A few weeks ago, a fellow classmate concluded that if everything is empty, then words themselves are empty; so why even talk about it? This is a very good point. In Buddhism, we seek to transcend concepts. Because of concepts, we are trapped. We think there is an ‘I’ which is separate from the rest of the world. This belief, however, leads to suffering, because it does not match reality. In reality, everything is empty.
So my friend is right in saying that, when we are enlightened, we have transcended concepts. Then, we are in the domain of the absolute Truth (i). But many of us are not there yet. Most of still live according to relative Truths, where everything is said to exist (ii). This means that we rely on language to communicate our wisdom to each other. How can we ever reach the land of no concepts, if the wise cannot communicate their deep understanding to us through words? The Buddha and Avalokite?vara can guide us in the right direction. Without their words, we perhaps would not even know of emptiness. Of course, emptiness is much more than a noun, or an intellectual concept. We cannot understand it through these things alone. But for most of us, they are necessary tools. They guide us until, someday, we abandon them and realize emptiness with our entire being.
The Buddha’s teachings have certainly helped to transform my attitude towards life. Perhaps his most valuable teaching has been that we take what is useful to us, and leave the rest aside. This is what I have done with emptiness. There are lots of writings on emptiness. Many of them have merely led me to intellectual confusion and headaches. This is not the point of emptiness: emptiness, by its very meaning, should be devoid of confusion. That is why, when I seek to understand emptiness, I turn merely to Avalokite?vara and N?g?rjuna. The former, Avalokita, is the bodhisattva who was freed from fear and attained liberation through his realization that everything is empty. We can read about his enlightenment in the Prajñ?p?ramit? sutra, the heart of perfected wisdom (iii). The second, N?g?rjuna, is a man who lived in the second century (iv), and whose teachings on emptiness became clear to me one evening as I was walking through the market in Mong Kok.
Strolling past the various stands, I stopped when I saw an old man setting figurines on a table. I recognized some as beautiful carvings of the Buddha, made out of a tree trunk. Taking one after the other in my hands, I was impressed by one particular piece, with its sereneeyes and wise smile. I asked the man who it was, and to my surprise he answered Avalokita. I stood there for a moment, watching the soft face, its tranquility affecting me deeply. When I finally put the figurine down, my partner asked me who Avalokita was. Though for a moment, in the presence of that peaceful face, I had come to a closer understanding of the bodhisattva, I was at a loss; how could I possibly explain the meaning of emptiness?
So, I began with a simple question; I asked him what I had been holding. He said ‘It was a person, and also part of a tree’. This was a very good place to start. We decided that, if we said it was just a person, it would not be correct. But if we said it was just a tree, it would also not be correct, because it was both at the same time. Together, we thought of all the other things that were apart of it: the sun and the rain which had nurtured the tree, and also the logger who had cut the tree down; the man who had carved the figurine, and also the man who was selling it at the stand we had just seen. Remembering what I had learned from Thich Nhat Hanh (v), I added that, in the moment that I recognized Avalokita, the bodhisattva’s mind, the carver’s mind, my mind, and my partner’s mind, were all apart of the figurine; we were bound together in that moment through our perceptions on emptiness.
So, although at first glance it seems that it is just a figurine, this is not quite true: it is many other things as well. ‘It is the same with people’, I said. ‘We think that we are separate from things, that we are an individual self entity; but actually, we are part of everything else’. We are also made of the sun, the rain, and other people; without these things, we would not be here in this moment. ‘So in fact, we are quite full!’ my partner laughed. With that comment, he shed light on a big problem I was having with emptiness. Up until then, emptiness had seemed to contradict everything I had learned about Buddhism. It appeared to be depressingly nihilistic. But my partner, who is always an optimist, had understood the same thing that N?g?rjuna had said all those years ago. If something is empty, it does not mean that it is non-existent, or destroyed. Emptiness simply means devoid of a self. So if we are empty of self, we are in fact filled with many things; the sun, the rain, and everything else! The doctrine of emptiness does not contradict the teachings of Conditioned Co-arising; they are in fact one and the same (vi).
