33) Emptiness

So what is emptiness?

Emptiness is not nothingness. It simply means that everything and everyone… our entire world and universe is a result of conditioned arising. The ultimate truth and ultimate nature of everything is the same.

Our problems arise because we forget this crucial truth. Therefore we live deluded lives, and we cause ourselves suffering.

Once we really understand what emptiness means, the way we perceive the world suddenly changes dramatically. We realise it is pointless being negative.

It helps to meditate, and contemplate emptiness frequently, so that the truth becomes reality and second nature to us. Our thought patterns then change and we suffer no more.

When we misinterpret our world because we do not understand emptiness fully, we grasp at objects as if they exist by themselves, independently of everything.

When we see ourselves as the “I”, and the “me”, we see a completely independently existing person. The same when we see other people, and objects, anything, as completely independently existing.

When we relate to people and things in this way we suffer. We call it self-grasping. For example, if someone teases us and our “self-grasping” is strong, we may feel a mental pain. At a different time, when our levels of “self-grasping” are weak, we simply laugh instead.

This “self-grasping” causes our suffering. Once it is destroyed, all our suffering and problems disappear into the ether.