What is this?

PS - Playing in the In-Betweens - (Practising the Jhānas) 34 mentions

• and the other half has to do with emptiness which goes even deeper than the unfabricated now unfabricated is
• the unfabricated now unfabricated is important for emptiness but emptiness in its full understanding goes even deeper
• relationship of both of those stages to emptiness and liberation and about the whole philosophy that's or
• find it in the seeing that three is a book about emptiness and talks about emptiness etc but there's also a lot of
• book about emptiness and talks about emptiness etc but there's also a lot of that material and a lot of different
• the terms dependent origination and emptiness maybe also codependent arising lack of inherent existence i anyway
• um but it's there to briefly for this so this isn't a talk about emptiness primarily it's talk primarily about the
• terms like dependent origination and emptiness get used in a lot of different ways in the dharma even in the insight
• um at one level at one level synonymous with emptiness or dependent arising in other words
• unfabricating emptiness dependent origination and the implications reality all of that
• was talking about this whole thing emptiness fabrication dependent arising is just a threat it's it's the same it's
• one doesn't understand dependent arising and emptiness and all this business
• and then this one understands that emptiness too is emptiness one hasn't fully yet understood dependent arising
• this talk i'm not going to go into the whole emptiness thing we don't have time um in a way it's only half of i said i'm
• to understand this business about fading and dependent arising and emptiness without practicing what i call inside
• really not the best way to understand fading and emptiness they're really not the best way to understand fading and
• the best way to understand fading and emptiness however
• however emptiness and fading is part of the best way to understand the
• said genres are not the best way to understand fading and emptiness but fading and emptiness are part of the
• understand fading and emptiness but fading and emptiness are part of the best way to understand the genres along
• so partly the reason i've been going on about emptiness and all that and ways of looking is because it forms the best and
• three characteristics and one of emptiness voidness so the three characteristics are dukka which is
• say to me oh well the only place the buddha really talks about emptiness in the pali canon is two sutters with
• the pali canon is two sutters with emptiness in the title but actually there's all kinds of teachings about
• there's all kinds of teachings about emptiness of phenomenal self not just this anata not me not mine emptiness of
• emptiness of phenomenal self not just this anata not me not mine emptiness of the personal cell there's all kinds of
• the personal cell there's all kinds of teachings that's emptiness of phenomenal stuff in the pali canon and different
• so here's one they're they're a void they're an emptiness so there's four ways of looking there
• that you know what there's many ways of understanding uh emptiness as we said in response to the note on the question on
• understand its its voidness its emptiness so in other words there's many possible subtexts if i'm using that way
• so there are other approaches to emptiness that are possible and again written about them and seeing the freeze
• for something to have inherent existence it's just another way into emptiness okay
• go further in my understanding of emptiness and dependent arising and i realized through that that
• there's holiness everywhere there's this beauty of emptiness everywhere without any duality

Questioning Reality (Question and Answer Session 5) - (Metta and Emptiness (Level 1)) 33 mentions

