Emptiness In Meditation - Episode 5

Episode 5 of the Nature of Meditation podcast exploring emptiness.

The Nature of Meditation monthly podcast is an exploration of the nature of silent meditation practice.

Produced by Ayla Michelle at The Therapy Garden, a BAMBA-accredited, registered, and supervised mindfulness teacher.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Michelle.

Welcome to the Nature of Meditation podcast.

And this is episode five on the nature of emptiness in meditation practice.

So let's start with our usual three minute silent meditation to more fully arrive in our field of awareness.

Becoming more aware of our momentary experience as best you can.

So let's sit together now in stillness and silence for three minutes.

Back in the present moment,

In this episode five of the Nature of Meditation podcast,

I share my intellectual understanding of emptiness.

So paradoxically,

This episode on emptiness is full of theory.

My hope is that once you have intellectually understood the theory of emptiness,

You can then put complicated thinking down and have an experiential knowing of emptiness in your meditation practice.

Emptiness is a truth of nature and anyone is capable of understanding it.

It's not something mysterious or something to be afraid of.

As Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says,

I want to read a few lines from the Heart Sutra that summarise the teaching in this episode on emptiness.

So begin quote.

Listen,

Shariputra.

Form is emptiness.

And emptiness is form.

Form is not other than emptiness.

And emptiness is not other than form.

And the same is true with feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formations and consciousness.

End quote.

So those few lines really do summarise the whole of this episode.

So because the beginning of the episode is theory heavy,

I'm going to use keywords at the beginning of each paragraph.

And the first keyword I'm using,

Or keywords,

Is ontology and metaphysics.

And these are branches of philosophy that deal with questions of the nature of being,

Of existence and reality.

So starting then with a philosophical perspective,

The earliest Platonic philosophers thought reality exists in the realm of pure ideas,

The realm of the mind.

So for them,

Reality is in the eye of the beholder.

And of course,

The polarity to Plato was Aristotle,

Who thought that there is an objective reality that exists independent of the mind.

And he said that he thought that this objective,

Independent reality could be understand through observation and logic.

But therein is a contradiction in what he's saying,

Because of course,

Observation and logic are activities of the mind.

So therefore,

This supposedly independent external reality is not separate from the mind if observation and logic have to be used to encounter it and engage with it.

And then of course,

Philosophers such as Hume,

Following on in the Platonic tradition,

Thought that we experience reality through our senses.

So the Platonic philosophers,

And many others have thought and understood that objective reality doesn't exist.

And that the reality that we perceive is a mental formation,

A mental construct,

Or an illusion.

So the next keyword I'm using is Cartesian science.

And this is because we live in a hegemonic system dominated by Cartesian science that views reality in a materialistic way.

And it also supports the idea of an objective reality that exists independent of the mind.

But of course,

As I've said,

There have been many challenges to the idea of an objective reality,

Such as relativity,

Quantum mechanics,

Quantum physics.

And these reject the idea of an objective reality independent of a mind that is subjective and also highly conditioned.

The third keyword then is reality.

People experience the world as a real and tangible thing.

And of course,

Our science is materialist,

Is a materialistic paradigm.

And it states that there is an objective reality that exists independent from the mind.

Although it does concede that reality has to be perceived and encountered through observation and logic.

And so it's inherently contradicting itself,

Because if reality has to be encountered through the mind,

Then reality is not separate from the mind.

So the highly conditioned and subjective apparatus that is perceiving reality,

The mind,

Is itself recreating a reality based on the hegemonic culture and system that says whatever it says.

So I like to say,

Society says.

The fourth keyword then is appearance.

So many branches of philosophy and psychology teach us that although things seem to appear as absolutes,

In reality,

Nothing exists as it appears.

Our perceptions are subjective,

And they're also highly conditioned.

And our perception and our lived experience are conditioned through our sociocultural environment that influence how we perceive things.

So our mind and our perception is tricked into perceiving things and believing things that aren't there,

Because society says.

