What is this?

Emptiness and Ways of Looking - (In Psyche's Orchard) 127 mentions

• and particularly what i want to focus on today is emptiness and ways of and the ways of looking approach
• say a few more things about that the ways of looking approach to emptiness which is
• influence is quite unusual as an approach to emptiness and certainly has approach to dharma the
• um but it's also unusualized as an approach to emptiness and what i've come to understand is quite easy or quite
• the ways of looking approach to emptiness and some of the other stuff comes in so that what they hear will
• online seminars i think there was one the second emptiness seminar there in the last series of 10 or 11.
• whole other level of the inquiry into emptiness so very brief summary i'll explain that
• perception of fabrication of reality of emptiness it limits it hugely so that's one one thing that's very very
• what they mean by the way things really are is is not emptiness they don't mean emptiness the emptiness of any real way
• are is is not emptiness they don't mean emptiness the emptiness of any real way things are they don't mean that the way
• not understanding that what can possibly travel the road of emptiness exploring emptiness beyond any notion of what is
• travel the road of emptiness exploring emptiness beyond any notion of what is or the way things really are
• happens when someone talks about ways of looking emptiness no real way things are
• it's really our sense of of what emptiness is and of how far practicing it but really of what emptiness is and
• emptiness is and of how far practicing it but really of what emptiness is and us of what reality is
• are doing and how we are approaching understanding emptiness now we are approaching this inquiring
• regarding fabrication and dependent arising and the implicit emptiness of all that that interests me i can see it
• common understandable to to drag it to understand what we're doing in emptiness explorations as we want to see that
• won't help in the investigation of ways of looking at fabrication and emptiness and if it's their driving things it will
• ground the ways of looking approach into emptiness so
• unfabricating it delivers and the degree of understanding emptiness that it delivers that will all be limited
• through a lens that really understands its emptiness found fading
• talk about ontology and ways of looking and and all that business and emptiness we're really talking about practices
• open up this whole territory of emptiness etc we could say in the end what liberation
• if we want something whether it's to understand emptiness whether it's liberation whether it's
• practice ways of looking in ways that lead to that to understand the emptiness to a sense of liberation
• deliver understanding emptiness liberation love or soulmaking
• whatever that is we want deeply emptiness understanding liberation love song making dynamic soulmaking general
• it's how liberation works it's how an understanding of emptiness works practice ways of looking to get x and
• hear about the ways of looking approach and hear about emptiness and how they relate
• someone might hear the uh you know the teachings about emptiness and
• um emptiness ways of looking in other words ways of looking that see something or
• as empty any any emptiness ways of looking is just a way of looking which we can pick
• flexibility we pick up and put down emptiness ways of looking so that sometimes it we want to put down
• so that sometimes it we want to put down emptiness ways of looking and pick up a rarefied view of self of other of
• and world but emptiness ways of looking at things we pick up and put down they're not now
• i'm gonna all the time be in this emptiness ways of looking or this this uh this view of the emptiness of all
• emptiness ways of looking or this this uh this view of the emptiness of all things and i'm sort of stuck there and
• that um understanding emptiness or exploring empties through the ways of looking
• and what's more common is perhaps is that emptiness is equated not with the kind of understanding that comes out of
• the whole journey through the ways of looking at approach but rather emptiness is equated with either
• and that's often someone's understanding of emptiness um or a second understanding can be
• um or a second understanding can be emptiness kind of refers to just a sort of machine-like process of the
• what's really empty is the self here emptiness means impermanence impermanent because there is just the
• time bit like a machine and that's what emptiness means to some people or that's a common view so either it's a
• um emptiness of the self which actually reduce those kind of impermanent nature
• but neither of those two understandings or views of emptiness has any obvious connection with dependent arising nor
• thing dependent rising and karma so those two views of emptiness the connection is not obvious however one of
• reasons one might want to explore emptiness through the ways of looking and fabrication paradigm is that if we
• so that in this way of working with emptiness the ways of looking approach and fabrication approach to emptiness
• emptiness the ways of looking approach and fabrication approach to emptiness then ethics is integrated into emptiness
• and fabrication approach to emptiness then ethics is integrated into emptiness right from the beginning it's
• the approach integrates karma into our understanding of emptiness unavoidably we see it we know it we feel it
• the other those other two um understandings of emptiness that i mentioned briefly the sort of big space
• almost as a separate domain than the understanding of emptiness it's like it gets re-emphasized
• sometimes because either their approach to emptiness is not coming through the ways of looking fabrication depend or
• level of a big space approach to emptiness um and then those two approaches too
• you know this view you have about the non-reality of things and emptiness that really means challenging
• cared about if you have that notion of the emptiness of things you're it's dangerous to any kind of care for
• think asked the question how is it that you can believe that about the emptiness of things and still be so dedicated to
• of the kind of the deepest and most comprehensive emptiness and and are they are they people with deeply
• firsthand get the whole deep and comprehensive emptiness thing it will still if they're drawn to it and it will
• um the deep thorough emptiness view the coexisting of that with a radical and
• a questioning of his fears and assumptions that emptiness would would give rise to moral nihilism
• it's not so much non-reification or seeing the emptiness of things that leads to a lack of care of ethics i
• this whole understanding of emptiness and this whole approach to emptiness and way ways
• understanding of emptiness and this whole approach to emptiness and way ways of looking approach
• what we can understand and what we can already know this business of emptiness is deep and subtle business
• buddhism about a lot of care around emptiness teachings and also we should say with tantric and badriana teaching
• do we really need to take care that both the emptiness and the soulmaking in this case is not is not misunderstood
• um you know our understanding of emptiness so it's it's subtle and it's
• before you know um you know we say what does emptiness mean it means that there is no real way
• anything is that that fact of emptiness that meaning of emptiness that there is no real way
• that that fact of emptiness that meaning of emptiness that there is no real way anything is it does not entail that a
• understanding in that middle way of emptiness is really a raises it it's really a very
• someone say some people say we need to understand emptiness before we practice soulmaking dharma because otherwise
• way and i don't think he had any training in emptiness or buddhist philosophy or anything like that it's
• or emotions emptiness is something that applies to all objects
• as as it applies to an imaginal image in meditation emptiness applies to all objects it's not enough of an
• um erotically curious about emptiness and the practice we've been passionately uh
• which is the more important ingredient the mindfulness or the emptiness oh the eros so the mindfulness of the heroes
• but to get back to what i was saying before i think emptiness practices need to be fueled by eros by a kind of you
• and widely helpful and liberating if one is really interested in emptiness excited and passionate about it loves it
• loves exploring it instead of emptiness and emptiness practices just being a set of techniques
• things like you should only teach a bodysuit that only teaches emptiness to those whose hair stands on end when they
• it's only to those people i.e emptiness the teachings of emptiness and the practice of emptiness are not
• i.e emptiness the teachings of emptiness and the practice of emptiness are not being set or received in fertile ground
• if it if it's coming with it oh i should practice emptiness my dharma friends are into it or
• they say it's the it's the best thing emptiness is the best or emptiness is necessary you can't be a promo
• unfertile soil practice of emptiness practices of evidence inquiry in terms exploration it
• understanding more careful and precise understanding of emptiness so again care with the sloppiness care
• the ethics question cannot care not to start with a conclusion about emptiness so someone
• um again have the idea of emptiness as being something very abstract or not
• the understandings of emptiness with the understandings of the quantum physics
• quantum physics as a sort of understanding of emptiness depends on quantum physics or our belief in
• quantum physics or our belief in emptiness depends on quantum physics i know i've talked about it because i
• at hearing um emptiness teachings right the conclusions that an ex practical
• conclusions that an ex practical exploration of emptiness yields so einstein um
• um they're parallel to the ways of looking and emptiness understanding that i would like to offer
• what the ways of looking and and this emptiness approach and other approaches to emptiness and stress much
• emptiness approach and other approaches to emptiness and stress much more is not that there's nothing there
• these ways of looking understanding your emptiness and certain quantum physics understandings for example the
• we're not talking when we talk about ontology and emptiness we're not talking about abstract philosophies we're not
• there's only two sitters in the pali canon which address emptiness and they've got emptiness in this title
• canon which address emptiness and they've got emptiness in this title the greater and shorter discourses on
• the greater and shorter discourses on emptiness or something like that one of which isn't really about hamptons
• kind of mahayana version of mahayana versions of emptiness um is is not what the buddha originally
• is nor is not to me well it means the whole emptiness thing and it takes a lot to unpack what
• this mutual dependency is exactly what um what we mean by emptiness these two things let's say consciousness and
• but with regard to awakening and emptiness i think we need to make another point which i've alluded to
• whether they just need to understand emptiness to be liberated or whether there's a certain amount of
• maharshi or nisagarita maharaja you just hear these teachings about emptiness or the nature of awareness or
• or is it enough that we can just just work with the emptiness continue
• and we're expecting this one thing this insight into emptiness even if it's the emptiness of everything
• one thing this insight into emptiness even if it's the emptiness of everything to address what may be a very different
• whether it's janik somali and emptiness understanding but they don't seem to have much capacity or
• involve more than just insight more than just insight into emptiness maybe awakening also or enlightenment or
• in their society in our society so yes emptiness yes it's empty but i still have to have a certain set of
• and those kinds of skills as well as the emptiness understanding and scaling emptiness practice become a part of what
• emptiness understanding and scaling emptiness practice become a part of what aspects of a much larger thing called
• awakening but the emptiness piece delivers a lot and it really delivers a lot and it
• so if we take it very deeply in practice that the middle way of emptiness can for example open up the conceptual
• sacredness of universal emptiness but of particular divinities and particular sacrednesses
• practices if i go deep enough in emptiness practice
• that the realization of deep and comprehensive emptiness really go deep we've realized there is
• and that understanding comes out of emptiness going very very deep and very wide
• this comes out deep practice of emptiness and of course that too is very relevant to soulmaking soulmaking

