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"Emptiness Sickness" Diagnosis? Treatment?
RichardH
Veteran
Thoughts on this appreciated....
0
Comments
is that (close to) what you mean by emptiness sickness?
It is just an issue that on my mind.
Are you basing your idea of having a sickness on others view? What are your symptoms?
There are many ways to tackle this depending on the personal situation. : )
This is ofcourse true. I have my own thoughts on the issue and would be interested to hear yours.
Okay here goes. If one is intellectualising emptiness, i.e repeating to oneself this is empty, that is empty, then this can lead to one sided views because thoughts are partial, they are designed to point and separate, but as it says in the Diamond Sutra:
"They should recall that in teaching spiritual truths the Buddha always uses these concepts and ideas in the way that a raft is used to cross a river. Once the river has been crossed over, the raft is of no more use, and should be discarded. These arbitrary concepts and ideas about spiritual things need to be explained to us as we seek to attain Enlightenment. However, ultimately these arbitrary conceptions can be discarded. Think Subhuti, isn't it even more obvious that we should also give up our conceptions of non-existent things?"
Many people get emptiness sickness from indulging to much in a conceptual view of emptiness, rather than looking at it directly, and dropping all preconceptions and teachings to know it directly. This often leads to the - "what's the point in being alive if nothing is real" statement.
Another aspect come across is when someone gets in to a deep samadhi state of experience of emptiness and gets attached to it. This is more subtle, sometimes it's best to take meditation more moderately at this point, not too hard, not too soft. You can use tools like Mantra to help dissolve attachment to a degree, but here the most potent answers I feel are found in the 6 Dharma Gates to the Sublime. This book explains (step-by-step) that one must after knowing all apects of conciousness, feeling, body the form skanda's etc and seeing that none are essentially inherently existent, one also see's that that experience is interdependent with the mind observing it. One then turns back the mind to realise it's own nature.
In doing this and observing directly and clearly there is a realisation of it's true nature as uncreated and undestroyed.
From here it opens the doorway to realisation of the unlimited nature of it all, of no-self. The indescribable nature of it. Words cannot express this experience.
Essentially at all levels of development one of or all of the 6 Dharma Gates are applicable. The Six Dharma Gates was the text along with the Anapanasati Sutra that all monks had to carry and study.
A great version was done by Bhikshu Dharmamitra, who is currently on deaths door, so please say a prayer for him. He's done a lot for us all. This translation is without a doubt my most recommended book for all serious meditators.
Apart from of course Tao and Longevity by Nan Huai Chin and the Anapanasati Sutra.
Hope that helps chap, I'm really spilling the beans here eh? : )
Emptiness sickness ?
This sickness stemming from self grasping ?
If Emptiness is Apprehended correctly then there is no self with which to grasp we do not fall into the extremes of Eternalism or Nihilism, No worries.
Spot on chap!!
Nicely said. Emptiness: concept. No concept, no problem : ))))
Yupper, I think anyone who picks up our Zen terms and teachings and applies it conceptually und intellectually...well then it's definitely tricky. Ditto for any of the Buddha's teachings.
Could happen to any of us, especially those of us who only learn on forums IMO
There is a great story about a guru who gave his student a mantra and practice that he said was guaranteed to produce enlightenment in a few years of practice and told him to diligently apply himself. The guru then went on his way. He returned 30 years later and the student had been practicing one-pointedly the whole time, seemingly without result. The student asked the teacher what he was doing wrong. The teacher asked him what mantra he had been repeating, and when he was told the mantra said:
"Oh no, I have made a very great mistake. I gave you the wrong mantra. I am so sorry."
The student felt very depressed and despondent. The teacher then told them that as he was old now, he didn't have time to do a proper sadhana this life so he might as well just go back and continue the mantra that he had been reciting to generate merit for a positive rebirth. The teacher then left again and the student went back to practice, completely without hope of attainment.
Needless to say, the student almost immediately became deeply realized. :-) We become conditioned by our methods of practice. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as you have a teacher that can skillfully disentangle you from your fixation on antidotes and triggers.
Belief is an inherently self exisitng " Unconditioned Mind" or "Pure Mind". It involves exchanging one object for another more subtle one, maybe a negative one, while chasing the intuition of a subjective essence. It is like holding onto a rope, then letting it go but clinging to a strand, then letting that go but clinging to a thread, then letting that go but clinging to a fiber. ....
Instead of looking forward and stepping back as you gather bodymind and world before you, you turn around and project back. Who ever came up with "true mind" and a lot of other Zen terms (pardon my rant here) really tossed people a bone.
anyway it's just my opinion ...