WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.500 <Introduction to Buddhism I> 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:10.171 <What Is the Meaning of “Emptiness”?> 00:00:10.171 --> 00:00:13.189 (Questioner) Hi, Sunim, Hi, everyone. 00:00:13.189 --> 00:00:17.369 Sorry, raising a question in such a large group makes me a little nervous. 00:00:17.369 --> 00:00:20.326 So, please bear with me. 00:00:20.326 --> 00:00:24.839 The question that I have relates to the concept of emptiness. 00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:27.329 Emptiness has come up in a few of your Dharma talks, 00:00:27.329 --> 00:00:30.217 your videos, and textbooks a few times. 00:00:30.217 --> 00:00:33.969 It also comes up in many of the traditional texts and sutras 00:00:33.969 --> 00:00:36.829 like Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra. 00:00:36.829 --> 00:00:40.707 Whenever I read through what emptiness means in the Buddhist concept 00:00:40.707 --> 00:00:44.707 it leaves me a bit more confused 00:00:44.707 --> 00:00:49.772 and sometimes a little bit dampened and slightly demotivated. 00:00:49.772 --> 00:00:55.652 The reason is because the way I understand it is very shallow. 00:00:55.652 --> 00:00:58.662 I understand it as because of the impermanence 00:00:58.662 --> 00:01:03.919 because of the causality being dependent on each other, 00:01:03.919 --> 00:01:07.179 things become empty or things are empty. 00:01:07.179 --> 00:01:12.178 But my challenge and difficulty with understanding the concept is 00:01:12.178 --> 00:01:17.682 how do I approach it so that I'm not undermining what is important in life 00:01:17.682 --> 00:01:29.516 for instance family relationships that matter, ambitions that matter. 00:01:29.516 --> 00:01:37.465 That's my question. 00:01:37.465 --> 00:01:55.065 (Sunim) So the emptiness, we usually express that using the Chinese character 00:01:55.065 --> 00:01:59.838 for me is not filled, right empty. 00:01:59.838 --> 00:02:22.488 But how a word is interpreted really depends on the context 00:02:22.488 --> 00:02:25.228 of what came before and what follows after. 00:02:25.228 --> 00:02:29.531 So the same word actually means multiple things. 00:02:29.531 --> 00:02:55.193 But for example, if you claim that this word can only mean one thing, 00:02:55.193 --> 00:03:01.483 then that's different. But what emptiness really refers to is that one word 00:03:01.483 --> 00:03:05.488 can mean multiple things depending on the context. 00:03:05.488 --> 00:03:07.801 That's what emptiness means. 00:03:07.801 --> 00:03:23.462 So emptiness in this context does not mean a complete absence 00:03:23.462 --> 00:03:26.017 of something or a complete void. 00:03:26.017 --> 00:03:29.512 It really means that everything is contextual, 00:03:29.512 --> 00:03:37.680 depends on the context of how those words or what definition that word belongs to. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:51.516 So let's take an example. So somebody may look at you 00:03:51.516 --> 00:03:57.097 and claim that you are a good person. 00:03:57.097 --> 00:04:01.116 Another person may look at you and say you are a bad person. 00:04:01.116 --> 00:04:11.984 So when somebody claims that you're a good person 00:04:11.984 --> 00:04:17.282 that means that Joe, you have an essence of goodness in you. 00:04:17.282 --> 00:04:24.332 And if somebody says you're a bad person 00:04:24.332 --> 00:04:30.897 then you have something within you that, that person is perceived as bad. 00:04:30.897 --> 00:04:48.699 So whether you have a bad factor or a good factor 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:56.996 that's something that's intrinsic to you. Then that's the opposite of emptiness. 