Why is it necessary to understand emptiness?
What we want as Buddhists is to emphasize talking about emptiness. Because emptiness is not a matter of any particular religion; in reality, everything has the true nature of emptiness. So we need to understand emptiness, and we need to learn about emptiness whether you are Buddhist or not—it doesn’t matter.
There is no phenomenon that is not of the nature of emptiness, and there is no phenomenon that is not dependent origination. It is also said that all of Samsara and Nirvana are of the nature of emptiness, not established as true, but this is not the specific meaning of a particular religion. It is something that everyone must understand. Without understanding emptiness, one remains trapped in the prison of pure delusion and faces difficulties.
Buddha himself said that we wander through samsara again and again because we do not understand emptiness.
He also said that we cannot wash away our negative karma with water, nor can we remove the suffering of beings with our hands. Even he himself could not give his own realization to others. Only through the practice and realization of emptiness can we free ourselves from the suffering of Samsara, as he demonstrated.
According to the teachings of Chandrakirti, all afflictions and their faults arise from clinging to the independently existing self.
Through wisdom and practice, practitioners should eliminate the belief in an independently existing self.
This means that all our sufferings and problems—such as the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death—arise from the view of an independently existing self. Whether small or great, all difficulties arise from the misconception of true existence.
By clinging to an independent self, one first becomes attached to the object of that clinging and then continues to wander endlessly in cyclic existence.
This means because of the wrong view of the grasping mind, we create negative karma and wander endlessly in Samsara—like a water wheel that turns again and again, drawing water from the ground.
As stated in The Way of the Bodhisattva, the remaining five perfections are methods for developing wisdom—the wisdom that realizes emptiness.
This teaching shows us that the realization of emptiness is the most important of the six perfections, and that the Buddha taught the first five perfections in order to develop wisdom.
As stated by Lama Tsongkhapa, even if one practices renunciation and Bodhicitta for many years, one cannot cut off the root of cyclic existence—the root of samsara. Therefore, one should strive to understand dependent origination.
We should practice method and wisdom together, with the method being great compassion and Bodhicitta, and the essence of wisdom being the realization of emptiness. With these two wins, we can fly beyond the ocean of samsara.
To give a simple example: great compassion and universal Bodhicitta as methods are like strong hands, but hands alone cannot cut down a tree. We also need the great wisdom of understanding emptiness, which is like a very sharp tool to cut down the tree.
In brief, emptiness refers to the ultimate nature of phenomena. It is not something newly created by the Buddha; rather, the Buddha clearly taught this ultimate nature and among the four—Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist view, Buddhist science, and Buddhist religion—the concept of emptiness is the most important Buddhist view.
How to understand the emptiness:
Shantideva himself said that without seeing the examined object—the object of negation of emptiness. One cannot understand its lack of inherent existence. As it is said, if the general concept of the object of negation is not clearly formed in the mind, one cannot properly understand the non-existence of that negation. Therefore, if one wonders what the object of negation is, it is the very object that is negated through the understanding of emptiness.
Therefore recognize the object of negation of emptiness, one must first recognize what the object of negation is.
What is the object of the negation of emptiness?
There are two kinds of objects of negation in relation to emptiness.
The first is inherent existence, which is the main object of negation of emptiness.
The second is the conceptual clinging to true existence. The second one is the main object of negation on the path to understanding emptiness.
First, we must understand the measure of inherent existence. That is, if the object of negation of emptiness exists, we should form a clear idea in our minds of what it would be like.
The object of negation must clearly appear to one’s own mind. When strong fear and anger arise, the sense of ‘I’ as inherently existent appears to the mind. At that time, one must clearly recognize the appearance of the inherently existent ‘I’ to the mind. We need to meditate on this point for many months to recognize the object of negation of emptiness.
We should meditate on emptiness through the understand the four points of regarding the object of negation. What are the four points of understand the object of negation?
The first point is the key to determining the object of negation. Its meaning is to recognize the object of negation by identifying the object of negation of emptiness.
The second point is the certainty that if something truly exists, it must be established as either one or many.
The third point is the certainty that it does not exist as a single truth.
The fourth point is the certainty that it does not exist as multiple truths.
How to meditate on emptiness?
When you meditate on emptiness, you must allow yourself to appear completely empty to yourself, you need to get this kinds of feeling from you meditation.
When meditating on emptiness, you should contemplate interdependence, and because it is interdependent, you should think that it is not established by its own true nature.
By Geshe Tashi dhondup