"Until All is Liquid" (Emptiness and Sensing with Soul) - (Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone... 119 mentions

• loosening and liquefying and also the unders the practices of emptiness with regard to that
• um practicing with emptiness or emptiness practices and and
• and and understanding emptiness fathoming uh what that really means and the fullness
• speak or i read what they've written about emptiness it seems to me to be missing
• of you who are interested in in that journey into the depths of emptiness and the fullness and radicality of what that
• out and and explaining that and with regard to emptiness too um because some people
• um don't seem to have a need for any deep emptiness practice they can
• emotional practice they don't seem to need emptiness um so i uh i i would definitely
• acknowledge that possibility not everyone needs emptiness i think i haven't kind of put the full stop on
• other people um do i think need uh emptiness practice as part of what
• is that path in some respects the emptiness practices help because there's a middle way there in
• terms of real and not real like it comes from emptiness understanding and imbues ones
• so some people i would say do need it some people you know approach emptiness and there's a kind of should there or i
• rob and all these other buddhist teachers go on about emptiness and how central it is and how important it is
• and but there's no real uh there's no real errors for emptiness there's no real certain um not for the
• unfabricated not really for the teachings of emptiness so much um and so the whole
• um and so the whole impetus to explore emptiness practice really coming from a should
• practice or uh or whatever if if one needs emptiness somehow that should need needs to be converted to a real
• something lights up in their soul when they hear about emptiness or when they hear about the unfabricated or the
• more of the journey into understanding emptiness which is a bigger journey than just unfabricating and wherever they are
• want more so that's a kind of ideal relationship with emptiness exploration
• i've been teaching imaginal practice and contextualizing it with emptiness teachings or living the emptiness
• contextualizing it with emptiness teachings or living the emptiness teachings inform and form a basis for
• um it seems to me that some people uh take the emptiness on faith in other words they don't have a deep
• in other words they don't have a deep personal realization of of emptiness through practice
• you know the full the full shebang with emptiness and the unfabricated and all that and out the
• conviction by understanding realization of emptiness but they've taken something some understanding on board through
• i will mention one thing here just about the strand of emptiness practices per se it's not that
• to experience and understand deep emptiness and the movement as i said towards
• a timeout from the soulmaking to go into emptiness more or whatever whoever whoever that's relevant for
• and what do we mean when we say emptiness uh i may come i hope to come back to this in in another talk but um
• um in answer to the question what is the basic reality we could say emptiness is the basic reality and then a follow-up
• the basic reality and then a follow-up question what is emptiness emptiness is no basic reality what is emptiness
• question what is emptiness emptiness is no basic reality what is emptiness emptiness is no basic reality
• no basic reality what is emptiness emptiness is no basic reality emptiness is the reality of no basic
• emptiness is no basic reality emptiness is the reality of no basic reality
• that is what we mean when we use the word emptiness well that's the the main way we are
• using the word emptiness what is emptiness it means there's no basic reality emptiness is
• emptiness what is emptiness it means there's no basic reality emptiness is the basic reality
• wrapped up in the way uh we talk about emptiness and all this business are two really central concepts that you've
• central to the main way that i would teach emptiness and explain emptiness and encourage someone to explore it
• there so emptiness fabrication ways of looking completely
• to how a thing is is an understanding of emptiness that's what emptiness means it's only ways of looking no way of
• that so in that sense emptiness and ways of looking has everything to do with
• liquefying things loosening things with a taste of deep emptiness um i'm fabricating not only allows the
• um have a few moments of really deep emptiness uh perception beforehand so i go
• lineage and asking for help and that gives me that dip into deep emptiness and that deeper fabricated even just for
• is amplified i think significantly um through that dip into emptiness deep emptiness
• um through that dip into emptiness deep emptiness um
• um so yes deep emptiness can empower images that are already there already
• some people might hear some teachings on emptiness um either on their own uh in in the
• um either on their own uh in in the context of an emptiness course or something or book or whatever it is or
• and fabricating of any bringing in any degree of bringing in emptiness um is is generally going to be helpful
• unless one has just got the foot rammed on the accelerator emptiness emptiness emptiness and it's really leaning and
• on the accelerator emptiness emptiness emptiness and it's really leaning and emphasizing that understanding of
• emphasizing that understanding of emptiness as a way of looking at all perception and then things will just
• um but uh not not at that time of full throttle emptiness contemplation but what i really want to say is
• [music] whatever little bit of emptiness or liquefying or unfabricating we can bring
• um so some of you who are familiar with emptiness practices will recognize that as a certain level of emptiness
• emptiness practices will recognize that as a certain level of emptiness perception and just regards this or that
• beautiful and very liberating it's not the deepest level of emptiness perception
• it's not the deepest level it's only a certain level of emptiness perception it's one of a range of
• with the whole health predicament with dying and like all emptiness practices do as i said earlier it should it should
• this um a certain emptiness perception at a certain level not the deepest which i
• i wanted to communicate right now um the use of emptiness perceptions and practices to loosen
• don't always have to be the deepest emptiness practices or perception one perceptions one knows
• so in this case i've you know spent a lot of time exploring emptiness and um there are much deeper emptiness
• lot of time exploring emptiness and um there are much deeper emptiness practices than this just just appearance
• so really uh either wherever you are in your kind of exploration of emptiness and loosening and liquefying and
• have to go to the deepest level of emptiness i mean that can be great and helpful too but it's not always
• um what happened as the thing became more imaginal was that emptiness perception of
• perception of um that emptiness way of looking of phenomena experience or just appearances
• um that also became more soulmaking than it would be in a purely emptiness practice that wasn't
• each other um so so the the emptiness perception itself the emptiness way of looking of
• um so so the the emptiness perception itself the emptiness way of looking of just appearances also as i said took on
• i'll come back to this in another talk but there's a way of using emptiness practices at times that kind of
• imaginal elements um a certain emptiness mode of looking way of looking that could be uh
• actually premised on understanding of emptiness so that
• one's usually instructed to meditate on emptiness for a certain amount of time and then engage in deity visualization
• knowing itself means the the eros based on knowing emptiness and the unfabricated if we just translate terms
• unfabricated if we just translate terms the eros based on knowing emptiness and unfabricated that eros as being eros it
• you understand so this love of emptiness this knowing of emptiness and the unfabricated
• so this love of emptiness this knowing of emptiness and the unfabricated um that that eros does something
• um based based also on the experience of emptiness um it opens up the energy body that
• so that whole indispensable place for emptiness unfabricating and the love of that to
• our words i hope that makes sense uh so emptiness is powerful you know going back to what people have come back
• um they're a very deep perception of emptiness comes about so rather than through some kind of
• delivers um a deep understanding of emptiness um again mutual dependent rising that
• um when you uh when you're contemplating emptiness when you're engaging in emptiness practice
• when you're contemplating emptiness when you're engaging in emptiness practice and it's kind of working well there's
• uh have a deep moment of realizing emptiness and it could just be a moment you will feel something uh
• visualizing can lead to a sense an experience of emptiness in the tibetan teachings but also the other way around
• um emptiness practice emptiness experience will purify the energy body and the
• of depth and power of different emptiness practices and they're all they're all
• um so that usually takes quite a bit of time of developing emptiness practices but um
• just a few moments even of contemplating the emptiness of time now for those few moments to be powerful
• familiarity with contemplating the emptiness of time or ways of looking that kind of unfabricate time
• that kind of unfabricate time etc realize it's emptiness um but if that's the sort of thing
• few moments uh perhaps only of um some some way of seeing the emptiness of time
• experience um so some contemplation emptiness of time meditatively and then turning the
• attention that's kind of imbued with that understanding of the emptiness of time just turning the attention to
• but as i say things can any any kind of emptiness practice or any level don't get don't please don't get
• uh again i feel very strongly that emptiness can and should be in the service of love
• not just liberation not just personal liberation emptiness in the service of the brown baharas but also in the
• what you can notice sometimes is that opening to more emptiness or deeper emptiness
• opening to more emptiness or deeper emptiness um
• to speak less self when the when the emptiness of the self is seen or or engaging a way of looking at the
• it's seen as more empty um so the emptiness just as emptiness opens up and should open up
• of talk about that in the past um so also the emptiness can open up the prayerfulness and enrich and deepen it
• the self is asking if i see the emptiness itself why would i ask for anything
• here some intermediate territory of emptiness that opens up um opens up the richness and the white
• completely so the imaginal middle way is not the middle way of emptiness that the gardener and others talked about not
• um you know all things are empty at least in my understanding of emptiness and
• but it's a tricky one you know in teaching it's also emptiness in a way it's really tricky you know and it's
• journey of understanding and practicing with emptiness it's something that i think refines itself and gets more and
• do exist or don't exist this this emptiness middle way it's really really a part of the journey
• importance of the imaginal middleweight it's not quite the same as emptiness it's quite a wide middle way and we
• pertain to them so much as just an emptiness in a way pertains to them as it does to any object physical or
• okay let's stop for tonight i will hopefully say more about emptiness thank you for listening to learn how you