• right at the beginning the meta acts like a cushion for for the emptiness practices in the sense that you can the
• more meta there is the more we can just kind of let go into that emptiness and what it means and it feels rather than
• um that the much deeper levels of emptiness of puncturing the whole idea that
• disidentifying with awareness there's many ways of doing all these emptiness practice and they start feeding on each
• can get really really deep in that sense and into the emptiness of phenomena etc and then when you say do the anata
• it was one question answered here we talked about the emptiness of phenomena a little bit and i was not wanting to go
• um because that says very little about emptiness it says very little about this radical nature of reality or so-called
• courage to let them go and see their emptiness as well and then what one can do both and that's
• um sometimes people only want to do the emptiness thing and not really feel a lot of feeling so it's like where's my
• i think we said i can't remember um this word emptiness it's interesting because it goes very we just think the
• that's that's what's causing the flatness not the emptiness a hidden aversion causes flatness emptiness does
• flatness not the emptiness a hidden aversion causes flatness emptiness does not cause flatness
• of getting used to it but i absolutely promise you that going into emptiness is not going into disconnection or flatness
• and forth between more cultivating practices and and more emptiness practices
• um but yeah stepping stone definitely emptiness i think so yes i think it's really important to fall in love with
• love with god to fall in love with uh emptiness to fall in love with all this stuff but that's just my personality i
• um so yeah i've started to characterize that emptiness like give it a like it has certain feelings and that i
• letting yourself dwell and linger in in states of relative emptiness which is great
• i have been understanding i think my understanding that emptiness is not to stay exactly yes
• it's so easy to get confused and uh etc emptiness is an adjective this is empty that's empty etc that's really what when
• that's empty etc that's really what when we're practicing emptiness that's really what we're doing we're learning to see
• as not empty as real therefore to see the emptiness of thing means to release the clinging to that
• that's that's the purpose when i see the emptiness of something the suffering goes out of that thing out of the
• relationship with that thing so that's really emptiness is an adjective definitely
• this is sloppy language we could say there's a state of emptiness you're in a state of relative emptiness
• there's a state of emptiness you're in a state of relative emptiness in other words that sense of not being
• now we could call that the state of emptiness but that's actually sloppy language
• people to chase a state that they think is called emptiness which is just some kind of spacious thing and that's not
• four you could say four kinds of emptiness practices so far um
• if i see impermanence that i see emptiness if i see emptiness to me there not quite thank you for that they're not
• sometimes when you hear teachings about emptiness it sounds like they might as well just use the word impermanence you
• a degree to which the teachings of impermanence point to the emptiness of something
• than that so the word the teachings of emptiness have a lot more fullness and breadth and depth to them than just the

Freeing the Self - (Metta and Emptiness (Level 1)) 32 mentions

• understand that we don't see the emptiness of things that they don't exist outside of the
• i'm in the middle the middle way and that's what they call emptiness or depend origination
• selflessness is another word for emptiness two emptinesses and it's actually everything is empty in the same
• way but it talk about emptiness of the personal self and the emptiness of
• but it talk about emptiness of the personal self and the emptiness of phenomena and otherwise the emptiness of
• personal self and the emptiness of phenomena and otherwise the emptiness of things like objects in the world or
• or awareness things that we take for granted so there's the emptiness of the self and the emptiness of everything
• granted so there's the emptiness of the self and the emptiness of everything else which is phenomena
• this retreat will be just about the emptiness of self that's that's what we're going so i'm just kind of laying
• catherine was saying what's your response when i say the word emptiness it's interesting to see the difference
• or for some people at some times just the word emptiness when you hear a talk or teaching so you read something
• sometimes people teach about emptiness and they teach it as a teaching of disappointment
• teach it as a teaching of disappointment that to realize the emptiness of things is to be
• beautiful in life and so emptiness becomes a teaching of disappointment it's like you know what
• other other responses do you hear that word emptiness and there's a problem in the english
• there's a problem in the english language as well as emptiness and an immediate there's a sense of kind of
• the heart is again so it goes gray or it triggers a sense of lack emptiness i don't have anything there it triggers
• um sometimes even they're just listening to a talk about emptiness or a part of a talk that's about the say the emptiness
• to a talk about emptiness or a part of a talk that's about the say the emptiness of self or no self or something and they
• people tell me when when i hear about emptiness when i read about emptiness it seems to imply that everything is
• have this ambivalent response to emptiness rather than thinking in terms of nihilism and all that
• ambivalence about where this teaching of emptiness leads when one begins to see
• ambivalent about self and where about emptiness teachings and where they lead looking at that connection you can
• me the sense that i'm on the right track with emptiness if i don't have that intuitive sense of just trusting the
• so in in one way you know beginning to move into this territory the emptiness of the self we could say part of
• what assumptions are underlying that and they're connected with emptiness some of them they're connected with
• some of them they're connected with emptiness are we moving towards normalcy this straight jacket
• in our individuality and the freedom to express our individuality emptiness means we're free to express free to
• significant in terms of understanding emptiness i mean just putting it out for now
• coming back to this so emptiness and emptiness of self they are tools for freedom they are
• but that's all they are that's all it is emptiness is a way of looking it's a view that we pick up and put down
• between both not self or no self emptiness of self on one hand and self

