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 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 --> 00:00:49.572 and sometimes a little bit dampened and slightly demotivated. 00:00:49.572 --> 00:00:55.652 The reason is because the way I understand it is very shallow. 00:00:55.652 --> 00:01:01.782 The way I understand it is that because of the impermanence and the causality 00:01:01.782 --> 00:01:07.229 being dependent on each other, things become empty, or things are empty. 00:01:07.229 --> 00:01:12.178 But my challenge and difficulty with understanding the concept is 00:01:12.178 --> 00:01:17.592 how do I approach it so that I'm not undermining what is important in life, 00:01:17.592 --> 00:01:29.806 for instance, family relationships that matter, or ambitions that matter. 00:01:29.806 --> 00:01:37.465 That's my question. 00:01:37.465 --> 00:01:55.065 (Sunim) We usually express emptiness using the Chinese character 00:01:55.065 --> 00:02:00.128 meaning not filled, empty. 00:02:00.128 --> 00:02:22.258 But how a word is interpreted really depends on the context 00:02:22.258 --> 00:02:24.828 of what came before, and what follows after. 00:02:24.828 --> 00:02:29.411 So, the same word can mean multiple things. 00:02:29.411 --> 00:02:55.193 For example, if you claim that this word can only mean one thing, 00:02:55.193 --> 00:03:00.733 it can be called "form." But if it means multiple things 00:03:00.733 --> 00:03:05.198 depending on the context, we can call it "empty." 00:03:05.198 --> 00:03:07.481 That's what emptiness means. 00:03:07.481 --> 00:03:23.372 Emptiness in this context does not mean a complete absence 00:03:23.372 --> 00:03:25.857 of something or a complete void. 00:03:25.857 --> 00:03:30.812 It really means that everything is contextual and depends on the context 00:03:30.812 --> 00:03:37.430 in which the words are used or the definition the word falls under. 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:52.876 Let's take an example: Somebody may look at you 00:03:52.876 --> 00:03:56.657 and claim that you are a good person. 00:03:56.657 --> 00:04:00.836 Another person may look at you and say you are a bad person. 00:04:00.836 --> 00:04:11.924 When somebody claims that you're a good person 00:04:11.924 --> 00:04:17.012 that means that you have an essence of goodness in you. 00:04:17.012 --> 00:04:28.082 If somebody says you're a bad person, you have something within you that 00:04:28.082 --> 00:04:31.297 that person perceives as bad. 00:04:31.297 --> 00:04:49.809 So, whether it is a positive element or a negative one, the very assertion that 00:04:49.809 --> 00:04:56.019 such an element exists is what is referred to as "form," in contrast to "emptiness." 00:04:56.019 --> 00:05:16.316 What emptiness refers to is that it's all about that person's perception 00:05:16.316 --> 00:05:21.836 as being good, or that person's perception as being bad, 00:05:21.836 --> 00:05:28.211 but that there's nothing intrinsic within you that's good or bad. 00:05:28.211 --> 00:05:58.135 In other words, you don't have an essential form, element, or attribute 00:05:58.135 --> 00:06:03.385 within you that somebody can point to and say that's good or bad. 00:06:03.385 --> 00:06:09.745 It is just their perception of you, within that specific context of space and time, 00:06:09.745 --> 00:06:13.698 in which they claim you are good or bad. 00:06:13.698 --> 00:06:27.786 So, when somebody says you are a bad person or you're a good person, 00:06:27.786 --> 00:06:31.428 I can say, "You are neither good nor bad. 00:06:31.428 --> 00:06:35.070 You just are. You are emptiness, devoid of a fixed self." 00:06:35.070 --> 00:06:49.234 In that case, empty doesn't mean that you don't exist, 00:06:49.234 --> 00:06:52.924 that there's nothing, or that there's just a void. 00:06:52.924 --> 00:07:00.864 It just means that there's no attribute or an essense within you intrinsically 00:07:00.864 --> 00:07:05.547 that we can call as good or bad. 00:07:05.547 --> 00:07:09.837 Let's say we have this thing. 00:07:09.837 --> 00:07:27.233 Somebody took a little bite of this thing and got healed. 00:07:27.233 --> 00:07:31.580 So, that person said, "This is a great medicine." 00:07:31.580 --> 00:07:41.175 But somebody else took a bite of the same thing and got sick. 00:07:41.175 --> 00:07:48.413 That person pointed the same thing and said that's poison. 00:07:48.413 --> 00:07:57.142 So, is this thing medicine or poison? 