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<Introduction to Buddhism I>

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<What Is the Meaning of “Emptiness”?>

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(Questioner) Hi, Sunim, [br]Hi, everyone.

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Sorry, raising a question in such a large[br]group makes me a little nervous.

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So, please bear with me.

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The question that I have relates [br]to the concept of emptiness.

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Emptiness has come up [br]in a few of your Dharma talks,

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your videos, and textbooks a few times.

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It also comes up in many [br]of the traditional texts and sutras

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like Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra.

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Whenever I read through what emptiness [br]means in the Buddhist concept

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it leaves me a bit more confused

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and sometimes a little bit dampened [br]and slightly demotivated.

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The reason is because the way [br]I understand it is very shallow.

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I understand it as because [br]of the impermanence

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because of the causality being [br]dependent on each other,

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things become empty or things are empty.

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But my challenge and difficulty [br]with understanding the concept is

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how do I approach it so that I'm not [br]undermining what is important in life

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for instance family relationships [br]that matter, ambitions that matter.

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That's my question.

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(Sunim) So the emptiness, we usually[br]express that using the Chinese character

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for me is not filled, right empty.

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But how a word is interpreted[br]really depends on the context

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of what came before [br]and what follows after.

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So the same word actually [br]means multiple things.

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But for example, if you claim that [br]this word can only mean one thing,

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then that's different. But what emptiness [br]really refers to is that one word

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can mean multiple things[br]depending on the context.

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That's what emptiness means.

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So emptiness in this context [br]does not mean a complete absence

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of something or a complete void.

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It really means that [br]everything is contextual,

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depends on the context of how those words [br]or what definition that word belongs to.

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So let's take an example.[br]So somebody may look at you

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and claim that you are a good person.

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Another person may look at you [br]and say you are a bad person.

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So when somebody claims [br]that you're a good person

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that means that Joe, [br]you have an essence of goodness in you.

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And if somebody says you're a bad person

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then you have something within you that, [br]that person is perceived as bad.

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So whether you have a [br]bad factor or a good factor

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that's something that's intrinsic to you.[br]Then that's the opposite of emptiness.

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But what emptiness refers to is that [br]it's all about that person's perception

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as being good, or that person's [br]perception as being bad.

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But there's nothing intrinsic [br]within you that's good or bad.

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So in other words, you don't have an [br]essential kind of form or an element

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or an attribute within you [br]that somebody can point to

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and say that's good or that's bad.

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It is just their perception of you [br]in that space and time context

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in which they claim [br]that you are good or bad.

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So in that case when somebody says you are[br]a bad person or you're a good person.

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Then I can say that [br]she is neither good nor bad.

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She is just, she is empty.

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So that in that case empty [br]doesn't means that you don't exist,

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that there's nothing,[br]or there's just a void.

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It just means that there's [br]no attribute within you,

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or an essence within you intrinsically [br]that we can call as good or bad.

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Say we have this thing.

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Somebody actually ate a little bit [br]of this thing and got healed.

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And so that person said [br]'Okay this is a great medicine’.

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But somebody else actually ate the [br]same thing and then actually got sick.

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And that person pointed the same [br]thing and said that's poison.

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So is this thing medicine or poison?

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There are three things.

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One is 'This is medicine',

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and one 'This is poison'.

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The third is that it has medicinal [br]properties or it has poisonous properties.

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But this thing itself is empty.

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That means that it neither has [br]toxic properties nor medicinal properties.

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That means that this is just the thing.

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But in whatever context and situation, [br]this thing has been applied to

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sometimes has medicinal attributes [br]or sometimes it has toxic attributes.

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So that's when you use the word [br]empty or Gong (공) to refer to that

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this is neither medicinal nor toxic, [br]you are neither good nor bad person.

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So all existence whether that's biological[br]a thing or non biological organic

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or even a thought, [br]a mental phenomena

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and it's just empty [br]it's neither good nor bad.

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And it is just what it is.

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So that's why we call it [br]or label it as empty

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because that's the truth it is what it is.

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However that thing how it's represented or[br]manifest really depends on the situation

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the context and the connections [br]in which it is allowed to manifest.

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So in some situations, you are a person [br]in some situations, you're a bad person.

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In some situations this thing is a [br]medicine in other it is a poison.

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So when we say Gong (공) the empty,

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that is kind of what a thing is [br]what a phenomenon is.

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But however it's represented [br]within the context or situation

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it finds itself in and that [br]is what we call Form.

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Therefore if you really truly understand [br]that all essence of all existence

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is really empty then there's [br]no cause for you to suffer.

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Because you realize the person [br]is neither bad nor good.

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That doesn't mean [br]that person does not exist.

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That just means that the person in this [br]situation in this space and time context

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under this specific set of conditions [br]may appear to be good or bad to me.

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Doesn't look like [br]you are fully clear on that.

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(Questioner) I am thinking of how you mention [br]good or bad sometimes is empty.

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At the same time I can't help [br]to think of historical dictators

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that have caused a lot of hurt.

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But also at the same time [br]I have in my head explained to myself

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that they have violated [br]the precepts. That's all.

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So even the precepts themselves are empty.

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I guess I am still a little confused [br]about the precepts being empty.

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Do you mean they are dependent

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on the historical age we're in [br]the society that we're in?

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(Sunim) There's no ethical precepts that we can [br]absolutely say that this is the truth.

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That this is the way regardless [br]of the situation and time and space

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that we find ourselves in, because [br]that actually is a very dangerous path.

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So what Buddha taught us [br]that the proper way the right way

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is always determined by the space and [br]time of the situation that we are under.

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It's basically setting a compass down [br]in a new place and seeing

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where it points north and[br]that's when you find the right way.

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So everything is dependent

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even though the proper path on that, [br]that's the middle way.

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And the concept of that middle way as it[br]transition over to Mahayana Buddhism,

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it became translated [br]or understood as emptiness.

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So the emptiness, the concept [br]and the words, actually was a criticism

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against Theravada kind [br]of rigid traditionalism

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in which they claimed that a certain [br]set of ethical constructions was the way.

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And the criticism in Mahayana against that[br]was that the construct should be empty.

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So basically the original criticism [br]which Theravada's rigid absoluteness

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of the way was that there is no fixed way [br]and that eventually got translated

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and kind of consolidated [br]into the word emptiness.

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Basically when someone [br]claims that this the truth,

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then the criticism is that there's [br]nothing that you can point to and say

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that's the absolute truth, and that got[br]translated into that sense of emptiness.

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So the fact that we misunderstand [br]emptiness or the concept

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because of the word that we use [br]in space, but it's only a part of all.

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We usually obsess over somebody else, [br]if we like that person.

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And we want to make that person behave [br]the way we want them to behave.

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So if they don't behave [br]accordingly then we feel bitter.

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And if that disappointment becomes [br]too much then we just let go,

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and we become indifferent to them.

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If we realize this concept of emptiness

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then we can actually [br]let go of our obsession.

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Then we can allow him or her [br]to behave as they want.

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If they ask for our help, [br]then we help.

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If they don't ask for help, [br]then we don't help.

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So we're neither indifferent [br]in this case nor obsessive.