The Union of Appearance and Emptiness - (Meditation on Emptiness) 77 mentions

• little while ago and uh talk a bit more about emptiness and
• at times quite dramatically and in in that we see the emptiness in the meditation they fade post meditation
• it's not uh it's not quite the same world before the seeing of the emptiness so perceptions and appearances are there
• but we know they're empty when i focus and emphasize the emptiness with my mind when i'm emphasizing the
• with my mind when i'm emphasizing the emptiness and focusing on the emptiness the perceptions we save when i back off
• the perceptions we save when i back off emphasizing the emptiness the perceptions kind of reappear and i can
• play with more appearances forget about emptiness appearances and know the emptiness really emphasize the emptiness
• emptiness appearances and know the emptiness really emphasize the emptiness appearances begin to fade
• experience either we're in that mode or we are contemplating emptiness etc clinging etc and there's uh
• teaching around the subject around teaching emptiness sometimes is very hard in language to get the exact mid
• understanding deeper dependent arising and emptiness the meaning of that is more palpable more deep it means a lot
• if one sees it for oneself you see emptiness deeply enough you see this fading deeply enough i do not think i
• reaction that will not be the reaction what happens if you see emptiness deeply enough you see this fading is quite
• the mayana perspective anywhere on emptiness is slightly different rather than pulling apart a kind of
• looking right from the beginning at the emptiness of all phenomena and has this kind of more ontological
• separate the ultimate meaning emptiness is the very nature of phenomena
• but in the mayana the emphasis on the ultimate emptiness is the very nature of phenomenal reality the difference is not
• nirvana natural nirvana which means natural nirvana is the actual emptiness of things the all phenomena are actually
• empty suchness that their suchness meaning emptiness means there's nothing there to be a problem they're actually
• only it's a chandra curtis is only a direct cognition of emptiness and it went no phenomena appear at all the
• cessation we were talking about only a direct cognition of emptiness is really a valid cognition
• he felt that people's understanding of emptiness was nihilistic at that time in tibet
• also felt that they were ignoring ethics that actually emptiness mean that nothing really exists so i can do
• question there there is valid cognition of emptiness of uh commension right this really is an alarm clock at some level
• can see conventional reality and ultimate reality meaning emptiness fully at the same time
• practitioner going deep deep when i contemplate the emptiness of things deeply it begins to fade
• teachings only a buddha can see deeply and fully both the emptiness and the conventional reality of things
• a person can do that and then the more you see the emptiness the more you can actually color your experience how you
• but that's probably why i want to say this emptiness business goes so deep so deep if you think if we think if i think
• enough in terms of what we've seen the emptiness of and if we go deep enough it raises other questions that are just
• attempt to imitate a buddha's mind of being able to see deeply the emptiness and the conventional phenomena and
• and the more deeply you go into emptiness practice the more you can actually practice that actually
• then the final view and the final wisdom union of appearances and emptiness the union of appearances and emptiness
• union of appearances and emptiness the union of appearances and emptiness and in a way leaving aside all this what
• freedom is seeing appearances appear and they're empty and that emptiness is not separate from appearances appearance is
• separate from appearances appearance is an empty emptiness are together together talk about the union of appearances and
• talk about the union of appearances and emptiness so i
• practice more and more this emptiness this dependent rising is said to be the middle way it's the
• uh comprehensively and thoroughly and deeply into emptiness and actually see deeply the emptiness thing so i said
• deeply into emptiness and actually see deeply the emptiness thing so i said before i say you could say the self is a
• to actually realize that things preserve in that very emptiness preserve their functionality of cause and effect and
• translated as form is emptiness or a passage and it form is emptiness
• form is emptiness or a passage and it form is emptiness emptiness is formal form is empty
• form is emptiness emptiness is formal form is empty emptiness is formal
• emptiness is formal form is empty emptiness is formal and he had a theory hypothesis which i
• and so the actual sanskrit reads form emptiness emptiness form i can't really exact words but there's
• they left the ears out so the tibetan also reads form emptiness but tibetan hasn't is and you could put an is in
• actually what it's really saying is so it reads in english form emptiness emptiness form so he said it's like if
• it reads in english form emptiness emptiness form so he said it's like if you say form i'm gonna say emptiness
• emptiness form so he said it's like if you say form i'm gonna say emptiness if you say emptiness i'm going to say
• you say form i'm gonna say emptiness if you say emptiness i'm going to say form
• aggregates like that if you say consciousness i'm going to say emptiness if you say emptiness i'm going to say
• consciousness i'm going to say emptiness if you say emptiness i'm going to say consciousness
• more of a comprehensiveness and the depth of emptiness rather than swinging like that it's more you just see more
• whatever i want but they haven't really seen emptiness there and they're in the minority anyway and they tend to looking
• comprehensive how radical this teaching of emptiness is um it could be that we say emptiness
• of emptiness is um it could be that we say emptiness teachings all they're really doing is
• and you will find this if you read a lot in this that the majama emptiness teachings are only kind of
• or it's an attack on reasoning and logic and some people say emptiness is really what it's getting at is that the
• a slight variation of that sometimes people think emptiness is saying that thought and the thinking mind is the
• um that we just use emptiness teachings or we just believe emptiness teachings are
• that we just use emptiness teachings or we just believe emptiness teachings are just aimed at concepts like god or
• truth one just it's a little nervous that emptiness will go too far and i want it i want to keep this uh you know
• emanations and dreams and it has the meaning of emptiness and selflessness so sometimes very often it's come up in
• lie in front of the train we can talk all we want about emptiness but basically
• kind of inside it's like yes this is all very nice this talk about emptiness and lack of inherent existence but so what
• grows seeing that deeply seeing emptiness deep the whole sense of existence changes the
• one's being is different and see the the the emptiness of death the emptiness of life and death the
• the emptiness of death the emptiness of life and death the emptiness of dukkah
• the emptiness of life and death the emptiness of dukkah and that brings a certain level in the
• the more we see in practice through practice the emptiness of things the more and more deeply we see that the
• that i know and more the more deeply we see into emptiness the more the more of those effects without uh
• reverence and honoring and wanting to serve life despite its emptiness and the planet and all the rest of it it comes
