guide, as a mentor. And if they do see each other they don't waste time. They ask questions to one another, penetrating questions to help the other live his qualities. To help the other unfold the fullest possible potential as a human being. And all that space…they don't limit each other, they give one another space to breath, to grow, to explore…And there was i manipulating reality, colleagues and myself because i find saying goodbye and things changing uncomfortable, even painful.

Narziss and Goldmund rejoice in each other as well. Rejoicing too is connected with the flowing nature of reality. And their rejoicing in each other is fluent, spontaneous. Sometimes i rejoice in friends as well and sometimes i almost immediately think, in a secretly way, i can do that too and probably even better. But other times when i really succeed in rejoicing wholeheartedly and sincerely, wow, what an energy is flowing then, what a fountain of joy and happinness, what a flow of reality itself.

Narziss and Goldmund showed me that friendship is about letting things flow, about relaxing in reality, about pointing out to each other the qualities one has in order to unfold these and realise a more creative life in accordance with reality.

And i had tried for days on end to deny all this, to capture others in my nets, to limit myself and them to an illusion of holding, not letting go…but now Narziss and Goldmund are my friends.

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