0:00:02.484,0:00:06.484 < Introduction to Buddhism I > 0:00:06.591,0:00:10.171 What is the Meaning of “Emptiness”? 0:00:10.509,0:00:12.869 Hi everyone. 0:00:12.869,0:00:17.479 Sorry, raising a question in such a [br]large group makes me a little nervous. 0:00:17.479,0:00:19.089 So, please bear with me. 0:00:20.136,0:00:24.136 The question that I have relates [br]to the concepts of emptiness. 0:00:24.379,0:00:27.459 Emptiness has come up [br]in a few of your Dharma talks, 0:00:27.459,0:00:30.397 your videos and textbooks a few times. 0:00:30.397,0:00:33.307 It also comes up in many of the traditional texts 0:00:33.307,0:00:36.147 and Sutras like Diamond Sutra, Heart Sutra. 0:00:36.147,0:00:40.707 Whenever I read through what emptiness [br]means in the Buddhist concept 0:00:40.707,0:00:44.707 it leaves me a bit more confused 0:00:44.707,0:00:48.707 and sometimes a little bit dampened [br]and slightly demotivated. 0:00:49.772,0:00:53.772 The reason is because the way [br]I understand it is very shallow. 0:00:55.652,0:00:58.662 I understand it as because of the impermanence 0:00:58.662,0:01:03.919 because of the causality being [br]dependent on each other, 0:01:03.919,0:01:06.646 things become empty or things are empty. 0:01:07.179,0:01:11.325 But my challenge and difficulty [br]with understanding the concept is 0:01:12.178,0:01:17.682 how do I approach it so that I'm not [br]undermining what is important in life 0:01:17.682,0:01:23.942 for instance family relationships [br]that matter, ambitions that matter. 0:01:29.516,0:01:32.556 That's my question. 0:01:37.465,0:01:55.065 So the emptiness, we usually express [br]that using the Chinese character 0:01:55.065,0:01:58.555 for me is not filled, right empty. 0:01:59.838,0:02:22.488 But as you know how a word is interpreted[br]really depends on the context 0:02:22.488,0:02:25.228 of what came before [br]and what follows after. 0:02:25.228,0:02:28.618 So the same word actually means multiple things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But for example, if you claim that this word can only mean one thing, [br]then that's different. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But what emptiness really refers to is that one word can mean [br]multiple things right depending on the context that's what emptiness means. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So emptiness in this context does not mean a complete absence of something or [br]a complete void. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It really means that everything is contextual, really depends on the context [br]of how those words or what definition that word belongs to. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So let's take an example. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So somebody may look at you and say and claim that you are a good person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Another person may look at you and say you are a bad person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when somebody claims that you're a good person that means that Joe, [br]you have an essence of goodness in you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if somebody says you're a bad person then you have something within you[br]that person is perceived as bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So whether you have a bad factor or a good factor that's something that's intrinsic to you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then that's the opposite of emptiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But what emptiness refers to is that it's all about that person's perception as being good,[br]or that this person's perception as being bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But there's nothing intrinsic within you that's good or bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in other words, that you don't have an essential kind of form or an element or an attribute within you that can actually somebody can point to and say that's good or that's bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It is just their perception of you in that space and time context in which they claim [br]that you are good or bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in that case when somebody says you are a bad person or you're a good person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then I can say that she is neither good nor bad. She is just, she is empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that in that case empty means that you don't exist, that there's nothing,[br]you know there's just a void. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It just means that there's nothing and attribute within you, [br]or an essence within you intrinsically that we can call as good or bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Say we have this thing. Somebody actually ate a little bit of this thing and got healed.[br]And so that person said 'Okay this is a great medicine’. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But somebody else actually took part in the same thing and then actually got sick. [br]And that person pointed the same thing and said that's poison. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So is this thing medicine or poison? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There are three things. One is 'This is medicine', and one 'This is poison'. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The third is that it has medicinal properties or it has poisonous properties. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But this thing itself is empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That means that it neither has toxic properties nor medicinal properties. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That means that this is just the thing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But in whatever context and which situation, this thing has been applied to sometimes has medicinal attributes or sometimes it has toxic attributes. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that's when you use the word empty or Gong (공) to refer to that [br]this is neither medicinal nor toxic, you are neither good nor bad person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So all existence whether that's biological, that's a thing or non biological organic or [br]even a thought, a mental phenomena and it's just empty it's neither good nor bad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it is just what it is. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So that's why we call it or label it as empty because that's the truth it is what it is. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 However that thing how it's represented or manifest really depends on the situation [br]and the context and the connections in which it is allowed to manifest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in some situations it is good, you are a person in some situations, you're a bad person in some situations, this thing is a decline, in other situations it is a poison. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when we say Gong (공) the empty that is kind of what a thing is what a phenomenon is.[br]But however it's represented within the context or situation it finds itself in [br]and that is what we call Form. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Therefore if you really truly understand that all essence of all existence is really empty [br]then there's no cause for you to suffer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because you realize the person is neither bad nor good. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That doesn't mean that person does not exist. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That just means that the person in this situation in this space and time context under this specific set of conditions may appear to be good or bad to me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Doesn't look like you are fully clear on that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am thinking of how you mention good or bad sometimes is empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At the same time I can't help to think of historical dictators that have caused a lot of hurts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But also at the same time I have in my head explained to myself that they have violated [br]the precepts. That's all. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So even the precepts themselves are empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I guess I am still a little confused about the precepts being empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Do you mean they are dependent on the historical age we're in the society that we're in? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's no ethical precepts that we can absolutely say that this is the truth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That this is the way regardless of the situation and time and space that we find ourselves in, because that actually is a very dangerous path. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what Buddha taught is that the proper way the right way is always determined [br]by the space and time of the situation that we are under. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's basically setting a compass down in a new place and seeing where it points north [br]and that's when you find the right way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So everything is dependent even though the proper path on that, that's the middle way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the concept of that middle way as it transition over to Mahayana Buddhism, [br]it became translated or understood as emptiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the emptiness, the concept and the words, actually was a criticism against Theravada [br]kind of rigid traditionalism in which they claimed that a certain set of ethical constructions was the way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so the criticism in Mahayana against that was that the construct should be empty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So basically the original criticism which Theravada's rigid absoluteness [br]of the way wast hat there is no fixed way and that eventually [br]got translated and kind of consolidated into the word emptiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Basically when someone claims that this the truth, [br]then the criticism is that there's' nothing that you can point to [br]and say that's the absolute truth [br]and that got translated into that sense of emptiness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the fact that we misunderstand emptiness or the concept [br]because of the word that we use in space, but it's only a part of all. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We usually obsess over somebody else, if we like that person. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we want to make that person behave the way we want them to behave. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if they don't behave accordingly then we feel bitter. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if that disappointment becomes too much then we just let go,[br]and we become indifferent to them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If we realize this concept of emptiness then we can actually let go of our obsession. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then we can allow him or her to behave as they want. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If they ask for our help, Then we help. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If they don't ask for help, then we don't help. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we're neither indifferent in this case nor obsessive.