If we look deeply at the figurine, we can see that it is empty; it is not a permanent entity. It is empty because it is filled with everything else. This is why Avalokita says that all dharmas are ‘not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete’ (vii). Even if, say, the logger is an alcoholic, and the carver is a Buddhist, we cannot say that one is bad and the other is good. If we look at the figurine, we see that one could not be without the other. They are both empty, because they are part of everything else.
We also cannot say that there is a point when the figuring came into existence. Was it the moment the last body part was carved into its final form? Well, before that it was already half of a figurine; and before that, it was a tree, the sun, and many other things. It is always part of everything else, so it is always a continuation. To quote Thich Nhat Hanh: ‘from nothing, we can never become something’ (viii). And from something, we cannot become nothing. Even if I get angry at Avalokita, because I do not understand his teachings, and I try to destroy him, I will fail. If I throw the figurine against the wall, it will break into many pieces. But does this mean that it is no longer there? No- the form has changed, but everything is still there: the tree, the sun, the carver. Even if I burn the wood, it continues on; it simply turns into ash, it takes on a new form.
And it is the same for humans. According to the Buddhist teachings, we are the sum total of five aggregates: forms, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. And as Avalokita came to realize, all of them are empty. They are empty because they are not separate entities, they cannot exist on their own (ix). They are all connected to each other, and to everything else. When someone dies, we feel sad because we think that that person has gone from existence to non-existence. But this is not correct. The person’s form has simply changed; like the figurine, it has become ashes, but it continues on. Because it has always been empty, it has always been part of everything else. Avalokita’s body changed many years ago, and no doubt he was said to be dead. But he is still here, in this very moment; he continues on in that figurine, in you and me. He has only changed form.
N?g?rjuna tells us that, after the Buddha’s cessation, we cannot say ‘he exists, or does not exist, or both, or neither’ (x). This is because existence and non-existence, life and death, are only concepts. The same is true for Sa?s?ra and Nirv?na. Without one, we cannot have the other; they are one and the same. We are empty, so we are filled of both Sa?s?ra and Nirv?na. We can perceive everything as separate, and this is what we call Sa?s?ra. Or, we can transcend all notions of duality, and realize perfected wisdom. This is what we call Nirv?na. When we do the former, we rely on relative truths to guide us. We rely on words, such as the ones on this sheet of paper, to try to comprehend emptiness. But in Nirv?na, we let go of these things. We do not speak of emptiness, or think about it; we are emptiness. And like Avalokita, we are at peace.
Bibliography
Books:
- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñ?p?ramit? Heart Sutra (Berkley, California, Parallax Press, 1988)
Course Materials:
- Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, p. 4, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
-Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 8, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- Walser, N?g?rjunain Context, p. 1, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
i Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 7, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
ii Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 7, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
iii Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
iV Walser, N?g?rjunain Context, p. 1, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
V Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñ?p?ramit? Heart Sutra (Berkley, California, Parallax Press, 1988), 4
vI Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 6, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
vII Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, p.8, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
vIII Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñ?p?ramit? Heart Sutra (Berkley, California, Parallax Press, 1988), 21
ix Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, p. 3-5, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
x Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 8, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
(1) Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 7, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
(2) Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 7, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
(3) Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
(4) Walser, N?g?rjuna in Context, p. 1, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
(5) Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñ?p?ramit? Heart Sutra (Berkley, California, Parallax Press, 1988), 4
(6) Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 6, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
(7) Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, p.8, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
(8) Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñ?p?ramit? Heart Sutra (Berkley, California, Parallax Press, 1988), 21
(9) Edward Conze, Prajñ?- p?ramit?- hrdaya- s?tram, p. 3-5, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, selected readings, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Available at: http://webct.hku.hk/webct/urw/lc9140001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct [Accessed 20 April 2011]
(10) Ven. K.L Dhammajoti, Note 9: Perfection of Wisdom, doctrine of emptiness, p. 8, MBS Mahayana Buddhism BSTC6002, course notes, 2011, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
