Feel Emptiness
To the mind emptiness or a perspective of void is horrifying. All of our lives we strive to have a strong sense of identity, an improved personality, an expression of the many possibilities we sense within ourselves.
Our identifications trap us so often in the see-saw emotions of life. If we think we are the many roles we carry we will measure ourselves against the ideal – the perfect parent, accomplished artist, successful business person, good teacher, excellent student – and the waves of good and bad judgment will measure us and usually decide we are acceptable in some moments and greatly lacking or totally inadequate in others.
When we touch a sense of emptiness we are greatly alarmed because the mind interprets this as being nobody, and believes this means we have no value, no capability or no possibility of happiness in the world.
To understand emptiness it is helpful to view the sky. There emptiness is vast, and its limits yet unknown – undoubtedly (although inconceivably) nonexistent. If the empty space of sky did not exist could the appearance of any forms exist? Just like the sun, the stars and the planets have appeared in this nothingness of space, so we have appeared from a minute seed into a physical form in the empty space of a mother’s womb.
The world of spirit is inevitably heartless – cutting through the illusion of separateness, bringing consciousness to a standstill with its revelations.
One must become emptiness, not simply look at it. One must sense the unbounded space and vastness of it to feel the ecstasy of it. And one will not stay there, but return into the unique form and play and dance of an apparent separate life. It can be confusing and disorienting at first, and of course one sees that most people are looking through a different lens at life experiences, although they also are radiant emptiness at the core. One will in the best moments be brightened by an interior peace with what is, feel free of conditioned compulsions, and know compassion for the human condition.