That they are there.

The fifth keyword is projection.

And projection has its roots in philosophical and psychological schools of thought,

Such as idealism.

And these state that reality is a socially and culturally and mentally fabricated phenomenon,

Woven together by our shared beliefs,

Ideas,

Needs,

Desires,

Etc.

So things appear to exist objectively in the external world,

But in fact,

90% or more of the time,

What we perceive as reality is a highly conditioned,

Subjective,

Mental projection.

The next keyword is perception,

Because there's a huge gap between appearances and reality.

And things do not exist as they appear.

Because our perception acts as a lens through which we filter everything,

Influencing how we perceive things.

What we focus on,

Process,

Interpret,

And how we act upon the world.

And again,

Perception is highly conditioned,

And at the same time,

It is uniquely subjective.

Therein another paradox.

So,

What one person perceives is different from what another person perceives,

Even when the two people are observing the exact same object.

And this is because we don't just passively receive information in our sense perception.

We are constantly,

Or naturally,

Automatically,

Constantly,

Subconsciously,

Affecting what we seek,

Find,

Encounter,

And perceive.

So,

We are affecting not only perception,

But the story,

The fantasy,

The imaginings,

The wishes,

The dreams,

The hopes,

That come long before perception ever happens.

So,

We're affecting all this.

We're affecting the ingredients that will later make up our perception.

And this affectation is based on our own lived experience,

And it's also based on the shared collective beliefs,

Culture,

Etc.

So,

The mind,

And by mind,

That's not the right word at all.

It's a very cognitive word that has removed the body,

And the spirit,

And the soul from it.

So,

Unfortunately,

We have this Cartesian scientific terminology that itself is hugely limiting,

For want of a better word.

So,

The mind,

Or I prefer to say the psyche,

That's a more holistic term.

The psyche first then needs,

Desires,

Wishes,

Imagines,

In this order,

Fantasizes,

And then begins to seek,

And then only later start to focus,

Find,

Perceive,

And encounter its objects of reality.

But the mind itself,

The psyche itself,

Is not a material thing.

It's not there.

There's nothing there.

It doesn't exist in itself.

And we can say the mind,

Or the psyche,

Or we could use more exotic terms,

Psychisoma,

Namarupa,

The mind-body,

These are all ideas or constructs that none of them exist,

Because an idea doesn't really exist.

The seventh key word is mind.

Mind isn't anywhere,

And there's nothing tangible to hold on to.

There may seem to be an individual subjective observer perceiving and experiencing,

But the mind itself is non-material and non-physical,

And the construct or idea of the mind is itself an illusion.

And this idea of a mind,

Of a body-mind,

Of a psyche,

It may be dreamed up,

It may be imagined,

It may be thought of,

It may be reified,

Categorized,

Classified,

And analyzed.

It may be examined and investigated as a thing,

But the idea or notion of the mind is an illusion.

And anyone who tries to meditate knows that the mind goes on its way regardless.

And what goes on,

What continues,

Are traces and imprints,

Accumulated throughout a life and throughout a culture,

And these traces and imprints are recreated by hegemonic systems.

In the histories of the societies and cultures.

The eighth key word is present moment,

The basis of the past and the future.

But where is the present moment?

One future second has already passed,

So where is it now?

So there is no present moment because it's already passed.

And these notions or these ideas of past,

Present,

And future are woven together.

In order to help structure and organize and manage our lives.

So for the sake of collective functioning,

Collective understanding,

We see a continuation.

But if we look very deeply and carefully,

We realize that there is no time,

There's nothing there.

So the ninth key word is consciousness,

And as I've already said,

In the materialistic scientific paradigm that we are immersed in and dominated by,

There's the belief that the cosmos is made of matter.

That there is a real physical independent world out there,

Separate from consciousness.

Now consciousness is the knowing of an object or a phenomena through our sense perception.

And if our sense organs are functioning,

Then consciousness of an object or a phenomena naturally arises,

Together with the perception of the phenomena.

