The fullness of emptiness

‘Emptiness is not complete nothingness; it doesn’t mean that nothing exists at all. This would be a nihilistic view contrary to common sense. What it does mean is that things do not exist the way our grasping self supposes they do.  

The  Dalai Lama calls emptiness “the true nature of things and events,”

The Heart Sutra says, “all phenomena in their own-being are empty.”  What does “Own-being” mean? Does it mean separate independent autonomous existence?   Does this mean that the phenomenal realm of names and forms and objects is all an expression of one ever changing landscape that is actually emanating from emptiness?  From the peace and silence of the non phenomenal realm, the invisible spirit of the divine?  

Richmond says ‘no individual person or thing has any permanent, fixed identity, everything taken together is what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing.”  This term embraces the positive aspect of emptiness as it is lived and acted by a person of wisdom — with its sense of connection, compassion and love.’

The Dalai Lama himself is generous, humble, smiling and laughing — and we can see that a mere intellectual reading of emptiness fails to get at its practical joyous quality in spiritual life.

In other words “no self’ or emptiness in the context of the ‘Buddha Nature’ is endowed with qualities of the awakened mind like love, wisdom, compassion, joy and peace.

Richmond concludes that the Buddha saw why we suffer.  

‘Ultimately we suffer because we grasp after things thinking they are fixed, substantial, real and capable of being possessed by ego. It is only when we can see through this illusion and open ourselves, in Ari Goldfield’s words, “to the reality of flux and fluidity that is ultimately ungraspable and inconceivable” that we can relax into clarity, compassion and courage. That lofty goal is what makes the effort to understand emptiness so worthwhile.’  (Richmond, Emptiness: The Most Misunderstood Word in Buddhism’ HUFFPOST 

Now let us turn dear friends to Christianity and this passage from James 1 for a striking correlation between the Christian bible and the Buddhist sacred teachings.  

‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.’  James 1 v 16- 18 

Two things strike me from this passage – that being ‘dragged away’ by our own automous and even ‘evil’ desires leads to sin and death.  The cessation of selfish desires is exactly what the Buddha taught also. Also the possibility of liberation for all sentient beings, describing how release from craving is to be reached.  ‘Craving’ is selfish desire.  

In Buddhism the sutras represent the awakening and liberation of the Buddha (the awakened one)  

By the way the Buddha is not a false idol to worship but a symbol of the  ‘perfectly awakened being in each of us – our true nature and Self which is beyond divisions of class, gender, race or religion.  The awakened one is the embodiment of the spirit of truth
The buddha represents the one who awakens from the sleep of ignorance into the timeless perfection of unborn awareness’  (Mooji) 

The Gautama Buddha taught that unguarded sensory contact gives rise to craving and clinging to impermanent states and things.  Which creates dukkha (suffering and pain)   Nirvana (heavenly realm) is attained essentially by cessation of craving.  This can be accomplished by confining our automatic responses to sensory contact by restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and wholesome states, and practicing mindfulness and and the state of perfect equality ‘dhyana” leading to our natural state.  Samadi, peaceful and blissful and free from desire.  

Doesn’t this strike you as pointing to the very same universal truth?  

Returning to Christianity – KENOSIS (self emptying) 

In Christian theology, kenosis [the act of emptying] is the ‘self-emptying’ of Jesus‘ own will and becoming entirely receptive to God’s divine will. The word ἐκένωσεν (ekénōsen) is used in Philippians 2:7, “[Jesus] made himself nothing …”