Emptiness: The
Insight of Equality
May 112015 The
Endless Further
Those of you
familiar with the Heart
Sutra know that “Form
is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form does not differ from
emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form,” is the most
important statement in the text. In one commentary I have on the
sutra, an older one titled The Cave of
Poison Grass, Seikan
Hasegawa, a Rinzai Zen priest, explains the declaration this
way:
Sunyata
[emptiness] is
the beginningless beginning of the world which has two aspects:
wisdom, which is emptiness, and love, which is form. Emptiness
tells us the sameness, and form tells us the difference. The
sameness sees the substance of all forms. Then it can be said that
a mountain is not different from an ocean, mountain is ocean; or
man is not different from woman, the man is woman. Their value is
not different, both are the same. And as humanity, woman and man,
the old and young, the poor and the rich, the wise and the foolish,
and all such contrasting individuals do not differ; every one has
the same respectable value.
It
is possible to view emptiness as a “beginningless beginning”
because in Buddhism the continuum of consciousness is said to be
beginningless; and consciousness arises dependent upon causes and
conditions, and Nagarjuna taught that anything which is dependent
arising equals emptiness.
Hasegawa’s
commentary tells us in simple terms not only what lies behind this
famous phrase from the sutra but also many of the seemingly
paradoxical statements we read in Buddhist literature. The opening
sentence of Dogen’s Mountains and
Waters Sutra comes to mind:
“Mountains and waters right now are the actualization of the
ancient Buddha way.”
Emptiness refers
to the realm of awakening, but this realm is not separate from the
world of suffering. “Form is emptiness” directs us to the path that
leads to the transcendence of suffering and awakening, while
“emptiness is form” is the reverse path, from awakening to
suffering. The point of divergence between these two paths is
resolved through non-duality. They are two paths and yet they are
not two.
The
concept of emptiness is a great equalizer because it shows us how
all things are equal in value. It undermines the foundations of
hatred, racism, nationalism – all the things that lead to conflict
and violence. That’s one reason why emptiness is often called “the
insight of equality.”
The
Buddha asked, “Manjusri, in what equality do those sentient beings
who act with the three poisons abide?”
Manjusri
replied, “They abide in the equality of emptiness, signlessness,
and wishfulness.”
Maharatnakuta
Sutra