Emptiness changes everything

On delusion, fabrication, and IKEA tables. (The Art of Emptiness, Part 1)

This is an essay about something called śūnyatā: how it changed my life, and how it can change yours.

Śūnyatā is most commonly translated as emptiness, which is kind of a shame. Emptiness is not a sexy term. That makes it all the more impressive that, despite its bad rap, emptiness has had a two-millenium track record of transforming the lives of meditators, philosophers, lay people, and now, if you like, you!

I’m going to take exactly two paragraphs to try to convince you that studying emptiness is worth your time. You can read them, say No thanks, not for me!, and move on—I won’t be offended. You can also read them, say Wow. I want to know more, and keep going. Which is great for me, because I’ve got five more of these essays in the works. Emptiness goes deep. Very deep.

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Emptiness in 150 words

Things are not as they appear. Really. While we don’t live in the Matrix (as far as I know), we really do live in a state of delusion. What we are deluded about is how things really exist. To us, phenomena (and selves) appear to exist independently and permanently—they appear to possess essence—but they do not actually exist in that way—they are empty of essence.

This is a legitimate problem. Why? Because we grasp at apparently independent, permanent things, but we only encounter interdependent, impermanent things. When we grasp at something—but it changes—then we experience dissatisfaction. Yet we continue to grasp, things continue to change, and we continue to feel dissatisfied. The cycle continues. By practicing the art of emptiness, we reverse the cycle. Delusion becomes wisdom. Grasping becomes letting go. Dissatisfaction becomes well-being. Emptiness is our path to liberation.

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How is that landing with you?

That’s the sales pitch. At this point, you likely have one of three responses:

1. Disbelief or disinterest.

   1. I’m not sure I really believe this. Also, I don’t want to change things right now.

   2. That’s fair! Emptiness take some time to fully grasp, and if now is not the right time, then the series will always be available for you later. You can dip out now and I promise I won’t be offended.

2. Interpreting the path as one of heroic struggle or restraint.

   1. You’re right—grasping at things IS unsatisfying. I’m going to use emptiness to “just deal with” the icky parts of life. I’m going to let go harder than anyone.

   2. Yes and no. On this path, we are going to learn to let go. But the key word here is learn. If we want to let go of something we’re deluded about, we can leave the delusion in place and struggle to let go, or we can counter the delusion with insight and let go naturally. I don’t mean to sugarcoat the path—it can be hard. But it shouldn’t be even a percentage harder than it has to be.

3. Curiosity.

   1. I don’t fully understand this “emptiness,” but there might be some truth in it. Sometimes learning about a situation really can help me respond to it better. Maybe the same is true here.

   2. Read on 😉

You won’t be shocked to learn that path 3) is my personal favorite. To me, the art of emptiness is a journey led by curiosity: the curiosity that looks beyond appearances and wonders how things really are. That that curiosity leads to both insight (from better understanding the world) and well-being (from coming into better alignment with it) is just one of emptiness’s many miracles.

So: Are you curious yet? Is the flavor of emptiness starting to come across, or is it still nebulous? I want to try out a game of sorts. I’m going to give you a number of words that, in my mind, are synonymous with, or connected to, emptiness. As you scan the list, take note of the words that resonate with you personally. As we go forward, if the term emptiness ever feels a little dry or abstract, call to mind your favorite alternate(s).

Reflection: synonyms for emptiness

Boundlessness, relativity, relationality, interdependence, interconnectedness, interbeing, contextuality, inseparability, nonduality, groundlessness, flux, flow, flexibility, or potentiality. 

Which word(s) resonate with you? I’d be curious to hear!

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If you haven’t bailed yet, then—first off—thank you! Now that I’ve explained, at a high level, what emptiness is and why it’s important, I want to lay out the path we’re going to be traversing in greater detail.

I’m going to do so with an analogy about IKEA.

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Emptiness is like an IKEA table

Our minds fabricate our perception in the same way that a confused person constructs an IKEA table. Emptiness gives us the wisdom to deconstruct both.

