Ed Gabrielsen

The discussion and the idea of emptiness in Buddhist philosophy attracts many intellectual and highly intelligent people. For these people, understanding emptiness becomes an abstract problem in logic and reasoning, the solution of which is an ego-oriented goal to obtain. The fact that emptiness is a difficult concept to grasp makes the goal all the more enticing.   

However, this conceptual and goal-oriented understanding of emptiness is radically different from the contemplative experience of emptiness. In fact, and practice, emptiness is much more accessible as an experience than as a concept. But the paradox of the experience is that one cannot achieve it as a goal. This is because the experience of emptiness is precisely that natural state of openness and awareness prior to the mental formation of goals. Emptiness can never be a goal. This is because emptiness is our natural state. It is not a thing. Rather, it is that to which, or within which, all so-called things arise, are sustained, and from which pass away.

Empty of goals, the word refers to the pure and clear state of things as they are–empty of conceptual thought or narrative, empty of delusion, empty of inherent identity, but not necessarily, as Chogyam Trungpa once put it, a blank nothing, like an empty wallet with no money. Emptiness is not nothingness. This is an important distinction, without which, one risks the hazards of nihilism. On the contrary, to experience emptiness is to experience the richness of life, moment by moment, lovingly, compassionately, and at the same time, without attachment.

The realization of emptiness is the only actual respite from suffering. Most of the time, the reality we perceive is simply the reality we project. In other words, our delusions, our drama, our story about the way things are. But this is simply more suffering. To realize emptiness is the cessation of suffering. The word “nirvana” literally means “extinction” or “extinguishing.” The flame of suffering goes out, never to be relit.

Of course, that is quite an extraordinary claim. But for those who have realized emptiness, that is, for people who have entered into the stream of experience known as “emptiness,” this will make complete sense. To realize emptiness is not a badge of honor or an accreditation. It is not something to strive for. In fact, most people arrive at the experience because of suffering and through suffering. This realization of the truth is simply the natural fruition of the path of Dharma. It’s what happens to people who fall into the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. It happens through practice and study: meditation practice and intellectual study, combined. But it is not achieved or contrived. It simply happens, because when delusions are resolved, emptiness is what remains. Like the blue sky in which clouds appear and disappear, it is the pure and open spaciousness of our natural state. And this is freedom.

om svabahva shuddha sarwa dharma, svabahva shuddo ham