And the meeting of these three things are senses,

Our consciousness and perception.

Together,

The meeting of these three things is contact,

Which maybe I should add from a phenomenological perspective,

And also from a meditation perspective,

Is important,

The actual contact.

And of course,

When consciousness ceases to exist,

The object or the phenomena also ceases to exist.

And consciousness is not a physical,

Tangible entity.

It is itself empty and impermanent.

So,

Impermanence is the next key word,

And emptiness is important because it allows things to come and to go,

In and out of being.

And as we sit here now,

Is there anything fixed or is everything coming and going?

I am aware of many,

Many,

Many words coming and going quite fast.

Many breaths and movements coming and going.

Many perceptions and sensations,

Thoughts and feelings coming and going.

So all these phenomena coming into and out of awareness are impermanent.

And the field of awareness does not have anything in it that is fixed or permanent.

There is no unchanging phenomena.

But there is space,

There is emptiness,

Which creates the space for phenomena to arise and depart.

And as phenomena come and go in and out of our field of awareness,

Our awareness is never completely filled up.

And there is always space for the next perception and the next experience to arise and pass.

The next key word is continuity.

Because although emptiness points to the impermanence of things,

It also acknowledges the continuity of things.

So all things are constantly changing and nothing is permanent.

And all things,

All phenomena,

All experience,

All objects arise in dependence upon other phenomena and objects,

Other things.

And this creates a continuous chain of cause and effect.

So actions create consequences,

Leading to a continuous cycle of cause and effect,

Symbolized by the turning wheel in many Eastern and Western spiritual and esoteric traditions.

And when we're meditating,

We are practicing awareness of the continuous flow of momentary experience.

The continuous flow of our breathing,

Our sensations,

Our perception,

Etc.

The next key words are interdependent and interconnected.

Because emptiness means empty of an independent existence.

Or put another way,

Emptiness is dependent existence or dependent origination.

And there is no independent existence.

So emptiness and dependent origination are two sides of the same coin.

Any phenomena,

Including our mind of course,

Does not and cannot exist independently.

Everything depends on many factors,

Causes and conditions.

And everything is a continuation of everything else.

So we are empty of an independently existing mind,

An independently existing self.

We are empty of this,

Meaning it doesn't exist.

And at the same time,

We are full of all phenomena.

So emptiness equally means fullness.

So the next key word is fullness.

And many people mistakenly see emptiness as a form of nihilism.

But emptiness is not nihilism.

Reality objects,

The mind,

The self,

May be empty of anything that is independent.

Therefore,

It is full of everything that it is dependent on.

So the classical example is the cloud.

Without a cloud,

There's no rain.

Without rain,

There can be no trees or plants that grow.

Without trees,

We can have no paper to write on.

So if the cloud is not there,

The sheet of paper cannot be here either.

So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.

Embodying emptiness,

Therefore,

Constitutes an awakening to oneness.

And by that,

I mean an awakening to being connected to everything.

So the final key word I'd like to use is nothing.

So as I've said,

Various branches of philosophy,

Physics and psychology have long taught us that things do not exist as they appear.

And that the appearance of a thing,

An object or a phenomenon,

Appears to be something that exists.

But if we think very carefully and examine and investigate very deeply,

We can discover that it is a sense perception of our mind.

And that our mind is not there and the mind that's perceiving this object,

This phenomenon,

Is just not there.

If the mind isn't there,

How can it perceive something?

So actually,

There's nothing there.

The mind is not there.

So perception is happening.

We can say sensation is happening.

Awareness is happening.

But there's nothing beyond the five senses.

Our experience in the present moment is simultaneously uniquely subjective and highly conditioned.

And I suppose I could say the highly conditioned part there is just pointing to the fullness that we've described,

Which is basically society says,

Culture says,

History says,

Cartesian science says,

Buddhism says.

Psychology says,

Etc.

So that's the conditioning that makes us believe and perceive something in the world.