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Imagine that your friend has just purchased a table from IKEA. This being IKEA, he didn’t actually purchase a prefabricated table—only the parts. Because he’s in a hurry, he ignores the manual and constructs the table unthinkingly. But this quick fix has long-term consequences, because the table wobbles every time he uses it. The table he once desired has become a source of dissatisfaction.

Now, assume your friend wanted to put an end to the dissatisfaction caused by the table. What would he do? If he lacked insight, perhaps he would kick and blame the table in the hopes that it would magically fix itself. But with a little wisdom, he would recognize that the table is not bound to its current configuration. He would deconstruct it, and having deconstructed it, he could reconstruct it better.

We are like the friend who has built a wobbly table. Delusion is what prevents us from fixing the table, whereas emptiness gives us the wisdom to see clearly, act skillfully, and thereby liberate ourselves from dissatisfaction.

Explaining the analogy

Ignorance

The cycle begins with ignorance (what I previously referred to as delusion). Just like our friend ignores how the table’s parts truly fit together (the manual), we, too, are unconsciously ignorant about how things really exist—their emptiness. We mistakenly perceive independence where there is interdependence and selves where there is selflessness.

Fabrication

This ignorance leads us to fabricate our experience in a way that causes dissatisfaction. Like the friend who builds a wobbly table out of ignorance and then blames the table, we construct our own experience based on ignorance, then assume that the problem lies in what we’ve constructed.

What, exactly, does it mean to fabricate experience? Neuroscience tells us that we don’t perceive the world exactly as it is. We don’t sit in some sort of theatre inside our head, peering out from behind the our eyes at the world.

Instead, our minds receive an immense amount of messy, ambiguous sense-data from the body, then use that data to construct an internally consistent, useful model of the world that we then perceive. Perception is just our brain’s best guess about the world around us, and as such it is fabricated (in the sense of being built, but also being untrue).

Inherent existence

Fabrications are untrue because they come with the built-in assumption of inherent existence (also called essence or independent existence). When we perceive a thing as inherently existent, we assume that it exists “from its own side,” independent of everything else, such as its parts, its conditions, or our mind perceiving it.

Consider the moment our friend adds the last part to the table. Doesn’t it suddenly seem a little bit more real? A little bit more table-y? That something extra that the table appears to possess is inherent existence. Whether we recognize it or not, our default assumption is that all things possess this something extra—this inherent existence.

Here’s the problem: seeing anything as inherently existent leads us, on some level, to believe it is “bound to its current configuration.” It leads us, like the ignorant friend, to assume the table is inherently wobbly, and therefore stuck like that. This leaves us confused and helpless, because we believe that inherently existent things can’t change.

Emptiness

The antidote for this confusion is emptiness. Put simply, a thing is empty if it lacks inherent existence. The table is empty (of inherent existence) because it does not actually possess that extra table-ness. No matter how hard we search for the table’s inherent existence, we would be unable to find it. Not finding its inherent existence, we would declare it empty.

Emptiness is quietly transformative. Because an empty thing lacks inherent existence, it is not “bound to its current configuration.” A wobbly table, being empty, is not fated to be wobbly forever. It’s free to change.

The journey of emptiness is therefore a deconstructive one. When our friend recognizes that he put the table together, he recognizes that he can also take it apart. So, too, with us. When we recognize that our minds have fabricated our experience, we realize that we can use emptiness to unfabricate it.

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Reflection: the wobbly tables in your life  

Get comfy and take a few moments to settle yourself.  

1. Reflect on the following question: What are the “wobbly tables” in your life: the things, people, or situations that are causing you dissatisfaction? If you like, list them on paper or in a word document.   

2. All done? Now, reflect on the following: In what ways are these things less “bound” (inherently existent) than they appear? Can you identify what the thing, person, or situation depends on—-its parts, its conditions, and your interpretation of it? Write some of those down. Take your time with this one—-there’s no need to rush.  

3. Finally, consider the following: Are there ways you can change it? Metaphorically speaking, can you unfabricate the table, even a little? Every dependency you listed in part 2) is a possible lever from which to change the situation.  