00:04:56.996 --> 00:05:16.656 But what emptiness refers to is that it's all about that person's perception 00:05:16.656 --> 00:05:22.126 as being good, or that person's perception as being bad. 00:05:22.126 --> 00:05:28.211 But there's nothing intrinsic within you that's good or bad. 00:05:28.211 --> 00:05:57.535 So in other words, you don't have an essential kind of form or an element 00:05:57.535 --> 00:06:01.050 or an attribute within you that somebody can point to 00:06:01.050 --> 00:06:03.465 and say that's good or that's bad. 00:06:03.465 --> 00:06:09.825 It is just their perception of you in that space and time context 00:06:09.825 --> 00:06:13.978 in which they claim that you are good or bad. 00:06:13.978 --> 00:06:27.786 So in that case when somebody says you are a bad person or you're a good person. 00:06:27.786 --> 00:06:31.597 Then I can say that she is neither good nor bad. 00:06:31.597 --> 00:06:35.600 She is just, she is empty. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:49.234 So that in that case empty doesn't means that you don't exist, 00:06:49.234 --> 00:06:52.954 that there's nothing, or there's just a void. 00:06:52.954 --> 00:06:58.924 It just means that there's no attribute within you, 00:06:58.924 --> 00:07:05.197 or an essence within you intrinsically that we can call as good or bad. 00:07:05.197 --> 00:07:09.837 Say we have this thing. 00:07:09.837 --> 00:07:27.323 Somebody actually ate a little bit of this thing and got healed. 00:07:27.323 --> 00:07:31.380 And so that person said 'Okay this is a great medicine’. 00:07:31.380 --> 00:07:40.805 But somebody else actually ate the same thing and then actually got sick. 00:07:40.805 --> 00:07:48.203 And that person pointed the same thing and said that's poison. 00:07:48.203 --> 00:07:57.522 So is this thing medicine or poison? 00:07:57.522 --> 00:08:00.862 There are three things. 00:08:00.862 --> 00:08:04.512 One is 'This is medicine', 00:08:04.512 --> 00:08:07.252 and one 'This is poison'. 00:08:07.252 --> 00:08:16.794 The third is that it has medicinal properties or it has poisonous properties. 00:08:16.794 --> 00:08:26.457 But this thing itself is empty. 00:08:26.457 --> 00:08:36.716 That means that it neither has toxic properties nor medicinal properties. 00:08:36.716 --> 00:08:43.807 That means that this is just the thing. 00:08:43.807 --> 00:08:55.912 But in whatever context and situation, this thing has been applied to 00:08:55.912 --> 00:09:03.230 sometimes has medicinal attributes or sometimes it has toxic attributes. 00:09:03.230 --> 00:09:17.313 So that's when you use the word empty or Gong (공) to refer to that 00:09:17.313 --> 00:09:24.708 this is neither medicinal nor toxic, you are neither good nor bad person. 00:09:24.708 --> 00:09:45.628 So all existence whether that's biological a thing or non biological organic 00:09:45.628 --> 00:09:49.553 or even a thought, a mental phenomena 00:09:49.553 --> 00:09:54.657 and it's just empty it's neither good nor bad. 00:09:54.657 --> 00:10:01.504 And it is just what it is. 00:10:01.504 --> 00:10:05.141 So that's why we call it or label it as empty 00:10:05.141 --> 00:10:08.465 because that's the truth it is what it is. 00:10:08.465 --> 00:10:40.895 However that thing how it's represented or manifest really depends on the situation 00:10:40.895 --> 00:10:45.165 the context and the connections in which it is allowed to manifest. 00:10:45.165 --> 00:10:50.390 So in some situations, you are a person in some situations, you're a bad person. 00:10:50.390 --> 00:11:02.968 In some situations this thing is a medicine in other it is a poison. 00:11:02.968 --> 00:11:14.681 So when we say Gong (공) the empty, 00:11:14.681 --> 00:11:19.268 that is kind of what a thing is what a phenomenon is. 00:11:19.268 --> 00:11:24.533 But however it's represented within the context or situation 00:11:24.533 --> 00:11:29.398 it finds itself in and that is what we call Form. 00:11:29.398 --> 00:11:40.483 Therefore if you really truly understand that all essence of all existence 00:11:40.483 --> 00:11:44.088 is really empty then there's no cause for you to suffer. 00:11:44.088 --> 00:11:52.258 Because you realize the person is neither bad nor good. 00:11:52.258 --> 00:12:05.514 That doesn't mean that person does not exist. 