Question and Answer Session 2 - (Metta and Emptiness (Level 1)) 32 mentions

• there you know and uh once we so if we relate this to emptiness you know because when you're focusing
• as beautiful because that's part of the emptiness of of how they really are do you understand it's does this make sense
• um beginning to see no there is no way things are this has to do with emptiness now there's no way things are we are
• but there's a deeper insight into just the inherent emptiness of things so you could start if you want exploring
• really really deep insight into emptiness that comes from meta and compassion practice that generally
• realizes that it feeds directly into the emptiness in science so there's ways that um you can develop that uh
• and and then the intermittent thought oh this is emptiness is it here and then there's the kind of is is that
• let's backtrack actually um emptiness is not a state interestingly
• of the way i'm looking at it so emptying it's like it says emptiness is an adjective that goes with everything
• empty of being inherently that until my realization of emptiness even on a very mundane level i'm in a
• so i can point that towards anything and look at something and see the emptiness of this thing the emptiness of that
• look at something and see the emptiness of this thing the emptiness of that thing inside outside cells others worlds
• when we're when we're sensing the emptiness of things but the emptiness is more of the
• emptiness of things but the emptiness is more of the adjective rather than that state
• loosely we could just say yeah it was an experience of emptiness you could say um more accurately we could get into
• um when i see the emptiness of something i let go of that thing so here i am let's
• and opens and it starts with just a little expansion there so emptiness brings letting go
• and letting go also will take the mind into into being able to see emptiness more easily uh and these kind of
• no understand what's that success yes exactly emptiness is an understanding rather than experience for
• about the self on this retreat but um when i see the emptiness of something i see it's insubstantiality i stop i
• things out and actually as things open out their emptiness the emptiness as i let go more and the consciousness opens
• let go more and the consciousness opens out the emptiness of things becomes more obvious so you get a kind of positive
• start looking at different things it's like that emptiness begins to be more obvious to you
• solid in that way less rigidly defined that's also it's like the emptiness of the body or the emptiness of the self
• that's also it's like the emptiness of the body or the emptiness of the self when you're deep in the meditation
• the states of deep absorption and samadhi is that useful for emptiness i think so very definitely so sometimes
• customizing the consciousness to state of emptiness it takes a long time seeing it but um
• deeper in meditation whether it's meta or or jhana samadhi or emptiness whatever actually building even less and the
• this is this is what tomato has this like emptiness has a way of equalizing things that's what we you know the idea
• bit about what we've talked about with the emptiness practices for instance yeah
• um when we're doing the emptiness there's things that we'll introduce we're
• that's like we said with sophie that's pointing to the emptiness of that view it's not a reality it's just it's just

The Movement of Devotion (live and shortened version) - (Re-enchanting the Cosmos: The Poetry of... 31 mentions

• shortly to have emptiness um as something basic to the path
• contra contrast i wanted to draw out is what happens when we take emptiness as a radical basis for our path an
• radical basis for our path an understanding of emptiness as a radical basis and i said i wouldn't repeat too
• what a big deal this placing of emptiness of ideas of ways of looking and fabrication in their fullness those
• dharma ground of ground lessons a basis in emptiness in this fullness of understanding and then the
• this shift of basis to having really having emptiness and deep understanding of emptiness and kind of rising as as a
• having emptiness and deep understanding of emptiness and kind of rising as as a as a basis of the path i mean well
• curiously one is the more one understands emptiness the more it even makes sense and uh to have emptiness as
• understands emptiness the more it even makes sense and uh to have emptiness as a basis so much so that it's almost like
• um that approach curiously of putting emptiness uh at the fundamental path will actually come once they understand
• will actually come once they understand emptiness more deeply for others it might come through certain more modern
• sensibility so any of those whether it's understanding emptiness deeply or modern science or modern western philosophy or
• understanding the deep teaching of dependent arising and emptiness this is hard to understand hard to see
• about um emptiness and their relatively enthusiastic about it and and then they
• the brain but again it's um we're back at physicalism emptiness does not stop does not have a ground
• try and convert the teachings of emptiness and fabrication of perception and all that into
• as i said different possibilities that understanding emptiness more deeply probing more deeply questioning with
• probing more deeply questioning with with the emptiness um practices for modern physics and what
• and the atoms and the subatomic particles all empty so the emptiness really means a groundlessness we are not
• understanding and perception of anything is also can be approached by emptiness as we said
• so i have to set up my own investigation into emptiness in the right way otherwise that too will just reach a
• emphasis on a deep understanding of emptiness and dependent arising um on on the one hand all perception all
• metaphysics on the one hand and kind of radical emptiness and understanding and origination on the
• the deeper i go into understanding emptiness um what looks like this tight rope
• holding together of the understandings of of the emptiness of all things the radical absolute emptiness of all things
• of of the emptiness of all things the radical absolute emptiness of all things complete thorough emptiness the holding
• radical absolute emptiness of all things complete thorough emptiness the holding of that with the
• um its relationship to uh to emptiness and understanding of reality and perception
• um and another instance is uh teaching emptiness on on a long course a couple of times in fact uh well maybe it
• and it's going through and explaining all this stuff about emptiness and realizing that a small three or four
• didn't see a connection with c with realizing the emptiness of things of uh and and a reduction in suffering or