• organically out of the seeing of the emptiness and that that i know
• actions and effects within knowing this emptiness within really knowing this emptiness of phenomena is even more
• emptiness within really knowing this emptiness of phenomena is even more amazing than the amazing and even more
• relying on actions and effects within really knowing this emptiness of phenomena is even more amazing than the

An Introduction to Emptiness - (Meditation on Emptiness) 68 mentions

• however i'm going to begin talking about emptiness tonight and uh continue from there in in the talks and the teachings
• may find very relevant and hopefully very useful in terms of emptiness and contemplations and ways of looking and
• um so this word emptiness in english uh for most people it would probably have a
• but to realize emptiness to realize the emptiness of things is actually something wonderful
• comes but that's the direction that the contemplation of emptiness is heading it's heading in the direction of joy
• that's how we experience the world but as we go into emptiness and meditating on emptiness and seeing we
• but as we go into emptiness and meditating on emptiness and seeing we begin to see that things are not
• sort of comprehensiveness that we can realize the emptiness of things to that degree to that depth to that
• bit has a clear relationship with love the realization of emptiness so put it very simply have you noticed
• that over rigidly we said that's empty and seeing the emptiness of it actually begins to liberate the flow of love
• is saying that again because there can be this doubt that emptiness leads to love so that's one very simple aspect
• love so that's one very simple aspect so emptiness is really not depressing it's not something depressing i doubt
• it's also not disappointing and some sometimes people teach emptiness as a kind of it's a teaching of
• but in its fullness in its depth is nothing disappointing about emptiness at all at all it's quite the opposite
• important teacher after the buddha when you see emptiness you realize that the true nature of all things is peace
• again there's a there's a key here with between emptiness and love and our capacity to love and our capacity to
• most powerful tool we have is the contemplation of emptiness that might not be that immediately but eventually
• beings but emptiness is one of those tools and it's and it's the most powerful tool
• it's and it's the most powerful tool so what is emptiness what does it mean i mean i said a little bit about it let's
• mean i said a little bit about it let's go into a bit more emptiness first of all is not a thing it's not a thing
• all is not a thing it's not a thing that's quite important emptiness is not a thing
• consciousness or a state of mind emptiness is not a state of mind we can perhaps
• other teachers might go into it speak of relative states of emptiness but actually we're being a little sloppy
• with our language when we do that so emptiness is actually not a state nor is it
• state and it's not space what actually is emptiness better to say emptiness is an adjective
• is emptiness better to say emptiness is an adjective better to say emptiness is an adjective
• better to say emptiness is an adjective better to say emptiness is an adjective and what we talk about is this thing
• it's empty it's empty and that's more accurate so emptiness is an adjective that goes with things and phenomena
• not nihilism or another again from chinese wisdom true emptiness equals wondrous being true emptiness
• chinese wisdom true emptiness equals wondrous being true emptiness equals wondrous fear
• just the sort of not knowing of their emptiness okay it's not just a failure to know
• now we need if we're interested in emptiness in really to go into it deeply we need to see the emptiness of
• emptiness in really to go into it deeply we need to see the emptiness of phenomena as well or phenomena
• gets emphasized more because as you see the emptiness of self and that gets kind of leaned on more
• understand that personal selflessness until we also really see the emptiness of phenomena and the emptiness of the
• until we also really see the emptiness of phenomena and the emptiness of the elements that seem to make up the self
• one of the great great teachers on on emptiness and other aspects too uh
• buddha's analogy until i have seen the emptiness of all things however there's a problem here and maybe
• myself or about impermanence or maybe even about emptiness etc whatever it is they just pop up by themselves in the
• contemplating deliberate ways of seeing to see deeply into emptiness from
• i don't know levels of understanding your emptiness are actually quite common sensical they're not far away uh from us
• it's important to see this it's really important this is a level of emptiness it's a level of emptiness
• important this is a level of emptiness it's a level of emptiness there's a whole other level again that
• ends up being the most important thing in emptiness and obviously i'm talking at various you know everyday level right
• when people start talking about emptiness and teaching emptiness they start talking about chairs or tables etc
• is best to actually start the inquiry into emptiness right where we feel the suffering in our life right where we
• that's the best place to start why somehow the emptiness is actually easier to see there family enough and of course
• lot of space in here as we said before space is not emptiness emptiness does not mean space it's
• as we said before space is not emptiness emptiness does not mean space it's rather that the mind gives solidity
• to an extent i'm saying mindfulness is is just a start with emptiness but it's a very very very important start
• if you've been around or read teachings about emptiness before you may well have come across
• people saying to say something's emptiness empty means to say it's a dependent arising you come across this a
• dependent arising you come across this a lot emptiness is the same as dependent rising and john and i will
• not enough to say for the fullness of emptiness it's not enough
• but that's what the teachings of emptiness are actually pointing to and starting simple starting every day
• existence and it's empty when i see its emptiness the suffering goes out of something
• we talked about this morning it comes from training in realizing the emptiness of things to whatever degree from
• and even someone who has realized very deeply directly the emptiness of all things the still refinement there's
• analyzed remember that word selfless is just another word for emptiness if the emptiness of phenomena is analyzed and
• just another word for emptiness if the emptiness of phenomena is analyzed and if this analysis is cultivated in
• and actually actively engaging and contemplating the emptiness the selflessness of this self and other self
• in a very beautiful way it begins to be that seeing emptiness the seeing of it just begins almost to have its own
• mind keeps finding its way back to seeing emptiness and wanting to see the emptiness of things the whole thing has
• seeing emptiness and wanting to see the emptiness of things the whole thing has its own momentum and conviction builds
• so i'm gonna say in only in in line with the tradition to see emptiness and penetrizing things actually the most
• a razor's edge here if my contemplation of emptiness and my practice and emptiness etc if they are
• if my contemplation of emptiness and my practice and emptiness etc if they are leading if i look at myself in my life
• very off and out of balance in my contemplation of emptiness because the opposite should be true more compassion

