The Concept of Emptiness: A Path to Liberation

Many spiritual traditions practice meditation on emptiness. The nature of emptiness is difficult to understand, and the concepts in the article are difficult to verify without proper experience in practice. As soon as you call emptiness anything, it immediately disappears, dissolves. Therefore, it is recommended not to take what is said on faith, but to use it as a hypothesis expanding the horizon of knowledge.

Westerners interpret the concept of emptiness negatively, implying a lack of something. In the Eastern tradition, however, it is understood as the principle of world order, the basis of creation, a pure state of consciousness without prejudice, habitual thought patterns and attachment to the physical body.

Emptiness in esotericism

In esoteric terms, emptiness is an all-encompassing presence, an expression of a single boundless reality. In the Buddha's teaching, the cognition of emptiness, or Shunyata, is a necessary condition on the path to enlightenment, allowing one to free oneself from the attachments of the illusory world and realize the true nature of things. But the concept of emptiness is not only inherent in Buddhist philosophy: the idea of emptiness is present in all philosophical and cultural traditions. Emptiness is called "nothingness", "zero", but the meaning remains the same — special primary state.

Phenomenal emptiness does not depend on the Buddha's appearance in the world, for it was not invented by the Buddha. It existed from the beginning.

Buddha

Below, above and in all directions of space, earth, water, fire, wind, ether, manas, buddhi, ahankara is shunya, unsupported, everything abides in it.

Chandrajnyana-tantra

For the ancient Greeks, chaos is the original state of the world that gave rise to everything else. It is also a manifestation of emptiness. In Taoism, the concept of emptiness is reflected as Tao, the primary condition for the existence.

People make vessels out of clay, but the use of the vessels depends on the emptiness within them. They break through doors and windows in a house, but the use of it depends on the emptiness within.

Lao Tzu

Carlos Castaneda used the concept of "nagwal" to convey a state of emptiness.

Nagval is that part of us that cannot be described in words, names, or feelings.

Carlos Castaneda

Emptiness in science

Modern space scientists have revealed that 99% of the universe, the atom, and all things are empty.

Jung also spoke of it. According to his psychological doctrine, emptiness is thought of as a boundary between the conscious and unconscious, a point of balance. In empty space no information is received, but it is in this state that everything accumulated by previous experience is transformed into a new quality. Reality comes to the surface, truth is realized, and enlightenment occurs.

Any science operates with the principle of absence. It is traced in discoveries of recent years, especially in the system of quantum psychology.

Scientist S. Wolinski wrote that the main problem of society is resistance to chaos, attempts to take control of everything, the battle with uncertainty and the unknown.

The scientist believes that by abandoning this resistance, by accepting the existence of chaos, man will unknowingly begin to create a different order - one that is higher than all earthly orders.

Emptiness in everyday life

The state of "zeroing out" can occur spontaneously in extreme situations. It can be both strong negative shocks and positive experiences. The main condition is the suddenness and unoriginality of the event. Then a person acts as if outside of this reality, as in a dream, but with extreme clarity and precision. There are no thoughts, unnecessary sensations. There is a direct perception. Time seems to stop. Body and mind act as a single mechanism, coherently and efficiently.

Sometimes, when relaxed, a person thinks about something, but at some point realizes that there are no thoughts. Then suddenly come the answers to seemingly dead-end questions. This is the manifestation of emptiness in life.

In Eastern spiritual traditions, all things are seen as parts of an indivisible whole, and emptiness is seen as an affirmation of the absence of independent being.

Modern physicists have come to the same conclusion: scientists have realized that there is not and cannot be a last, indivisible particle.

Geoffrey Chu formulated the "bootstrap" ("lacing") approach. He defines the Universe as a constantly changing chain of events, equal to each other and connected to each other. Pull one "lace" and everything changes. The insidiousness of individual consciousness lies in the fact that, having grasped some fragment, it artificially stops changes, tries to appropriate or reject something, to fix something that no longer exists.

This concept is remarkably correlated with what Buddha Shakyamuni taught 2,500 years ago: everything one sees, hears, perceives, and knows as existing is nothing to which one attributes authenticity. Things, events, thoughts and sensations are not what they appear to be. They are impermanent. It is not in man's power to control what happens. If man resists it, he is doomed to suffering and disappointment.

Thus, the cause of all suffering is ignorance and an obscured mind. Omniscience, in turn, gives rise to attachment and anger. To be free from them, one must cultivate wisdom and realize emptiness. In this way it becomes possible to replace attachment with renunciation and anger with compassion. This is called liberation.

As if the world were empty, look upon it. By destroying the ordinary understanding of yourself, you will overcome death. The Lord of Death will not see him who looks at the world in this way.

Sutta nipata

• True freedom, a sense of real possibility of choice.
• Freedom from anxiety and worry, a sense of lightness.
• Getting rid of irrational fears.
• Rethinking events and experiences of the past.
• Realization of oneself as something more than the physical body, a holistic perception of oneself.
• Realizing the true nature of things.
• Filling with creative power.
• A condition that ensures continuity of observation and adequacy of understanding.

There are many ways to experience emptiness. Different traditions use prayer practice, mantra recitation, and dynamic meditation for this purpose. But there is no point in describing the theory without being supported by the Guru's instructions and prior personal practice.

For an overview, let's look at just a few techniques.

In some schools it is recommended to contemplate impermanence. This technique is most often mentioned in the sutras of the Pali Canon.

The technique consists of observing the moment a thought arises and the moment it dissolves; the moment the inhalation and exhalation begin and end; the moment a feeling arises and the moment it fades away, etc. This practice allows one to realize the fact that all phenomena arise from the subtle space of emptiness and to experience it.

Another technique for meditating on emptiness is divided into two large steps:

1. Conceptual, theoretical cognition that requires verbal expression. It is an analytical meditation that uses a chain of inferences.

   • Choosing the object of negation.
   • Establishing a logical consequence.
   • Detection of non-existence of the object of negation.
   • Rooting in the belief of the emptiness of the self and things.

   As one learns to see oneself in the light of this new awareness, one gradually stabilizes this vision. This realization is conceptual, but nevertheless prepares one for the direct experience of emptiness.

2. A direct perception of emptiness that cannot be described in words.

1. Clinging to emptiness as something that has true existence.
2. Clinging to the idea of the non-existence of the self.

Such clinging hinders liberation because it is based on a deep conviction of the non-existence of the one who accumulates karma. This is an erroneous position because it overlooks the law of interdependent origination.

To realize emptiness is not easy. The whole experience of mankind in its perception is bound up equally with attraction to emptiness and fear of it.

Practitioners devote many years to it. They study primary sources and commentaries of authoritative masters, discuss with each other, and practice under the guidance of experienced Teachers.

Realizing emptiness is like taking a diamond off the head of a snake. If you make the mistake of grabbing the snake below the neck instead of round the neck, the snake will sting you and you may die. But if you manage to grab it by the neck, the diamond will be yours.

Geshe Jampa Tinlay