00:12:05.514 --> 00:12:10.804 That just means that the person in this situation in this space and time context 00:12:10.804 --> 00:12:21.077 under this specific set of conditions may appear to be good or bad to me. 00:12:21.077 --> 00:12:29.523 Doesn't look like you are fully clear on that. 00:12:29.523 --> 00:12:35.623 (Questioner) I am thinking of how you mention good or bad sometimes is empty. 00:12:35.623 --> 00:12:40.048 At the same time I can't help to think of historical dictators 00:12:40.048 --> 00:12:43.320 that have caused a lot of hurt. 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:47.264 But also at the same time I have in my head explained to myself 00:12:47.264 --> 00:12:50.700 that they have violated the precepts. That's all. 00:12:59.478 --> 00:13:11.628 So even the precepts themselves are empty. 00:13:23.148 --> 00:13:29.760 I guess I am still a little confused about the precepts being empty. 00:13:29.760 --> 00:13:31.293 Do you mean they are dependent 00:13:31.293 --> 00:13:47.733 on the historical age we're in the society that we're in? 00:13:47.733 --> 00:14:06.132 (Sunim) There's no ethical precepts that we can absolutely say that this is the truth. 00:14:06.132 --> 00:14:10.662 That this is the way regardless of the situation and time and space 00:14:10.662 --> 00:14:17.432 that we find ourselves in, because that actually is a very dangerous path. 00:14:17.432 --> 00:14:53.212 So what Buddha taught us that the proper way the right way 00:14:53.212 --> 00:14:59.156 is always determined by the space and time of the situation that we are under. 00:14:59.156 --> 00:15:02.513 It's basically setting a compass down in a new place and seeing 00:15:02.513 --> 00:15:06.226 where it points north and that's when you find the right way. 00:15:06.226 --> 00:15:07.731 So everything is dependent 00:15:07.731 --> 00:15:12.186 even though the proper path on that, that's the middle way. 00:15:12.186 --> 00:15:17.956 And the concept of that middle way as it transition over to Mahayana Buddhism, 00:15:17.956 --> 00:15:22.363 it became translated or understood as emptiness. 00:15:22.363 --> 00:15:42.983 So the emptiness, the concept and the words, actually was a criticism 00:15:42.983 --> 00:15:46.883 against Theravada kind of rigid traditionalism 00:15:46.883 --> 00:15:54.633 in which they claimed that a certain set of ethical constructions was the way. 00:15:54.633 --> 00:16:05.492 And the criticism in Mahayana against that was that the construct should be empty. 00:16:05.492 --> 00:16:36.072 So basically the original criticism which Theravada's rigid absoluteness 00:16:36.072 --> 00:16:42.982 of the way was that there is no fixed way and that eventually got translated 00:16:42.982 --> 00:16:49.830 and kind of consolidated into the word emptiness. 00:16:49.830 --> 00:17:03.475 Basically when someone claims that this the truth, 00:17:03.475 --> 00:17:08.140 then the criticism is that there's nothing that you can point to and say 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:19.934 that's the absolute truth, and that got translated into that sense of emptiness. 00:17:19.934 --> 00:17:35.114 So the fact that we misunderstand emptiness or the concept 00:17:35.114 --> 00:17:55.091 because of the word that we use in space, but it's only a part of all. 00:17:55.091 --> 00:18:10.547 We usually obsess over somebody else, if we like that person. 00:18:10.547 --> 00:18:19.176 And we want to make that person behave the way we want them to behave. 00:18:19.176 --> 00:18:25.595 So if they don't behave accordingly then we feel bitter. 00:18:25.595 --> 00:18:36.585 And if that disappointment becomes too much then we just let go, 00:18:36.585 --> 00:18:42.840 and we become indifferent to them. 00:18:42.840 --> 00:18:54.780 If we realize this concept of emptiness 00:18:54.780 --> 00:19:00.586 then we can actually let go of our obsession. 00:19:00.586 --> 00:19:08.155 Then we can allow him or her to behave as they want. 00:19:08.155 --> 00:19:12.155 If they ask for our help, then we help. 00:19:12.155 --> 00:19:17.405 If they don't ask for help, then we don't help. 00:19:17.405 --> 00:19:29.395 So we're neither indifferent in this case nor obsessive.