Everything
that exists is empty because there is no essence to anything and
nothing has ever exists in its own quality – nothing is permanent
and unchanging. All objects exist conditionally without an eternal
essence. They only exist in relation to
each other as appearances that in turn vary as per the perceptions
of the beholders.
Energy is
the underlying element for all existence and it is dependent on
conditional phenomenon. And phenomenon
is thing that appears to or is perceived by senses and therefore,
it is empty as well.
At the end
of the day, we could summarise that emptiness is the beginning for
all existence. Every existence is empty and
emptiness is in every existence.
Emptiness Everywhere
From direct
experience, we know that humans and things cause pleasure and pain,
and that they can help and harm.
Therefore, phenomena certainly do exist but the question is
how? They do not exist in their own
quality but only have an existence dependent upon many factors,
including a consciousness that conceptualises them.
But in what way is consciousness
mistaken? Because all phenomena appear
to exist in their own quality, all of our ordinary perceptions are
mistaken. We have taken in a wrong
sense that living beings, things and phenomena appear to exist in
and of themselves. It seems that
phenomena could be established in their own right or quality, and
from the object’s side upon conceptualising our
consciousness. Unfortunately, with this
false mode, we are hindering ourselves from recognising the
discrepancy between appearance and reality.
Nevertheless, one could train oneself to develop
wisdom and eliminate one’s ignorance on the ultimate
truth. Upon seeking through in-depth
analysis, one could find inherent existence of whatever object one
is considering — oneself, another person, one’s body, one’s mind,
or anything else is completely lacking.
For example, when you examine an object such as
car, its inherent existence is negated, but what is left is a body
dependent on an engine, seats, lamps, window glasses, tires,
etc. In other words, what is left after
the analysis is a dependently existent phenomenon. Thus it is not that you come to understand that
the object or phenomenon does not exist but rather, you find that
its inherent existence is unfounded.
This is the ultimate discovery about the orientation of the
nature. Nature is a system of existence
fully occupied with factors that rise and fall dependently in
continuum.
At the end
of the day, dualism of the subject and object, and the appearance
of multiplicity arises out of our ignorance on the true nature
would vanish once emptiness appears. We could then
differentiate the way things are perceived to
exist and the way things really exist.
Emptiness
is a necessary pre-requisite for any object
to exist; without it, the object
would be impossible. Upon in-depth
analysis, we could discover that emptiness corresponds to two
distinct scenarios:
The above
is a rather strange paradox but still logical because emptiness is
a universal or infinite phenomenon.
Therefore, it is evident that object could arise out of emptiness
due to the 2nd scenario clarified as above.
As a
summary, the emptiness of phenomena is both
the cause and consequence of the dependent nature of
phenomena. It is comparable to scientific term of a singularity and also the
beginning of the nature or existence.
In other words, emptiness is an inherent quality of existence and
is considered the ultimate truth because it inherently exists
exactly as it is perceived when it is perceived directly by an
enlightened mind. And
discovering the ‘ultimate truth’ is the key to
overcoming the ignorant state of mind.