Dharma(s) Discovered and Created (Part 2) - (Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light) 62 mentions

• certainly understanding if the understanding of emptiness deepens far enough it provides the
• say a more limited view of what emptiness is and what realization involves
• goes versus a view of emptiness that i i would prefer and find much more
• scope of the emptiness view and is it as deep and as thorough
• there are quite a few different versions of what emptiness means so everyone using the same word
• so everyone using the same word mostly emptiness or etc and and the range of what's uh
• a lot of people using the language of emptiness as a kind of excuse to justify a behavior that wasn't ethical
• but that would be that's one version of emptiness that really it's almost like you say things are empty but it almost
• conventional reality is not empty is that emptiness just becomes it has no effect it's a sort of just a kind of
• um then you get different views of emptiness again where um again the thrust or the aim and often
• and so again what's happening in that choice of what emptiness means emptiness means don't get your hopes up emptiness
• choice of what emptiness means emptiness means don't get your hopes up emptiness means there is nothing sacred emptiness
• means don't get your hopes up emptiness means there is nothing sacred emptiness means there's nothing special
• means there's nothing special emptiness means that the self with a big s is an
• anything like that and that view of emptiness and that scope of emptiness again will and uses a
• and that view of emptiness and that scope of emptiness again will and uses a lot of the same language there's a lot
• um of emptiness that are just about simplifying things
• simplifying things emptiness is um
• mystery or depth to the whole notion of emptiness it's just the fact that there are processes there are atomic processes
• some people will choose a version of emptiness um that is um
• fear that might come up for them so they might hear about radical emptiness that everything is empty there's not even
• might be fear when i hear or read about an emptiness that's even deeper than that sam was not
• sometimes a person is choosing emptiness or a version of emptiness and again when i choose a version of
• again when i choose a version of emptiness then my path my traditional sub-tradition will come out of that and
• to or invested in um one version of emptiness over another wants that to be the truth of emptiness
• um one version of emptiness over another wants that to be the truth of emptiness uh partly might be partly based or
• one is committed to or invested in or wants this version of emptiness to be true over that person
• might slip in because they might feel like well i've i've realized emptiness and there's nothing for me more to
• where everyone has reached in terms of a view and understanding of emptiness that's also possible
• can sense and conceive of the cosmos i want my emptiness to be integrated into those kind of possibilities to
• linger a little bit more with this emptiness business and um uh maybe i'll just point a few more
• different views and and soulmaking dharma's relationship with emptiness and the imaginal practice relationship with
• the imaginal practice relationship with emptiness so there are as i said there's many different kinds or interpretations
• many different kinds or interpretations of emptiness despite the same word in the buddhist tradition
• people the the very hearing about emptiness is actually already wrapped up with mystery and
• but people love to hear about emptiness and they're drawn to explore it because of
• this is part of what we're wanting from emptiness and i would say part of what comes when we
• this process of you so for some people emptiness involves their view of their
• involves their view of their understanding emptiness involves this actually a certain rareification of
• this process of aggregation time um but again then emptiness just as in the kind of secular existentialist
• version um the the the the view of emptiness and the understanding of emptiness actually
• um the the the the view of emptiness and the understanding of emptiness actually implies certain things are still real
• legitimizing that through that through that version of emptiness yeah absolute does not legitimize it
• view is that the impermanent is real and so sometimes emptiness comes almost to be synonymous with impermanence
• so again very different versions of what emptiness means with hugely divergent implications and about
• not as i said emptiness in in the way that i would
• go as i perceive the world more through the lens of emptiness and come out of that a little bit then
• and come out of that a little bit then inevitably if the emptiness understanding is deep enough the world
• possibles for sensing the soul um emptiness also in in the way that i would conceive it
• in our view as well the understanding of emptiness actually legitimizes for some people who legitimizes the imaginal
• imaginal doesn't get denigrated because if i've seen the emptiness of everything there's nothing that i can
• as i said some people will need that deep emptiness to really purge themselves or divest themselves of
• and over time can actually bring insight into emptiness can open the insights into emptiness and there are a few
• into emptiness can open the insights into emptiness and there are a few people definitely more than a few who
• um said before again just talking about emptiness and it's
• careful not to be sloppy or lazy with their understanding of emptiness there's a way it can be a bit glib and easy
• profound understanding the view of deep emptiness is really radical in the sense of really the
• as i said when we talked in this series on on about emptiness um there is that in the possibility for
• perhaps have a personal relationship with emptiness if you like and with epistemology as we mentioned
• the talk on epistemology and and epistemology of emptiness is also personal
• refined careful understanding with regard to emptiness and at the same time acknowledge that
• end of it that's the understanding of emptiness anyone who says other stuff is just it's copyright all this business

