Emptiness Made Easy

Today I want to talk about emptiness.

So some people may think that the concept of emptiness is just philosophical.

It's just a philosophical argument.

It isn't.

It's something that if you fully understand it,

It can change your whole life.

It can change all the suffering,

All of that discontentment and unease and attachment in your life.

So it isn't a philosophical argument.

It's an actual thing that we can implement into our lives that is going to change our lives.

So let me try to explain what emptiness means.

So if you,

Let's take an example of a chair.

We all know what a wooden chair looks like.

So picture that in your mind.

That chair is not magical.

It didn't just suddenly appear on its own and it's not independent.

It doesn't have a chair thing connected to it.

So it came into existence,

Not on its own,

But through certain causes and conditions.

So the chair is made of wood.

Excuse me.

The chair is made of wood and the wood comes from a tree.

The chair needed somebody to design it.

So it needed an idea.

It needed a carpenter to make it and that carpenter needed tools.

It needs to be in a room where the chair can be.

It needs to have a purpose.

A purpose is a person sits on the chair.

So you see that chair is just a conventional label that we give to these parts that come together.

So we get the parts,

They come together,

We label them as chair.

But they don't have a separate chair essence to them.

They don't exist on their own.

They only exist dependent on all of those parts.

They needed that tree.

The tree needed water and sunlight to grow.

It needed somebody to cut the tree down.

Somebody then to make the wood into a chair.

It needed tools.

It needed going into a shop.

It needed somebody to go and buy it.

It needed somebody to put it in the house.

It needs so many different things to become a chair.

It doesn't exist on its own and that's what emptiness means.

It means it doesn't have its own chair essence.

It means it has to be a coming together of lots of causes and conditions.

So that is emptiness.

It's the fact that nothing exists on its own,

Independent or permanent.

Everything is interconnected.

Everything is dependent on other things.

So it is empty of a separate solid Self.

So that's what emptiness means.

So that's for phenomena.

So there are two different types of emptiness.

There's emptiness of phenomena,

Of all different things and there's emptiness of our Self.

This is the key.

If we can understand one of these,

We'll understand the other one.

So the most powerful way to look at emptiness is emptiness of yourself.

So you may think that you are solid,

You're independent and you have this me inside of you.

This is me.

But if we break it down,

Your body is made up of water,

Food,

Blood,

Cells,

Organs.

So many different parts go to make your body.

So there's no independent solid body there.

Your thoughts are exactly the same.

Your thoughts come from things that you have learnt or things that you have experienced,

You've seen,

You've heard,

You've tasted,

You're touched.

Even your name,

The name that you hold on tightly to,

Was given to you.

It wasn't the name that you were born with.

Your personality,

Your behavior has been shaped by parents,

By friends,

By school,

Culture,

Experience,

Religions.

All those things have made your personality.

So there is no fixed,

Unchanging Self at the core of us.

We're constantly changing.

So we're in a process of constant change.

We're dependent on countless things.

So you are empty of a separate,

Permanent Self.

There is no permanent,

Separate Self.

So there is no permanent,

Separate Yeshi.

Yeshi is just a label that I was given.

My body is forever changing and there's so many different parts.

My thoughts and emotions all are coming from experiences and things we've learnt.

So there is nothing that we can hold on to,

That we can grasp and say,

This is who I am.

So it means we're empty.

So I am empty of a Yeshi.

It's just the coming together.

There is no permanent,

Solid,

Independent Yeshi.

So what emptiness is not,

And so many people misunderstand emptiness,

It doesn't mean nothing.

So that chair still exists in a relative terms.

You and me,

We exist in relative terms.

So it is not saying that life is meaningless and nothing exists.

We exist relatively.

It is not talking about nihilism.

So nihilism means that there is absolutely nothing and so nothing matters.

If there's nothing,

Then why should I care?

It doesn't mean that.

It means that we understand that there is this emptiness.

When we understand there is emptiness,

It gives us freedom.

Because we realize that nothing is fixed.

Everything is changing.

Everything is growing.

If there wasn't this emptiness,

We couldn't change.

Without emptiness,

Nothing would change.

Because without emptiness,

Everything would be permanent.

So you would have been born with a name,

You would have been born the size you are,

You would never grow,

You would never change,

Nothing around us would ever change.

So it's because of emptiness that everything can grow,

Everything can change.

Emptiness also gives us connection,

Because we start to see the interconnected thing,

The interconnectedness of everything.

When we see that everything is interconnected,

It means we can have compassion.

Because when I'm suffering,

It means we're all suffering.

So if I cause somebody else to suffer,

I will suffer.

If I'm causing or we're all causing people to be happy,

We would all be happy.

