Levels of Emptiness | There Is No Suffering

Buddhadharma speaks of different levels of emptiness. First is the illusory, self-centered sense of emptiness that ordinary sentient beings feel. Second is analytical emptiness—the refined, dialectical insights into emptiness derived from meditation.21 Third is the emptiness of the individual self perceived by those on the path of personal liberation. Fourth is the goal of practitioners of the bodhisattva path: the emptiness that is not separate from form.

First, we must acknowledge that a large number of people do not think about emptiness at all. Then there are those who, through personal reflection, reject or pre-judge the world, finding in their own existential situation only alienation, meaninglessness, or dread. Concluding that the world is empty, and that life is an illusion, they feel free to do anything or nothing at all. This nihilistic view has nothing to do with the emptiness of which Buddhism speaks. Existential concerns can only be resolved by uprooting the strong sense of self that lies at the center of our worldview. Only by experiencing the world as interconnected by causes and conditions, as well as by causes and consequences (karma), can one bring hope, happiness, and meaning to one’s life.

Then there are those who are on the path of personal liberation. Because of their mental scope, the limitation of their methods, and the course of their cultivation, these practitioners can only realize emptiness of the self. They cannot realize the emptiness of the subtle dharmas that constitute the body, mind, and other phenomena; they still attach to the dharma of nirvana. True Mahayana practitioners let go of even this attachment to nirvana. This is the highest level of emptiness of which the Heart Sutra speaks.

How do we characterize Mahayana emptiness? Buddhadharma speaks of the dynamic interplay of causes and conditions, but there is no inherent self-nature underlying any thing or event-phenomena are not static, independent, or eternal. Mahayana speaks of emptiness in this sense, but even this is not ultimate emptiness. If one stops here, it is mere analytical emptiness derived from reasoning. Essentially, the abhidharma dissects our strong, solid idea of body, mind, and world, into subatomic space particles without independent existence.

One can only understand ultimate emptiness, or emptiness as reality, through direct personal experience, wherein one realizes that all dharmas, whether mental or physical, are both empty and existent. In other words, existence is identical to emptiness. If one has no attachments and makes no discriminations based on a self, then one recognizes that every dharma exists and is empty. One recognizes that existence and emptiness are really the same thing.

One further recognizes that there really is no such thing as existence or emptiness. This is the true emptiness of the Mahayana.

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