Pain, as Void and as Sacrament - (In Psyche's Orchard) 57 mentions

• teachings on dependent origination and emptiness etc i would say always always wear this
• looking so those three or actually any emptiness way of looking again many many in in
• again can be done narrow and spacious attention we can talk about emptiness practices such as
• pain contemplating the mutual dependent rising and mutual emptiness of the whole and the parts
• not many and that's a way of seeing its emptiness looking at it looking at it attending to
• again feel the pain but be aware of the emptiness of any dualities or particularly the emptiness of the
• emptiness of any dualities or particularly the emptiness of the duality of pain and pleasure what does
• that's one of the real deep understandings that emptiness teaches but meditatively practically
• and the the very understanding of the emptiness the dependent origination the fabricated nature and the malleability
• is malleable so we do it we understand the emptiness dependent origination the malleability
• dependent origination the malleability and their understanding of the emptiness of the penalization malleability
• technically our very knowing of the emptiness the depend origination the malleability of it
• once one is developed in in some of these emptiness ways of looking at inside ways of looking it's
• um developed some of the art and skill there in these emptiness ways of looking one can
• one can engage an emptiness way of looking let's say let's say it's i'm looking at
• engaging one of these um deep emptiness practices but it's as if i'm i'm not uh
• the full amount of the the the kind of tincture of the inside of emptiness i'm putting in maybe a half amount or in in
• there of how much i can kind of lean on the knowing of emptiness within the way of looking in any moment
• so what happens in this one is i am engaging a deep emptiness way of looking but i'm i'm playing with the kind of
• but i'm i'm playing with the kind of intensity of the emphasis on emptiness within that way of looking how how much
• i'm leaning so to speak on that inside of emptiness how much i'm pressing on that pedal how many drops of this
• developed those practices there's inside ways of looking particularly emptiness and ways of looking then when i when i
• and the implications of deep fading implying that the total emptiness of any phenomenal reality any experience any
• at that point we can go deeper in our exploration of fabrication and emptiness i'm not going to explain it here again
• i think it's called other other places as well we begin to see the emptiness of fabrication
• it enters the process of fabrication and emptiness of time and fabrication is a process in time the emptiness of
• emptiness of time and fabrication is a process in time the emptiness of fabrications the emptiness of the
• process in time the emptiness of fabrications the emptiness of the process of fabrication the emptiness of
• fabrications the emptiness of the process of fabrication the emptiness of time
• we start as we go deeper then we start to realize the emptiness of the unfabricated
• magical might possibly mean and now emptiness starts to have a bigger meaning than fabrication
• if you follow the ways of looking approach now emptiness means more than fabrication
• on fabricate which is based on that understanding of the emptiness of fabricated unfabricated fabrications
• thoroughly look at it knowing its emptiness without it completely fading
• buddha is capable of fully knowing the emptiness of appearance that's fully knowing in that moment the absence of
• to uh fully know the emptiness of something at the same time as
• mayana buddha is able to fully know the emptiness of appearances without those appearances fading
• all the rest of us need to either wear it leaning on the emptiness inside pedal fully
• um a lightly touching lightly including lightly emphasizing the emptiness insight within the way of looking so
• development of our insight uh into emptiness and our meditative art we're kind of
• the um deep emptiness ways of looking but without the complete fading towards the
• practices and understandings of emptiness and fabrication all that but basically here's this pain here's
• them in the moment one can also mix it with emptiness because as i do that they get
• of perception mixing love with emptiness and again uh away taking us towards the buddha mind
• said about the fabrication and all that business about emptiness and pain disappearing and not being and fading
• teachings about fabricating and emptiness and learning to unfabricating is not or at least what's
• dependent on fabricating and therefore the emptiness of pain there's a much more general sense and
• for a human being seek because i see the emptiness of things
• things not just paying emptiness of everything a much broader deeper and more general
• existence changes and the sense this sense of the emptiness of all things and that has a bearing on my whole life
• the changes this level of insight into emptiness changes my whole sense of things
• primary is is that that seeing of the emptiness things deepens and opens a sense of the
• sacredness and mystery of all things as well a really deep emptiness as we talked about the other day
• think i mentioned also in one of those emptiness seminars response to a question
• these things in hierarchy even in deep emptiness understanding the most important thing is the sacredness
• lots of lots of possibilities could have done all those emptiness things or the giant thing whatever but at that point
• relates to what i was talking about in yesterday's talk about uh the emptiness of time

The Ontology of the Soul, and the Soul of Ontology ( ... inevitably) - (In Psyche's Orchard) 54 mentions

• imaginal middle way and the middle way of emptiness so this is an important ontological
• imaginable way and the middle way of emptiness so the middle way of emptiness was something
• and profundity and sophistication and breadth of the teachings on emptiness in in the mayan in the bruce mahayana
• of teaching it really has to do with emptiness although he doesn't as i pointed out
• although he doesn't as i pointed out there use the word empty or emptiness in that exchange it's still what we're
• talking about when we use those terms empty and emptiness so there's the middle way of emptiness
• empty and emptiness so there's the middle way of emptiness and then in the soulmaking teachings
• contrast when we talk about the emptiness middleware the middle way of emptiness that the buddha was talking
• emptiness middleware the middle way of emptiness that the buddha was talking about in the gardenia others picked up
• on the emptiness middle way is the result of a very careful usually long
• in other words after practicing with with emptiness practices or ways of looking or analytical practices after
• work what results is the middle way of emptiness it's the result of our ontological inquiry
• soul practice so emptiness middleware is a result of an unsolved inquiry and
• ontological question there whereas an emptiness practice we are we want to come to the answer the truth
• we want to come to the answer the truth about the fact of emptiness the universal truth there
• uh so as emptiness practices and understandings deepen and refine the
• and understandings deepen and refine the emptiness midway the middleware emptiness gets clearer and in a way well
• emptiness midway the middleware emptiness gets clearer and in a way well no and narrower it's more like a razor's
• not real neither real nor not real from the emptiness point of view the emptiness will becomes uh clearer and
• the emptiness point of view the emptiness will becomes uh clearer and much more like a razor's edge in other
• as we go deeper and deeper with emptiness practice and emptiness understanding
• and closer to the sort of narrow tightrope of the middle wave emptiness so again to contrast the imaginal middle
• so again to contrast the imaginal middle way in contrast the emptiness middleware is not such a precise or narrow concept
• more fully imaginal the emptiness middle way is a result of a careful ontological inquiry in
• perception in the emptiness middleware we're aiming for a kind of answer result to
• understand what that really means the emptiness middle way is one very narrow razor's edge tightrope of truth between
• we're aiming for as a result of our inquiry the emptiness uh so the imaginal middle way
• so you know as far as emptiness is concerned as well it's it's important to
• and and if that a realization of emptiness uh or rather let's say this way and they're empty and that
• way and they're empty and that realization of emptiness needs to have woven into it or alongside it hopefully
• penetrated to that result of the emptiness middleware the understanding of the thorough deep radical and
• of the thorough deep radical and comprehensive emptiness of all things if we have done that via the ways of
• because it's woven into the very investigation into emptiness right from the beginning as we talked about
• and if we go deep enough in our inquiry into emptiness in the penetration of the truth of emptiness to understand the
• into emptiness in the penetration of the truth of emptiness to understand the middle way of emptiness in its deepest
• truth of emptiness to understand the middle way of emptiness in its deepest and most precise sense then we see that
• no self emptiness is just of you emptiness is empty
• emptiness is just of you emptiness is empty not self is just of you self is just a
• and if you've really gone into the question of emptiness you will realize that
• um even a realization a full realization of emptiness still leaves a lot of questions about the exact ontology of
• conventional truths and the truth of emptiness and the thinness of things and the
• and the thinness of things and the emptiness of things and this is you know really quite a
• it bears very much on what we actually understand by the emptiness of something and so that so some of the areas of that
• and other things but some of it actually pertains to what does emptiness mean and therefore is this version of emptiness
• pertains to what does emptiness mean and therefore is this version of emptiness actually liberating
• all that they are all empty yes but it's still as i said emptiness realization of emptiness gone all the way to the end
• still as i said emptiness realization of emptiness gone all the way to the end still leaves questions about the exact
• whole logos of soulmaking dharma um is really based in and on emptiness it's based in ideas like create discover
• and the whole maya i'll take on on deeper understanding of emptiness deeper working out of what empties means the
• philosophies and certainly from buddha dharma and emptiness and the ways of looking approach
• other factors like the capacity to see in different ways the emptiness of dukkha
• dukkha the emptiness of difficulty what about qualities like patience
• ways of looking approach and inquiry into emptiness and i talked about before and i outlined seeing freeze in other
• places the phenomenological approach to emptiness and the penalizing comes to similar kinds of conclusions