"I Sing The Body Electric": On Orientations in Practice - (Re-enchanting the Cosmos: The Poetry... 31 mentions

• shortly to have emptiness um as something basic to the path
• contra contrast i want to draw out is what happens when we take emptiness as a radical basis for our path an
• radical basis for our path an understanding of emptiness as a radical basis and i said i wouldn't repeat too
• or what a big deal this uh placing of emptiness of ideas of ways of looking and fabrication uh in their fullness
• ground to the to the dharma ground of ground lessons a basis in emptiness in this fullness of understanding and then
• this shift of basis to having really having emptiness and deep understanding of emptiness and kind of rising as as a
• having emptiness and deep understanding of emptiness and kind of rising as as a as a basis of the path i mean well
• curiously one is the more one understands emptiness the more it even makes sense and uh to have emptiness as
• understands emptiness the more it even makes sense and uh to have emptiness as as a basis so much so that it's almost
• um that approach curiously of putting emptiness at the fundamental path will actually come once they understand
• actually come once they understand emptiness more deeply for others it might come through certain more modern
• sensibility so any of those whether it's understanding emptiness deeply or modern science or modern western philosophy or
• understanding the deep teaching of dependent arising and emptiness somebody said this is hard to understand
• about emptiness and they're relatively enthusiastic about it and and then they
• again it's um we're back at physicalism emptiness does not stop does not have a ground
• try and convert the teachings of emptiness and fabrication of perception and all that into
• as i said different possibilities that understanding emptiness more deeply probing more deeply questioning with
• probing more deeply questioning with with the emptiness um practices or modern physics and what
• subatomic particles all empty so emptiness really means a groundlessness we are not positing or assuming a ground
• understanding and perception of anything is also can be approached by emptiness as we said
• so i have to set up my own investigation into emptiness in the right way otherwise that too will just reach a
• emphasis on a deep understanding of emptiness and dependent arising um on on the one hand all perception all
• metaphysics on the one hand and kind of radical emptiness and understanding and origination on the
• the deeper i go into understanding emptiness um what looks like this tight rope
• holding together of the understandings of of the emptiness of all things the radical absolute emptiness of all things
• of of the emptiness of all things the radical absolute emptiness of all things complete thorough emptiness the holding
• radical absolute emptiness of all things complete thorough emptiness the holding of that with the
• um its relationship to uh to emptiness and understanding of reality and perception
• um and another instance is uh teaching emptiness on on a long course a couple of times in fact uh well maybe it
• and it's going through and explaining all this stuff about emptiness and realizing that a small three or four
• didn't see a connection with c with realizing the emptiness of things of uh and and a reduction in suffering or

Between Ikon and Eidos: Image and Hermeneutics in Meditation (Part 4 - The Three Characteristics)... 30 mentions