We're all interconnected.

So when we understand there is no solid permanent us,

Self,

It means that we can understand the interconnectedness of everything.

That is where compassion comes from.

That is where we can fully understand compassion.

Emptiness also helps us release that suffering that we have.

So much of the suffering,

Much of the pain,

The discontentment,

The sorrow,

That sense of unease comes from clinging to things,

Clinging to that sense of a solid and permanent self,

Clinging to that solid and permanent,

Dependent object,

Which there never is,

That object.

We never truly own anything.

We can truly say,

This is mine.

For a moment,

You may have it,

But it's not lasting.

It is changing.

Again,

When we understand that,

It helps us to release that clinging and then helps to release the suffering that we have.

So in simple terms,

Or trying to be in simple terms,

Emptiness means nothing stands alone.

Nothing stands on its own.

Everything is just a web of relationships and change.

So when we can see this,

We can see reality more clearly.

At the moment,

What we see is just conventional truth.

It's just not reality itself.

Things are there,

We are there,

The objects are there,

But they're not there the way we see them.

When you see this,

You see reality more clearly and with less fear and more openness.

Less fear,

Because we fear,

I'm going to lose this person.

I'm going to lose this object.

We are,

Because they're forever changing.

That thing that you're trying to grasp onto,

Hold onto so tightly,

Doesn't exist in the way you think it exists.

You're trying to hold on to something that is flowing,

Forever moving.

When we can understand that,

We see reality more clearly.

We have less fear of losing something and our mind is more open,

More kind,

More compassionate.

So when we talk about emptiness,

People always say then,

You know,

Why is it important?

It's important because,

As I said at the beginning,

It is not a philosophical idea.

It's not a philosophical theory.

It's a practical tool that is going to end our suffering.

We can look at different ways that it can help with that.

One way is,

It helps to cure that disease we have of attachment.

We are always grabbing onto things and most of the suffering and discontentment and dissatisfaction that we have in our lives come from how we hold on tightly to things,

How we grasp at things,

How we grasp at ourselves,

A sense of ourself.

We grasp and hold them as if they are solid,

As if they are permanent,

As if they are ours.

So we believe that every happy moment will last and it won't change.

And because we believe and try to grasp onto every happy moment,

We suffer.

We believe this self is fixed.

So if we believe that sense of self is fixed,

We defend it.

We praise it.

We try to stop people insulting it.

We spend a lot of money on trying to beautify it,

Thinking that it is a solid self.

But life is changing.

Our bodies are changing.

And because we're holding on to this sense of self,

We suffer.

So we believe that,

You know,

Everything that we own is ours.

And when we lose it,

Or when it changes,

Or when it dies,

We suffer.

So emptiness is what is going to help us with that.

By seeing that everything is interdependent and fluid,

Ever-changing,

And that includes that sense of self,

We then naturally stop trying to grab hold of things,

Hold things so tightly.

Emptiness allows us to be more loose and enjoy the things while they last,

Knowing full well that they're going to change.

This reduces our stress,

It reduces our anxiety,

It reduces our disappointment in life,

Because we're not holding on to something that is impermanent,

That is forever changing.

It helps with true compassion,

Because we understand that nothing is existing independently.

So then the line between me and you is then becomes blurred,

Because at the moment we see me and everything outside of me,

So subject and object.

When we understand the emptiness of everything,

It means that that line between subject and object is blurred.

There is no line,

There is no subject and object.

So your happiness is tied to my happiness,

Your pain is connected to my pain.

So seeing emptiness shows us that we're all flowing,

We're all interdependent.

Without emptiness,

You help others,

Because you think you should help others,

Or it makes you feel good about helping others.

When we have emptiness,

We help others on a more deeper level,

Because the idea of that helper and the helped melts away,

Doesn't exist.

So there is no giver and receiver.

When we see the emptiness of things,

Compassion comes more naturally.

So we're not helping because we want to,

We feel that we should help,

Or we feel better for helping.

We just help,

We have that compassion,

Because we realize that everything is interconnected.

And another thing that it helps us with,

Is one of the biggest sources of drama in our life,

Is that solid unchanging me,

That we think we have to protect and we have to promote.

We think we have to,

This is who I am,

I have to protect this,

I have to promote this.

So we spend our lives feeding and depending on this self.

We worry about my reputation,

My opinions,

And my achievements,

And my identity.

So when we understand emptiness,

It helps us reveal that we don't have a true self,

We are just a process,

We are just like a river,

Always moving.

When we understand that,

It makes us feel more flexible,

More humble,

More open,

More compassionate.