But the mind is essentially empty.

The conditioning is essentially empty.

And to be fair,

We can say empty and full at the same time.

And this takes me back to the quote at the beginning of this episode.

Form is emptiness.

Emptiness is form.

Form is none other than emptiness.

And emptiness is none other than form.

So turning away now from this academic theory of emptiness and turning towards meditation practice.

Because complicated intellectual thinking is not important.

Our thoughts about reality,

The nature of reality,

Are not as important as our present moment lived experience.

So ultimately,

Ideas,

Notions,

Fantasies about reality will never be true.

And they are essentially empty.

But once we have intellectually understood that everything is empty,

The mind,

The self,

Everything,

We can take a step back from the narrative of our life,

From the narrative of Cartesian science.

From the theory of emptiness.

From what society says and from what cultural conditioning has co-created us.

We can step back from these things and have experience without thinking.

And we can breathe without thinking.

So I might just take a few conscious breaths.

So where are our thoughts when we're not thinking?

Are they somewhere?

When we're not thinking,

Our thoughts are nowhere because the mind is empty.

And not only is the mind empty,

But the actual mind itself is nothing.

It's not there.

It's an idea.

And if we're not having ideas,

Then the idea of the mind isn't necessary and the mind isn't there.

And of course,

Naturally,

Thoughts and feelings do come and go.

Naturally arise and pass according to the conditions,

The conditioning,

The context,

The situation,

The culture.

And we don't exist separate to the environment,

The conditions,

The culture around us.

So although it is ultimately nothing and empty,

At the same time,

There is the idea,

The fantasy,

The illusion of culture happening.

There is the illusion of perception,

Of experience.

And these notions,

Ideas,

Thought forms,

Mental formations,

We could even call them streams,

Energetic streams,

These naturally arise and pass away just as reality arises and passes.

Arises out of nothing,

Into nothing,

And back into emptiness.

So emptiness in meditation is beyond thinking and beyond being caught or consumed by thoughts or fantasies.

Emptiness is beyond being conditioned by our culture and society.

And at the same time,

It's being open to all things because we are interconnected and we do inter-be with everything.

So emptiness isn't a closure,

It's an openness.

And it also includes being caught up in fictional narratives for a few moments or minutes or however long the dream is that we imagine.

And whatever the experience is,

Meditation is about experiencing things as it is,

Just as it is.

So I say,

Experiencing things as they are are more important than imagining,

Wishing and fantasizing,

But of course,

From my perspective,

It's all imagining,

Fantasizing,

None of it is real.

So being open to whatever's coming in and out of our field of awareness,

Just as it is,

Stepping back from it,

Not getting involved with it,

And as best we can experiencing the reality of emptiness.

Oh,

Goodness,

This feels like a heavy and not the most pleasant recording to make.

So let's finish with some meditation practice.

Perhaps that may be more real.

As best you can,

Putting down complicated thinking,

Easy thinking,

Tuning into the sensations of your body as best you can.

Becoming aware of your breathing,

Being aware of whatever's in your field of awareness at this moment,

Whatever's coming in and going out of your field of awareness.

Being interested in what you are perceiving in this moment.

Interested but not attached,

Not caught.

Tuning to the stillness and silence now,

Just for a few minutes.

Alert and fresh,

A constant alertness and a constant freshness to each new moment.

Is refreshing.

So we are awake and furthermore,

We are awakening further.

We are becoming more and more awake.

We are not practicing deep relaxation and we are not interested in sleeping when we are practicing meditation.

So coming to the close of this episode on emptiness in meditation practice.

Thank you for listening.

So I'm actually going to meditate now after I stop this recording.

So you're also invited to enjoy some meditation practice now,

If you care to do so,

Or if you enjoy to do so.

If you feel moved to meditate or if it feels like it's something present for you now.

Okay,

So I will look forward to recording something for you again soon and go well and happy,

Especially in difficult situations.

Bye for now.