MENU

Realizing the Nature of Emptiness | Setting in Motion the Dharma Wheel


True cessation is fully realizing the nature of emptiness and liberating oneself from the cycle of birth and death. How does one fully realize the nature of emptiness? To understand emptiness we should first understand the workings of causes and conditions. Phenomena come into being through ‘conditioned arising,’ the coming together of causes and conditions mutually influencing each other. Everything is in constant flux; nothing remains the same one instant to the next. Any cause or condition affecting the object will transform the whole. Through this constant transformation all phenomena arise, deteriorate, and eventually cease. Since everything is in flux without a permanent nature or identity, there can be no separately identifiable ‘self.’ We call this quality of selflessness in phenomena ’emptiness.’ This emptiness of substantial reality we call ‘no-self.’

Those who realize the nature of emptiness also realize that their own nature is that of flux, change, and impermanence. They will directly experience that mind, body, and environment, are pervaded with a dynamic quality of emptiness. They will see buddha-nature. To deeply and fully realize buddha-nature is to become an arhat, a noble one who has attained cessation. It is to have the four characteristics of an arhat: (l) that all defilements have been purified, (2) that all that needs to be done has been done, (3) that all future rebirths have been exhausted, and (4) that liberation from karma and retribution has been achieved. This is realizing the true nature of emptiness.

PREVIOUS: The Meaning of Cessation | Setting in Motion the Dharma Wheel
NEXT: Nirvana | Setting in Motion the Dharma Wheel

COPY URL
DISCUSSING / COMMENTS X
No comments.
ADD COMMENTS
SUBMIT NOW
ABOUT X
about
Venerable Sheng Yen is a well-known Buddhist monk, Buddhist scholar, and educator. In 1969, he went to Japan for further studies and obtained a doctoral degree from Rissho University in 1975, becoming the first ordained monk in Chinese Buddhism to pursue and successfully complete a Ph.D. in Japan.
Sheng Yen taught in the United States starting in 1975, and established Chan Meditation Center in Queens, New York, and its retreat center, Dharma Drum Retreat Center at Pine Bush, New York in 1997. He also visited many countries in Europe, as well as continuing his teaching in several Asian countries, in particular Taiwan.
DONATE
MENU X
REVIEWS
DONATE
ABOUT
MENU