Emptiness is form? . . . yeah right!

lobster

One of the basic teachings, that came out of the mahayana is : Emptiness is form and form is emptiness. This is very profound. It is also very simple. I spend a lot of time contemplating it and find new layers of meaning continually. On the simplest level, it is nothing more than the process of thoughts arising and dissipating. We very much cling to the conditions of form for our sense of being. Without the clinging, the sense of self would be emptied. Emptiness is form and form is emptiness.

http://path.homestead.com/heartsutra.html

Our idea of the form of things is a mental construction. It has a nature, a form, a sense of reality. It is an approximation, a construct of the real, which we have to form into a making sense being. Remove the idea of what something is and it ceases to have meaningful form. It does not cease to exist, but it no longer has any meaning, its form has been emptied.

Emptiness is form and form is emptiness

http://arobuddhism.org/emptiness.html

Ghost Dog (not suitable for TheEccentric or his chickens)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=V6i2fImAUcI

Have a great day, be kind to the emptys

misecmisc1

i heard a Zen story and the story goes like this: once there was a monk who used to say heart sutra everytime - form is emptiness and emptiness is form. he went on alms round daily and one day it happened that no one in the village gave him any food. as he was very hungry, so he then went to another village for alms round. he saw a restaurant and he found that the owner of the restaurant was an old lady, who was buddhist. he went inside the restaurant and found many customers being served delicious dishes. he said to the old lady - form is emptiness and emptiness is form. she was too happy to find a genuine buddhist monk in her restaurant. she said - please be seated and let me serve you. then the buddhist monk sat and saw the old lady bring big utensils to him. he opened and found the utensils to be empty. then he looked at old lady and then old lady said to him - form is emptiness and emptiness is form, so eat emptiness and enjoy.

how

Every so often I wonder if some teachings are just places to store grasping mental forms until their creaters are ready to let go of them.

lobster

@how
Your words are empty but they have form :clap:

Jeffrey

Fill out the form. Your wallet is empty. (taxes)

pegembara

Things are no-things. Simply put emptiness means that nothing is what it seems.

Appearances are determined into existence. Why must we determine them? Because they don't intrinsically exist. For example, suppose somebody wanted to make a marker. He would take a piece of wood or a rock and place it on the ground, and then call it a marker. Actually it's not a marker. There isn't any marker, that's why you must determine it into existence. In the same way we ''determine'' cities, people, cattle - everything! Why must we determine these things? Because originally they do not exist.

Ajahn Chah

The World : See it as a bubble, see it as a mirage: one who regards the world this way the King of Death doesn't see. Dhammapada

Daozen

In certain tea-rooms, emptiness is not good form.

lobster

nothing is certain
That's for sure

. . . But then again . . .