00:07:57.142 --> 00:08:00.652 There are three things in this world. 00:08:00.652 --> 00:08:03.902 One is medicine. 00:08:03.902 --> 00:08:06.882 Second is poison. 00:08:06.882 --> 00:08:16.794 And the third is that it has both medicinal and poisonous properties 00:08:16.794 --> 00:08:26.227 But this thing itself is empty. 00:08:26.227 --> 00:08:36.686 That means that it neither has toxic properties nor medicinal properties. 00:08:36.686 --> 00:08:43.807 That means that this is just a thing. 00:08:43.807 --> 00:08:56.212 In whatever context and situation this thing has been applied to, 00:08:56.212 --> 00:09:03.130 it sometimes has medicinal attributes or sometimes has toxic attributes. 00:09:03.130 --> 00:09:17.173 That's when you use the word emptiness or Gong (空) to refer to that 00:09:17.173 --> 00:09:24.578 this is neither medicinal nor toxic, you are neither good nor bad person. 00:09:24.578 --> 00:09:45.528 All existence, whether that's biological or non-biological, 00:09:45.528 --> 00:09:50.046 or even a thought, a mental phenomena, 00:09:50.046 --> 00:09:54.217 is empty (of a fixed nature). It's neither good nor bad. 00:09:54.217 --> 00:10:08.585 That's why "the truth is emptiness." In other words, it simply is what it is. 00:10:08.585 --> 00:10:40.625 How it's represented or manifests really depends on the situation, 00:10:40.625 --> 00:10:45.165 the context, and the connections in which it is allowed to manifest. 00:10:45.165 --> 00:10:48.577 So, in some situations, you are a good person 00:10:48.577 --> 00:10:51.300 and in other situations, you're a bad person. 00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:57.318 In some situations, this thing is medicine; in other, it is poison. 00:10:57.318 --> 00:11:17.391 So, when we say Gong (空), or emptiness, it refers to the true nature of existence- 00:11:17.391 --> 00:11:25.440 just as it is-while Saek (色), or form, is how that nature appears to us 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.638 in various ways, depending on the context or situation. 00:11:29.638 --> 00:11:40.183 Therefore, if you truly understand that the essence of all existence 00:11:40.183 --> 00:11:43.768 is really empty, there's no cause for you to suffer 00:11:43.768 --> 00:11:52.148 because you realize the person is neither bad nor good. 00:11:52.148 --> 00:12:05.514 That doesn't mean that nothing exist. 00:12:05.514 --> 00:12:10.604 That just means that the person in a specific context of space and time, 00:12:10.604 --> 00:12:21.027 under a specific set of conditions, may appear to be good or bad to me. 00:12:21.027 --> 00:12:29.523 It doesn't look like you are fully clear on that. 00:12:29.523 --> 00:12:32.573 (Questioner) I am thinking of how you mentioned 00:12:32.573 --> 00:12:35.683 good or bad sometimes is empty. 00:12:35.683 --> 00:12:40.048 At the same time, I can't help but think of historical dictators 00:12:40.048 --> 00:12:43.220 that have caused a lot of hurt. 00:12:43.220 --> 00:12:46.774 But also, I have in my head explained to myself 00:12:46.774 --> 00:12:59.748 that they have violated the precepts. That's all. 00:12:59.748 --> 00:13:18.583 (Sunim) Even the precepts themselves are empty. 00:13:18.583 --> 00:13:23.098 (Sunim Laughter) 00:13:23.098 --> 00:13:28.129 (Questioner) I guess I am still a little confused about 00:13:28.129 --> 00:13:29.570 the precepts being empty. 00:13:29.570 --> 00:13:33.213 Do you mean they are dependent 00:13:33.213 --> 00:13:47.593 on the historical age we're in, the society that we're in? 00:13:47.593 --> 00:14:07.682 (Sunim) There's no precepts that can be regarded as an "always objective truth," 00:14:07.682 --> 00:14:12.562 regardless of the context, time, and space that we find ourselves in 00:14:12.562 --> 00:14:17.232 because that is a very dangerous path. 00:14:17.232 --> 00:14:55.212 So, the Buddha taught us that the right way is always determined 00:14:55.212 --> 00:14:59.106 by the space and time of the situation that we are under. 00:14:59.106 --> 00:15:02.363 It's like setting a compass down in a new place and seeing 00:15:02.363 --> 00:15:06.346 where it points north and that's when you find the right way. 00:15:06.346 --> 00:15:10.461 So, everything is dependent; it's not that the right way is predetermined. 00:15:10.461 --> 00:15:12.216 That's the middle way. 00:15:12.216 --> 00:15:18.236 And the concept of that middle way as it transition over to Mahayana Buddhism, 00:15:18.236 --> 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.