Congratulations! By identifying the ways in which X is dependent and changeable, therefore empty, you're already practicing the art of emptiness. 

If any part of this practice resonated with you, I’d love to hear in the comments section below!

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Study, reflection, & meditation

As we journey further on the path of emptiness, there are three tools that will be indispensable to us: study, reflection, and meditation.

We study emptiness when we read or listen to teachings about it. This essay is a teaching, as are the resources I’ll link to at the end of each essay. By study, I don't mean to cram the information in your head in the hopes of passing a test. Actually, I would rather that your inquiry into emptiness be led by your own curiosity. What aspects of this material are the most appealing to you? Use your curiosity to guide what you focus on, and which resources you seek out. Everyone’s path of study will be unique.

We reflect on emptiness by connecting it to our own life. The reflections in these essays will help get you started, and having a journal might help as well. When we reflect on emptiness, it goes beyond a dry concept and becomes a lived, embodied experience. I can’t emphasize that enough—emptiness is something you will not just think about, but feel. In fact, emptiness is a lot like love: usually better embodied than explained.

Finally, if you want emptiness to really sink in, you gotta meditate. If you don’t yet have a practice, you can explore my meditator’s handbook (see below) to find one for you. Meditation helps us fabricate less. If you’re watching your breath for five minutes, you’re not concocting an elaborate story about your triumphs and failures, and you’re instead attending to what’s really here. With time, that lessened fabrication really adds up.

The meditator's handbook 📓

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How emptiness has changed me

I want to end by listing a few of the ways that the art of emptiness has made a tangible difference in my life.

Am I bragging? Yeah, I am. Do I want you to experience the same (or greater) benefits, and brag about them to me? Also yes.

Emptiness has given me:

• More flexibility. I am quick. Knowing nothing is fixed and there’s nothing to defend, I can pivot—in conversation, in situations—with lightning speed.

• Boundless creativity. I believe everybody has creative ideas, all the time. Emptiness has given me the tools to listen closely to mine, then mold and reshape them without expectation.

• Greater insight. I look far, far beyond the surface of things. When I see something like a sign or a person, I continually ask What caused that? And what caused that? This way of looking gives me a much wider perspective, and more tools with which to solve problems.

• Greater sensitivity to beauty. Less and less do I see things as instances of categories (“Just a tree, like every other tree…”) and more often do I see them in their utter uniqueness. If you go on a walk with me, I’m constantly pausing to gush about how the evening light is illuminating the backs of the leaves, or whatever. (If you do walk with me, maybe this should go in the cons column…)

• Less self-consciousness. As a chronically self-conscious kid, I find this change the most unexpected of all. With a diminished sense of self (discussed in the next essay), there’s nothing to protect, and no box to fit Rey into. I can change, morph, mutate, and try anything. Who’s stopping me?

• Greater love and compassion. This also comes from the diminished sense of self. It’s also the most valuable of emptiness’s benefits. I thought practicing emptiness would scaffold some open-hearted Rey onto me, but the reality has been opposite. I’ve realized that I’ve always been loving and compassionate—and so have you—and all I had to do was remove the illusion that I am separate from you.

The meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, quoting his teacher Lama Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, says:

When you recognize the empty selfless nature of phenomena, the energy to bring about the good of others dawns uncontrived and effortless.

That about sums it up.

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Resources

With every essay, I’ll point you towards a few resources to help expand your journey, should you want it.

For this week’s teachings—in particular the concept of fabrication—I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Rob Burbea’s book Seeing That Frees. Rob’s book is incredibly thorough and emphasizes the practical aspects of the path.

If you’re a visual learner, this video is fantastic:

And if you’re still looking for evidence of the benefits of emptiness, you could watch this short video:

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This concludes Part 1 of The Art of Emptiness. In the next essay, we’ll explore the illusion of the self, and how realizing that illusion brings about boundless love and compassion.

If you liked this one, feel free to share it with friends! You can also reach out to me directly.

In the meantime, I’ll be taking apart some wobbly tables.