True emptiness: wondrous being
A summary of "How to See Yourself As You Really Are"
I just finished reading the Dalai Lama’s book How to See Yourself As You Really Are, which describes the Mahayana Buddhist concept of emptiness and how to use it to relieve suffering. I’d like to share these teachings with you!
Why emptiness?
I sincerely believe that learning to see emptiness is one of the most profound ways to transform your thinking, perception, and actions in a way that benefits yourself and others.
Seeing emptiness opens up flexibility in seeing the world and responding to its challenges. It also makes you more compassionate, which helps both others and yourself. To me, emptiness looks a bit like this painting by Gerhard Richter: it softens the edges of things, making them more beautiful and open to transformation.
Self-nature
To understand emptiness, we have to understand self-nature (a.k.a. inherent existence). Something possesses self-nature if it is not changing and not dependent on parts or conditions. Whether we realize it or not, we naturally assume that everything has self-nature.
Early Buddhists believe that persons (eg. you, me, everyone we know) possess no self-nature. Mahayana Buddhists believe that not only does the person not possess self-nature, nothing possesses self-nature.
From dependent arising to emptiness
A core belief of Buddhism is dependent arising, which says that X arises because of Y, or this happens because that happens. For example, you have arisen in dependence on your parents; the light in this room has arisen in dependence on my flicking the light switch, etc.
It can be shown that everything arises dependently. (For explanation, read Nagarjuna’s The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.) If everything arises dependently, there is nothing that arises independently. But wait — if nothing arises independently, doesn’t that mean that nothing has self-nature?
This lack of self nature is what we call emptiness.
For a visual example, think of a net in which jewels are suspended by rope. The things of the world are like jewels, and the connections between them are like rope. Dependent arising is looking at the rope and noticing that there are no jewels which are not connected by rope. Emptiness is looking at the jewels and noticing that they consist of nothing more than the reflections of the rest of the jewels.
Exercise: searching for the self
To get a sense of emptiness, it’s helpful to first develop a sense of your own lack of self-nature. In this exercise, we’ll use reasoning to weaken our ingrained view that the self exists. The exercise has four parts.
Generate a strong feeling that you do have self-nature. For example, the sense of self feels particularly strong when being praised or blamed. Try to summon up that feeling.
Consider that if the self existed, it must be either identical to or different from body and mind.
Remember that this self is, by definition, unchanging and independent.
Consider that if the self were identical to body and mind, then body and mind would be unchanging (so you could never grow older or think new thoughts) and independent (so you could never eat food or be born). The self cannot be identical to body and mind.
Consider that if the self were different from body and mind, you could identify something distinct from body and mind that is the self. Can you find such an entity? If not, it follows that the self cannot be different from body and mind.
It follows from 2) and 3) that the self does not exist. This reasoning takes some time to sink in, but I can assert from personal experience that with practice, it really does work.
How seeing emptiness makes you happier
When we grasp at self-nature (in ourselves, other beings, or other things), we experience suffering when they change or when the conditions on which they depend change.
For example, imagine that your partner has changed in a way you don’t care for. Maybe you think “I don’t recognize you anymore!”
Can you see how your discontent is haunted by the influence of self-nature? In other words, did you assume there was an unchanging essence to your partner that prevented them from taking on qualities you don’t like?
Emptiness is a way of anticipating the ways in which delusion of self-nature causes us to unhelpfully cling. If we see emptiness, we’re not surprised by change. We can grow to appreciate and even enjoy it.
How seeing emptiness makes others happier
In Mahayana Buddhism, the point is not to meditate just for yourself. Instead, the point is to be a Bodhisattva: a being who aspires to attain awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas cultivate wisdom (correctly seeing emptiness) and compassion (acting to relieve suffering).
If you’ve made it this far, I’m going to suggest that you already are a Bodhisattva! Please consider using your understanding of emptiness, no matter how much or little, to benefit others. You can use a couple of useful practices here:
Metta-Karuna (lovingkindness and compassion). Picture yourself. Wish that you be happy (metta) and that you be free from suffering (karuna). Then picture someone you love. Wish that they be happy and free from suffering. Expand your circle to include people you like, feel neutral about, and feel negative emotions towards.
Tonglen. This is a Tibetan practice where you imagine exchanging self and other in order to help them. When breathing in, you imagine taking on another’s suffering (visualized as a cloud of black smoke). When breathing out, you imagine sending others your joy (visualized as white light).
Dedication. Of the three, this practice has been the most transformative for me. As you do your daily activities, such as eating or working, set an intention to perform that activity for the benefit of all beings. In this way, your daily meals and your day’s work become offerings to others. I think that’s neat.
May these teachings and practices benefit you and help you to benefit others!
Rey ☀️
Resources
Introduction To Buddhist Emptiness: a brief, but precise explanation of emptiness
Guided Tonglen Meditation by Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön
Guided Metta Meditation by Samaneri Jayasara of the podcast Wisdom of the Masters