Emptiness - (Meditation on Emptiness) 53 mentions

• so i want to begin talking about emptiness tonight and really tonight's talk is uh
• people wanted to do the retreat because to them the word emptiness someone who worked here the word emptiness had this
• to them the word emptiness someone who worked here the word emptiness had this connotation of sort of feeling empty
• deeper into into these ways of seeing these practices that emptiness brings joy no question about it brings to as
• it brings freedom it brings release again just to touch on what emptiness is not
• i'm hanging out in empty or i've been hanging out in emptiness as if there's a space of emptiness but we can talk that
• hanging out in emptiness as if there's a space of emptiness but we can talk that way and it has a certain validity we can
• uh what you could say relative states of emptiness of deeper we could talk about that but strictly speaking emptiness is
• emptiness of deeper we could talk about that but strictly speaking emptiness is not a state or a space
• uh it's an adjective actually so we have emptiness is a noun in english but actually it's an adjective and we say
• existing sphere or thing called emptiness that's not uh it's against some sometimes it's
• they're supposed to challenge their sutras about emptiness and the heart surgery is particularly
• um form is emptiness a form is empty then it says emptiness is form and it goes on
• form is emptiness a form is empty then it says emptiness is form and it goes on so feelings are empty or emptiness
• it says emptiness is form and it goes on so feelings are empty or emptiness emptiness is feeling perceptions are
• so feelings are empty or emptiness emptiness is feeling perceptions are empty emptiness is perceptions mental
• emptiness is feeling perceptions are empty emptiness is perceptions mental formations are empty emptiness
• empty emptiness is perceptions mental formations are empty emptiness is metformations consciousness is empty
• is metformations consciousness is empty emptiness is consciousness now the second half of each pair emptiness is
• emptiness is consciousness now the second half of each pair emptiness is form emptiness is the suppose part of
• second half of each pair emptiness is form emptiness is the suppose part of what it means it's supposed to say there
• isn't this inherently existing thing called emptiness that somehow separate from our conditioned experience so all
• our conditioned experience this is saying emptiness doesn't exist independent of that
• um as meditators emptiness is one tool among many okay so let's say i feel
• things all kinds of possibilities so emptiness is really also a tool for us as meditators
• be appropriate to take this sort of emptiness club out and start whacking everything over the head with it at
• profound as the the sort of teachings of emptiness are and the idea of it the concept of it it's actually not
• so we already are quite familiar at a certain level with seeing the emptiness of things so for example have you ever
• eventually in the moment we know the emptiness of it and it doesn't it doesn't have chance to and we don't have
• now you can also see more of my hopefully we can see uh emptiness in the realm of social convention as well so
• some someone said to me recently oh hold retreat on emptiness seems there's not much to say
• nothing happening at all notes no thoughts no nothing no is that emptiness didn't seem to do frequency to bring a
• a sense of dependency we talk about emptiness and dependorizing being like two sides of the same coin
• sometimes when people talk about emptiness they say a thing is empty because it depends on causes and
• conditions remember emptiness is supposed to free us it's supposed to free us
• backgrounds might be more used to hearing about the emptiness of the self and the teaching of no self or not self
• just we just don't happen to have heard this teaching about emptiness or we don't we actively in the perceptual
• kind of go with what's helpful what you can begin to see the emptiness of now oftentimes the things that we suffer
• for me and it's important for me i actually practice seeing the emptiness of that
• to favor that so sometimes people say to me emptiness yeah but what if a tiger was in front of
• and unbind when i'm contemplating its emptiness is that okay for now
• kind of educated in the teaching of emptiness and they know the right view and what it means and it's not this and
• comes from training in this realizing of emptiness training do we want the window open in here yes
• get used and habituated to the seeing of emptiness over and over and over and that's what makes the difference and
• um the mind kind of dissolves in emptiness you could say and you get a glimpse of a
• you could say and you get a glimpse of a total direct realization of emptiness but even for a stream enter then there's
• the two selflessnesses this the selflessness the emptiness of the self the emptiness of phenomena you
• selflessness the emptiness of the self the emptiness of phenomena you understand
• so as a practitioner as we develop this seeing emptiness begins to have its own momentum in the heart and the mind it's
• that and because of that it's not the case that emptiness leads to a a decrease or a lack of love or blocking
• as retreat goes by so it's not that emptiness does away with ethics and a sense of generosity or
• and there's compassion to beings knowing their emptiness so we would tend to think well if i see you as empty why
• deepest kind of compassion to have this fusion of the sense of emptiness of someone and and the love for them