• operating at the same time that sees their emptiness so there's a larger practice there of
• another way of looking the seeing the emptiness somehow or other to some level that's wrapped up in that larger wave
• to another level by virtue of some degree of emptiness perception being involved in what in the
• there's if we talk about incorporating emptiness into it well then there's this as i
• alluded to there's a kind of uh spectrum if you like of how much emptiness is included or how deep it goes and and
• nor not real it will function in a similar way to the emptiness to allow more beauty more sacredness become more
• of being more interested in in more emptiness and incorporating more emptiness into the whole gestalt of the
• emptiness and incorporating more emptiness into the whole gestalt of the view it's actually quite important when
• understanding of the pen origination which is the understanding of emptiness um so they're not truths they're they're
• it's translated to refer to what i would call as the emptiness of inherent existence or phenomena
• different ways then because i see they're radical and total emptiness um i i come back to ways of looking in a
• through all the gradations there so this whole journey into emptiness liberates and legitimizes and opens up
• talking about now and or through some understanding of emptiness you come to realize just how malleable perception is
• um further into the understanding of emptiness one begins to see the emptiness as i said of all phenomena
• emptiness one begins to see the emptiness as i said of all phenomena anything
• momentary thing uh whatever one sees the emptiness of all phenomena and also the emptiness of time
• emptiness of all phenomena and also the emptiness of time seeing all that together understanding
• everything that they can involve but either from the emptiness understanding the deep emptiness understanding and
• either from the emptiness understanding the deep emptiness understanding and radical emptiness understand that can
• the deep emptiness understanding and radical emptiness understand that can emerge
• um but we can also arrive at that through emptiness practice because of the malleability or as i said see it as
• but again either through sensing the soul or through a deep emptiness understanding
• infinitely dimensionalized etc or when we see its emptiness we see that this these hard edges that separate it
• impermanence but again either through seeing the emptiness and say the emptiness of time or the emptiness of
• seeing the emptiness and say the emptiness of time or the emptiness of the phenomena or through uh seeing it
• no self or whatever we become free having seen the emptiness of all phenomena and then the emptiness of all
• having seen the emptiness of all phenomena and then the emptiness of all self views we become free to entertain
• fabrication and to the understanding the radical understanding uh of emptiness that comes out of that and then the
• what is liberated when i see the deep emptiness of things and we can then still use them in their
• just see the eternality or the total emptiness or whatever there's all kinds of possibilities

Between Ikon and Eidos: Image and Hermeneutics in Meditation (Part 6 - Amitabha Buddha) - (The... 27 mentions

• the soul i actually have to combine it with some understanding of emptiness that i have
• unfabricated perhaps is immutable being beyond time or emptiness is immutable unchangeable what is it to put that
• the wisdom that knows the thorough deep radical emptiness so one can um if you like uh
• um the emptiness with the imaginal the knowing of the emptiness with the
• the emptiness with the imaginal the knowing of the emptiness with the perceiving of the imaginal the knowing
• perceiving of the imaginal the knowing the emptiness with the sensing of soul um you place these things in
• or perhaps one does the same thing with emptiness and the uh the deity of passion and lust ragarati and what does
• passion and lust ragarati and what does that mean emptiness and and the erotic icon
• um it might be that you feel well i've done a little bit of emptiness but you know i hear some things that you say or
• um it doesn't matter so take the realization of emptiness that's kind of infusing akshobia in this
• um the indestructible whatever realization of emptiness makes sense to you so it might be that um uh it might
• for you and you're kind of equating emptiness and vast awareness and you might have heard me say well that's not
• um or it could be you know a really deep understanding of emptiness the dharma kaya as the non-dual buddha's gnosis
• sort of it's just a buddha who understands emptiness and we are aware that this actually and we're aware that
• that this actually and we're aware that um i don't quite understand emptiness but this guy does and and it's a kind of
• the the uh the consciousness that thoroughly knows all emptiness and it can be sometimes in doing that and that
• experience a deeper understanding of emptiness than we knew we had or that we were conscious of or that had realized
• the deity the imaginal perception um and and we just emptiness i don't even know what that means and and it
• text up to that point is is a lot about emptiness and uh as it's not very long so just a
• lose to it um but emptiness is one of the ways that make possible that kind of way of
• makes that possible is a thorough knowledge of emptiness thorough understanding of emptiness makes
• knowledge of emptiness thorough understanding of emptiness makes possible ways of looking at sea
• meaning the dharma datu is is the um the is the emptiness of inherent existence or is the um the emptiness of
• um the is the emptiness of inherent existence or is the um the emptiness of the inherent existence of things
• are empty it's the it's this the dharma data is the world of emptiness and appearance fused together
• where the body samples are living you could say when we practice emptiness when that gives us the
• soul or when we just sense with soul even if our emptiness meditation is not fully realized then this world is

