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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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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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The way I understand it is that because of[br]the impermanence and the causality

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being dependent on each other,[br]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, or ambitions that matter.

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That's my question.

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(Sunim) We usually express emptiness[br]using the Chinese character

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meaning not filled, 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 can mean [br]multiple things.

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

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it can be called "form."[br]But if it means multiple things

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depending on the context,[br]we can call it "empty."

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That's what emptiness means.

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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 everything is[br]contextual and depends on the context

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in which the words are used [br]or the definition the word falls under.

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Let's take an example:[br]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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When somebody claims [br]that you're a good person

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

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If somebody says you're a bad person,[br]you have something within you that

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that person perceives as bad.

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So, whether it is a positive element[br]or a negative one, the very assertion that

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such an element exists is what is referred[br]to as "form," in contrast to "emptiness."

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

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In other words, you don't have [br]an essential form, element, or attribute

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within you that somebody can point to[br]and say that's good or bad.

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It is just their perception of you, within[br]that specific context of space and time,

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in which they claim you are good or bad.

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So, when somebody says you are[br]a bad person or you're a good person,

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I can say,[br]"You are neither good nor bad.

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You just are. You are emptiness,[br]devoid of a fixed self."

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In that case, empty doesn't mean[br]that you don't exist,

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

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It just means that there's no attribute[br]or an essense within you intrinsically

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that we can call as good or bad.

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Let's say we have this thing.

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Somebody took a little bite [br]of this thing and got healed.

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So, that person said, [br]"This is a great medicine."

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But somebody else took a bite[br]of the same thing and got sick.

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

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So, is this thing medicine or poison?

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There are three things in this world.

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One is medicine.

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Second is poison.

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And the third is that it has both [br]medicinal and 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 a thing.

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

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

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That's when you use the word [br]emptiness or Gong (空) 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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All existence, whether that's[br]biological or non-biological,

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or even a thought,[br]a mental phenomena,

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is empty (of a fixed nature).[br]It's neither good nor bad.

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That's why "the truth is emptiness." [br]In other words, it simply is what it is.

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How it's represented or manifests[br]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, [br]you are a good person

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and in other situations,[br]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.