When people criticize us,

It doesn't sting,

It doesn't hurt us,

Because we know there is nothing to hurt,

Because that person that they just criticized at that moment,

Has now changed.

So when we fail at things,

When we make mistakes,

It doesn't define who we are,

Because we are moving,

We're changing.

So that failure has gone now,

That was at that moment,

That mistake was that moment,

Now we've moved on.

So emptiness is allowing us to engage more fully with life.

So people think that if we understand emptiness,

Then it makes us more passive,

Or more detached from life.

It is absolutely the opposite to that.

So think about it,

If you went to see a movie,

So when we don't understand emptiness,

So if you see life as a movie,

So and we don't understand emptiness,

So we get completely lost in the drama,

And we think it's real,

And we get stressed over the problems that the hero is having in the movie,

And we feel angry for the villain,

And what the villain is doing in the movie,

And we leave that movie theater exhausted.

This is how we see life,

If we don't understand emptiness,

We get completely caught up in the drama,

We think it's real,

We get distressed when things don't go right,

We get upset when things change,

Because we don't understand emptiness.

But by understanding emptiness,

It's like you're in that movie theater,

And you enjoy the movie even more,

You appreciate the acting,

The story,

The emotions,

But you never forget,

It is just a play.

You can laugh,

You can cry,

You can stand up and walk away from that movie,

And let it go.

That's if we understand emptiness,

That's how we can see life,

We can appreciate what is going on around us,

It doesn't stop us appreciating life,

But we understand it's just acting,

It's just a story,

It's just thoughts,

Just an emotion,

They're forever changing,

They're not real,

They're not what we think they can be.

So emptiness allows us to engage more fully with life,

We can engage with our work,

With our relationships,

With our passions in life,

With the people that we care for,

We can engage fully with them,

Without clinging,

Being obsessed by them and identifying by them.

So,

In a nutshell,

Just try to pull it all together,

The emptiness is important because it's the key to freedom for us,

It freezes from those prisons of permanence,

That expecting everything to last,

It freezes from separateness,

Thinking that I'm here,

And everything is outside of me,

It freezes from that mindset of subject and object,

And it freezes from that fixed identity that we have,

That this is who I am,

This is me,

And I have to defend that.

So it's not about becoming empty of life,

But it's about realizing life's empty nature,

So it's realizing that everything is empty of its own inherent self,

Everything is coming together as causes and conditions and forever changing,

Forever flowing,

Which is going to make life more precious for us,

It's going to help us to accept life more and understand life more.

So you can see how important understanding emptiness is,

Because if you don't understand emptiness,

It means that when you sit and do your Anapanasati and you're watching your breath,

You're believing that breath is who you are,

You're believing that breath,

But that breath is empty.

Even if you're doing the Vipassana and you're looking at different sensations in the body,

You can understand that the body is actually free and empty of the sensations.

It means you can relate to life and relate to your practice more clearly.

It means you stop grasping,

You stop holding on,

You stop getting attached to things,

You become more caring,

More compassionate,

Because you don't see that I'm a solid self or these people are solid selves,

You see that everything is flowing and changing.

You don't own anything,

You just have it for a certain amount of time,

It will change,

Everything changes,

We will lose things.

If we know that,

Again,

We're not holding on and we're not so upset when these things change,

Which they will,

Which we will.

So,

Emptiness makes everything in life possible.

Without emptiness,

Nothing would change,

Nothing would grow.

So,

That is how it is important to understand the true essence of emptiness of everything.

It isn't nothing.

Actually,

Emptiness is everything.

It is not like we've got an empty bowl.

Emptiness is just that everything comes together,

Stays for a certain amount of time,

And then changes.

There is no full,

Inherent self.

There is no full,

Inherent,

Solid,

Independent anything in this world.

We are all empty.

So,

It's not philosophical.

It is actually practical and it's something that I would suggest you meditate on.

You think about,

Particularly if you're upset and stressed about something that's going on in your life or something you've lost in your life,

Meditate on the emptiness of it and then see clearly.

So,

Next session that we have,

We'll do emptiness meditation.

So,

I'll help you to look at that emptiness of things.

But,

Listen to this again.

I'll put this in the WhatsApp group and listen to this again.

The more that you listen to it,

The more that you'll pick up certain parts of it and the more that it will help you.

It is the one thing that is going to help you the most in your life,

If you can understand it.

Even if you only start to understand it on an intellectual level at first,

On a knowledge level,

Fantastic.

Because if you've got it on a knowledge level,

Intellectually you understand it,

Then meditate on it and then you will turn that knowledge into wisdom.

And that is then,

You'll see the whole world as empty and you'll stop grasping and stop holding on tightly to things and become more compassionate.