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Emptiness Revisited
taiyaki
Veteran
Emptiness is the lack of something. That being said it is not nothing for nothing is something meaning it is an object in relation to a subject. Emptiness is a negation, thus standing between nothing and something.
Emptiness implies that things lack essences. Essences can be viewed as a soul or a permanent, independent, unchanging, single entity or quality.
We can examine this by examining a door knob on a door. Since it functions it has to change. Meaning if it was permanent in that it had an essence of "being a door knob" it could not change and function. Since all things are marked with change in our reality they are empty.
So from here we have to understand that we project "essences" onto objects.
Another way to view emptiness is in subject/object relationship. For the object to exist it needs a subject to perceive it. A car can only exist because we perceive it and project symbols onto it. Without a perceiver the car has no meaning, purpose or existence. Now if that car had an essence of being a car then that car would be able to exist outside of the perceiver. Meaning if the perceiver didn't see the car (object) then the car would still exist.
This is the greatest assumption that mind has projected because the car cannot have an essence. The car is a constantly changing object and car is merely a symbolic projection of various parts coming together and thus we call it car. If the car doesn't function then we scrap it and call it metal, etc. The metal we can call atoms and we can divide it infinitely. Car is merely a projection from us onto an empty reality.
So what is emptiness pointing to? All things exist interdependently. Subject/object, good/evil, etc. Duality in a nutshell. But duality is merely a projection from the mind onto a non dual reality or emptiness. BUT even this emptiness is dependent on form (becoming, manifest).
Meh! I'm going to have some tea. What do you think?
Emptiness implies that things lack essences. Essences can be viewed as a soul or a permanent, independent, unchanging, single entity or quality.
We can examine this by examining a door knob on a door. Since it functions it has to change. Meaning if it was permanent in that it had an essence of "being a door knob" it could not change and function. Since all things are marked with change in our reality they are empty.
So from here we have to understand that we project "essences" onto objects.
Another way to view emptiness is in subject/object relationship. For the object to exist it needs a subject to perceive it. A car can only exist because we perceive it and project symbols onto it. Without a perceiver the car has no meaning, purpose or existence. Now if that car had an essence of being a car then that car would be able to exist outside of the perceiver. Meaning if the perceiver didn't see the car (object) then the car would still exist.
This is the greatest assumption that mind has projected because the car cannot have an essence. The car is a constantly changing object and car is merely a symbolic projection of various parts coming together and thus we call it car. If the car doesn't function then we scrap it and call it metal, etc. The metal we can call atoms and we can divide it infinitely. Car is merely a projection from us onto an empty reality.
So what is emptiness pointing to? All things exist interdependently. Subject/object, good/evil, etc. Duality in a nutshell. But duality is merely a projection from the mind onto a non dual reality or emptiness. BUT even this emptiness is dependent on form (becoming, manifest).
Meh! I'm going to have some tea. What do you think?
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"Form is like a glob of foam;
feeling, a bubble;
perception, a mirage;
fabrications, a banana tree;
consciousness, a magic trick —
this has been taught
by the Kinsman of the Sun.
However you observe them,
appropriately examine them,
they're empty, void
to whoever sees them
appropriately.
Beginning with the body
as taught by the One
with profound discernment:
when abandoned by three things
— life, warmth, & consciousness —
form is rejected, cast aside.
When bereft of these
it lies thrown away,
senseless,
a meal for others.
That's the way it goes:
it's a magic trick,
an idiot's babbling.
It's said to be
a murderer.
No substance here
is found.
Thus a monk, persistence aroused,
should view the aggregates
by day & by night,
mindful,
alert;
should discard all fetters;
should make himself
his own refuge;
should live as if
his head were on fire —
in hopes of the state
with no falling away"
excerpt from SN 22.95 - Phena Sutta: Foam
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.095.than.html