Emptiness and Insight Meditation - (New Year Retreat) 51 mentions

• ultimately teachings of emptiness so the lack of this inherent existence is what we call
• this inherent existence is what we call emptiness that's what i'm talking about tonight teaching intervention say it's
• reactions and it can be even as a person begins to explore emptiness meditatively that there's fear
• important thing that we can understand as human beings is is emptiness it's the most important thing hands down no
• can understand about existence is emptiness is the lack of inherent existence
• many levels of understanding ventures on on the sort of simpler level emptiness and impermanence are very related so we
• so we could we could say that understanding emptiness and practicing with emptiness is probably the most
• understanding emptiness and practicing with emptiness is probably the most powerful tool we will have as meditators
• we're having difficulty we should always try and see emptiness and try and work with emptiness i'm not saying that it's
• try and see emptiness and try and work with emptiness i'm not saying that it's not the only tool it's one among many
• how precious we don't tend to talk about emptiness early on really
• headed is awakening and you can't awaken until you understand emptiness you need to understand emptiness
• until you understand emptiness you need to understand emptiness right from the beginning you get that
• might get a little stuck there and need convincing that emptiness is actually something important to understand
• speaking without understanding this emptiness this lack of inherent existence of all phenomena that's
• and also talk about emptiness as part of a way of practices ways of meeting our experience
• function of mindfulness so practicing with emptiness is just that sort of ramped up a bit
• that sort of ramped up a bit now the whole subject of emptiness is extremely difficult in all its depths
• difficult we actually have intonations of emptiness all the time all the time in our life
• not so far away some some levels of emptiness or we can see in our life
• real inherently real when we talk about emptiness we can come at it from many different angles and in
• at it from many different angles and in a way that word emptiness has lots of different uh what could you say aspects
• of meaning so we can talk about emptiness means the inseparability of things we can talk
• inseparability of things we can talk about the emptiness means the infinite nature of things that things are really
• are kind of aspects of the meaning of this word emptiness tonight and many more as well tonight i want to bring out
• one is the last one i mentioned emptiness as the meaning of constructing and fabricating and building
• and fabricating and building a reality emptiness as constructing and fabricating and building a reality and
• the second one if i have timings emptiness is things actually being unfindable in in their essence we'll see
• that might be the one that's easiest to see in terms of understanding emptiness and sometimes when people talk about
• what it seems to me actually that the best way in to practicing with emptiness is to go via where we're suffering
• right there with that dukkha is where the emptiness will be easiest to see it will also feel the most relevant
• so sometimes sometimes people say emptiness means and you may have heard this emptiness means
• sometimes people say emptiness means and you may have heard this emptiness means things are dependent on causes and
• conditions come together to make the vars and that's what emptiness means that's okay but if i if i happen to own
• got is that hole being built by unrealistic parts emptiness leaning on emptiness leaning on emptiness
• unrealistic parts emptiness leaning on emptiness leaning on emptiness the mind is building something here and
• um descent into the depths of and the fullness of what emptiness means not jumping right to nothing has any
• nature of all things meaning their emptiness however much you meditate you are still meditating on ordinary
• understanding of the profound view of emptiness how am i going to get beyond that how
• some people when they teach about emptiness is trying to it's almost as if they're saying what emptiness is it's a
• emptiness is trying to it's almost as if they're saying what emptiness is it's a teaching about disappointment so you
• of life or a god or the divine or whatever emptiness is saying there's nothing like that and it's disappointing
• nothing like that and it's disappointing and emptiness is about you better get used to that disappointment sunny
• mistake sorry uh it's wrong the emptiness does not bring this so it might as i say you
• it was one of my teachers many years ago you say the taste of emptiness is joy taste of emptiness is joy and that's
• you say the taste of emptiness is joy taste of emptiness is joy and that's where it's going
• was going to finish with emptiness does not mean meaningless in terms of ethics
• terms of ethics practicing with emptiness does not mean that nothing matters i can do what i
• understand there is a very real relationship between love and emptiness very real and we see it
• so to to the degree that we are able to understand emptiness and practice with it is the degree that the heart is
• helpful and bring some freedom in a sense that emptiness is not something to be afraid of it's something

Emptiness and the Vastness of Awareness - (Meditation on Emptiness) 49 mentions

• service of that the point of the teachings of emptiness again are for that in the service of
• just pedagogically speaking we can divide emptiness into two emptiness of persons
• persons of personal cells and emptiness of phenomena
• not exclusively but mostly we've dwell on the emptiness of the personal uh the personal self
• to expand and moving more into the emptiness of phenomena the emptiness of all things all things
• first talks it seems to me that we get more fruit in investigating emptiness we actually try to find the emptiness of
• more fruit in investigating emptiness we actually try to find the emptiness of what we're actually having a difficulty
• suffering because we're not seeing the emptiness of it so that again horses for courses but to me that that seems like a
• feels gripping because we haven't seen the emptiness of it and that emptiness is actually funnily enough
• to look to start looking for the emptiness when we notice craving ah so when we notice suffering sure but also
• ways ways that bring freedom we're learning to see emptiness the emptiness of these things that cause difficulty
• that we feel difficulty with we're learning to see that emptiness in different ways
• that's we suffer because we don't see emptiness of things but we see the inherent existence instead we see
• might it might be the very substance of emptiness you could say that if that makes sense it's like there's nothing
• aware the sense of awareness as emptiness or space sort of begins to permeate the the phenomenal appearances
• meditator actually even go beyond that and see the empty i'm just emptiness of this later we'll get to we have to
• the ways we'll see to expose the emptiness of it as we're going later but it can be very very helpful so you see
• focus in that meditation is on what emptiness means in this case is emptiness of any mind matter dichotomy
• emptiness means in this case is emptiness of any mind matter dichotomy or mind experience dichotomy awareness
• think it's a it's like a highway into emptiness yeah so that that's what i'm saying yeah
• nothing leads to uh it can lead to a full understanding of emptiness uh full realization etc and all of that
• um but as we said going right back to the first talk emptiness is not space emptiness is also not awareness
• the first talk emptiness is not space emptiness is also not awareness not even we'll get into this much later
• actually that's not the buddhist teaching on emptiness and that's not right or someone like me bursts the
• the fears of the childish it is not suchness it is not emptiness in other words it's a helpful stepping
• okay and then the other one once you have realized ultimate emptiness can you still get back to this yeah yeah the
• expose the full understanding of dependent rising emptiness but it can certainly take the whole thing to
• fullness of the understanding of emptiness but it can lead you beyond this sense of awareness as something so
• fuller understanding of dependent rising emptiness why so actually let's just backtrack and
• also very important understanding emptiness and dependent arising and
• can say as i said before is it's emptiness is not emptiness is not a teaching or disappointment it's really
• um all i can say that for a practitioner who experiences emptiness there may at times be experiences of fear or grief or
• night and to me deeper one goes into emptiness the more the sense of devotion the more the sense of love the more the
• peace all of that that's that's where emptiness is going um in the fear of the self we fear the
• it's actually it's not a stuff it's actually an emptiness it's a space it's a a non-non thing so to speak but then
• a a non-non thing so to speak but then that emptiness spacious texture pervades things in the same way as silence can
• substance the same stuff the same emptiness the same whatever we'll just come now it's the natural way the mind
• so where's the self in this where's the emptiness that i i i'm trying to make a connection
• inside the insights that unfolding don't seem to have much to do with emptiness and what we're talking about okay okay
• let's make that division so we're talking about emptiness and you're taking notes and you're asking questions
• meditation the specific meditations that we're doing are in line with emptiness etc and i said right at the beginning of
• begin finding ways to to use the emptiness to see in in moving in the day i feel i don't like what they're serving
• week right there it's time to see emptiness remember in the first talk talk about the dot to dot yeah that's
• talk about the dot to dot yeah that's emptiness that's beginning to look at emptiness so kick that in it does kick
• emptiness that's beginning to look at emptiness so kick that in it does kick in but i didn't call it that okay good
• reflections in if i can't bring the emptiness reflectors in can i bring something else in so dot to dot we
• we talked about how the mood colors things all this it's all emptiness so it's all to do with emptiness
• things all this it's all emptiness so it's all to do with emptiness mindfulness in its relationship to
• mindfulness in its relationship to emptiness and so understanding deepens meditation deepens and we're using the