Non-Duality and the Fading of Perception - (Meditation on Emptiness) 27 mentions

• uh in a way discover emptiness the seeing events is the palpable sense of
• events is the palpable sense of emptiness in a way that brings freedom that brings quite you know deeper and
• on by by the deluded mind and and drawn out and when we don't see the emptiness then we crave one and not the other and
• what we're going to get into is the emptiness of things and perceptions and how the mind the dilute mind builds
• something else we haven't seen the emptiness of show
• a step further and remember i said dividing it into the emptiness of cells and the emptiness of phenomenon there's
• dividing it into the emptiness of cells and the emptiness of phenomenon there's a reason i do it in that order because
• very deep meditation actually contemplating the emptiness of it and then everything
• is the inside the insight into dependent rising which means emptiness of things and actually seeing that over and over
• or maybe just a sense of stillness almost as it's just emptiness or it's just peace or whatever
• we actually understand through seeing this because it implies the emptiness of things we actually understand what we're
• or yes yeah and actually uh it has no bearing on dependent rising or emptiness or anything at all yeah so they their
• cease that's the understanding of dependent arising of emptiness and that's the understanding we're free
• i understand exactly emptiness and dependent rising two sides the same coin two different
• two empty things air leaning on air emptiness leaning on emptiness mutual dependent arising someone uh
• empty but if i see the emptiness of suffering rather than not caring
• the kind of magic of all this the more i see the emptiness of suffering the more compassion comes into
• these ways yeah they're all different ways of kind of seeing the emptiness yeah yeah yeah and and the feeling too
• in heaven it's there this emptiness same in suffering as it is in bliss as it is in
• what we're talking about tonight i see the emptiness of the thing the emptiness of the situation
• right at the beginning self not self thing and emptiness they're just ways of looking and actually in time meditator
• over or whatever way i see the emptiness of things and eventually i say over and
• and going straight to the knowing of the emptiness of it and look at it through the lens of knowing its emptiness and
• emptiness of it and look at it through the lens of knowing its emptiness and rather than not me not mine or let me
• to me the whole of the buddhist teaching is not just talking about the emptiness of the self so you say i'm like this and
• helpful way of going about investigating emptiness is actually going via your suffering
• um i i would really really recommend not getting with this whole emptiness thing it's very easy to go into a well this is

Selflessness and a Life of Love - (The Lovingkindness (Metta) Retreat) 27 mentions

• and it has to do with the dharma teachings of emptiness emptiness emptiness
• teachings of emptiness emptiness emptiness so how can we go into this is a huge
• perception of the world changes this is where the emptiness bit comes in but
• all things is flexible is malleable and this is what emptiness is a big part of what emptiness means that there is no
• and this is what emptiness is a big part of what emptiness means that there is no real way things are i am you are it is
• depends on my heart we can see this emptiness in many many ways but tonight i want to focus on the
• metta practice but seeing emptiness in any any way brings more matter rather than we have
• brings more matter rather than we have this word emptiness and it sounds kind of bleak etc but actually as i see this
• of bleak etc but actually as i see this emptiness this non-uh non-independent essence of things
• so another possible avenue of of emptiness is is that this self that seems so
• spectrum of how dissolved it can get and the sense of emptiness of things um
• black completely natural with with the emptiness so
• beauty then in all things through their emptiness and with that affection and care are
• natural they're natural responses to that emptiness and that beauty the perceptions that go with our
• somehow perfect and in a magical way in that emptiness somehow luminous luminous and in some tradition to for instance
• for us the understanding of emptiness the perception of emptiness grows and with
• the understanding of emptiness the perception of emptiness grows and with that this uh it becomes easier to love
• to to sustain that love because of the perception of emptiness and with that this what someone called divine
• mystical sufi poet and he says essence is emptiness everything else accidental
• accidental emptiness brings peace to your loving everything else
• dis-ease in this world of trickery emptiness is what your soul wants
• what your soul wants emptiness brings peace to your loving and emptiness allows
• emptiness brings peace to your loving and emptiness allows a kind of radical radical
• this stuff but when i see the emptiness of things take this i'll take like i was saying
• this is possibility through the emptiness opening up of radical love becoming possible
• the other or both of emptiness the non-self
• in other words we we begin to understand emptiness more and more we're removing this veil of delusion and as we do that