Highland Mindfulness Group

THE TRUE MEANING OF EMPTINESS.

In our meditation practice as in our daily lives we have a tendency to regard some phenomena as objectively true or real. We might describe them as “stand alone” entities. Time, for instance, is viewed as being a constant that has a reality and a meaning outside of us and any influence that we may feel we have upon events. Our feelings of sense of self lead us to believe that we have an existence that is separate from and independent of everything and everyone else around us. Insight practice brings us gradually to the realisation that this cannot be the case and that both time and our sense of self are fundamentally empty. When we say that something is empty what we mean is that it is empty of an inherent or independent existence. Just as fire depends upon there being something to fuel it and does not burn itself everything in this reality depends upon causes and conditions. What arises dependent on causes and conditions lacks its own being or substance – in other words it is empty of inherent or independent existence.

THE EMPTINESS OF MEMORY AND TIME.

Memory is sometimes considered as if it were a type of time travelling machine that enables us to relive a past event and in effect to bring it into the present. It carries with it a sense of possession – of my past, of my memory of events – which feeds into the illusion of the sense of a self, and of the illusion of time as having an inherent existence separate from and outside us. Memory involves the generation of a mental image that makes it appear as mine. Conventionally it makes sense to refer to my memory and to regard memory as an objective fact and as an independent witness of events. But memory is always a memory of something and both the memory and the objects of memory are mutually dependent. Memory therefore depends upon objects that in themselves are not considered memory so it cannot be said to have its own separate nature. As a consequence, we can say that memory is unable to be established in and of itself and it is empty in that it lacks inherent existence.

Indeed, if memory existed in and of itself as an independent (stand alone) and fixed store of past experience it would of necessity be separate from us and it would in effect be locked away in an irretrievable past that could not be related to the present. Memory, as we experience it, is related to and dependent upon the present. It does not stand to the side objectively retaining or reliving life events. It cannot exist as an independent entity that stores experiences but is but is a function of the mind. Memory is not separate from life events as if it just stores a past, but is a continuous process of re-creation dependent upon and related to present events.

Past and present are often discussed as if they are separate from one another whereas they are in fact interrelated phenomena. If the past and present were two inherently divided movements, or if they were inherently the same, nothing could conventionally change. The past lives in the present and is not inherently separate from it. The designation of past and present is just a convention. What is remembered is not removed from present conditions as a separate entity and the past is always being revised in the present. If the past and present were either fundamentally divided or identical, then the sequence in which phenomena dependently relate to each other, which is known as time, could not be recognised. The key is to see the existence of memory and time as dependently produced and therefore empty of an independent nature. It is precisely because memory is dependently arisen and therefore empty, that remembering can occur. If memory existed independently, it wouldn’t relate to anything.

In conclusion what we call memory and what we experience as time are dependent upon countless causes and conditions and cannot be considered as inherently existing. Memory and time are merely conventional designations of our experience and are in themselves empty.

THE EMPTINESS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS.

Consciousness and Awareness are two concepts that are very familiar in meditation, as they are in philosophy, but their meaning is far from straightforward and clear. Sometimes they are considered to be the same but in meditation practice consciousness is usually defined as a state of awareness, particularly of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. Awareness, on the other hand, is the ability to feel, to be conscious of events, objects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns. This can be summarised as follows.

Consciousness is considered to being just aware, aware of yourself, aware of others, aware of your surroundings, etc. Being aware, or awareness is having the ability to be notice, react to and interact with self, others and surroundings. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is sometimes said to be absolute whilst consciousness is relative to its content. In other words consciousness is always of something. (Please note that the definition of Consciousness and Awareness may differ in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and other related sciences. What is expressed above is the most useful definition in relation to the experiences that arise during meditation practice).

The conventional designation of consciousness is that it is dependent upon a body, including the senses. Consciousness is not an independent and objective witness waiting for phenomena to engage with it. It is not separate from what is perceived. Consciousness must be conscious of something to be considered conscious. If there is no content to be conscious of, how could consciousness be considered conscious? Consciousness cannot be viewed as independent from everything else, existing with its own essential nature. It depends upon other things, upon causes and conditions and is empty of independent, inherent existence. Hence, we can say that consciousness is empty.

Similar points can be made in relation to awareness. In order to be aware there has to be an object of which to be aware – an object or event with which to react and to interact whether with oneself, others or surroundings. One can be aware of being conscious of an object and then react with that object in full awareness of the perception of that situation. Awareness, like consciousness, is not an objective witness waiting vacantly for something to interact with it. It interacts and interrelates with the world and is dependent upon causes and conditions. Just as fire does not burn itself and is dependent upon fuel so awareness cannot be said to have an independent, inherent existence and is empty.

Neither consciousness, awareness, nor anything else, exists in isolation. In emptiness teachings, it is said that there is an equality among all phenomena because nothing can be truly separated out. Everything is empty of independent, inherent existence. Everything is interrelated and everything arises in dependence on everything else.

SUMMARY.

Just as there is no inherently existent memory, time, consciousness or awareness, there is no inherently existent me. As there cannot be a sense of self or self-identity to defend there is no need to desperately grasp and cling to things as being mine. This understanding provides the remedy for suffering. For as everything interrelates, there is no place to fall. The realisation of emptiness opens the heart and mind to recognising oneness within diversity, while embracing diversity within oneness. Fear, anger and all other afflictions, cannot withstand such realisation and the possibility arises that there is an end to all suffering.