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Let's talk about emptiness

1. How central do you feel it is to your practice?
2. Do you meditate on emptiness?
3. How does meditating on emptiness generate merit?
4. How would you explain emptiness to a beginner, in your own words?

these are all very good questions dear drolma and i will have to search my emptiness for answers.......... :whistle:

Ngawang Drolma wrote:Let's talk about emptiness

1. How central do you feel it is to your practice?
2. Do you meditate on emptiness?
3. How does meditating on emptiness generate merit?
4. How would you explain emptiness to a beginner, in your own words?

1.I feel emptiness on its own is an important factor in practise however just by this alone it will not cover the ground to great enlightenment, the prequsors to bodhichitta and bodhichitta its self are also essensial practises.

2. The traditional emptiness of the body and mind meditations.

3. Im not sure Tbh.

4. It depends some people are more accepting then others its usually advised that it is not a good starting subject for them, but the best way to explain it would be to show them the method to breaking down appearences an revealing what is.

peace

xxx

1. Daily central.
2. Yes. Keep on daily.
3. Before I was wild, now less. Happy.
4. Nothing has a self but is coming into being as compounded thing based on many factors, causes, conditions. And so appears form just like cake. _/\_

Hi Sherab, do you mean voidness?

No emptiness-voidness is to find when no fabrication-dreamlike is. Compounded by causes, conditions or uncompounded is all chatter in dream.

What unborn need to be realized?!

muni wrote:No emptiness-voidness is to find when no fabrication-dreamlike is. Compounded by causes, conditions or uncompounded is all chatter in dream.

What unborn need to be realized?!

Perhaps it's the obscurations that need to be realized instead?

Yes. Then elimination of obscuration. Now I make a pot of tea. Please keep your cup ready dear, I sent! :hands:

:cup:

1. It is central

2.Yes

3.It brings contentment and peace

4.I would ask them to start with an investigation of dependent origination. All phenomena which arise are dependent on other phenomena and therefore have no true existence of their own....

Ngawang Drolma wrote::cup:

Joy in sharing simple things.

Muni la, I got this story from Chris at Dhamma Wheel. I think you'll like it.


A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life
and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going
to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and
struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil.

In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the
last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without
saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and
placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted
that they were soft.

The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off
the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as
she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity:
boiling water. Each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being
subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside
became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the
boiling water, they had changed the water.

Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and
become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the
heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a
financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and
stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and
tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very
circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases
the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at
their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When
the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate
yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Drolma...Wow! That's a great story and a very simple but useful way to examine our mindset and reactive behaviour under the daily situations we face as laypeople.

:hands:

Dear Drolma la I like it very much.
The coffee bean existence is more than clever. Specially with mental pain dwelling in permanent independent I idea.
But even with body pain, is it possible to use it as object with strenght. And when it is not so experienced as mine, is it going more smoothly to bear.

Hurray coffee bean! _/\_

You suck.....but its only an appearence.....

Hey thats an idea Emptiness quips ! Hehe

peace

xxx

sherab zangpo wrote:

caz namyaw wrote:You suck.....but its only an appearence.....

Hey thats an idea Emptiness quips ! Hehe

peace

xxx

must not use shunyata as a panacea, a trash can for poor conduct, otherwise we are very far from Buddha's intent.


Sherab

Lighten up sherab....joke.

:airquote:

peace

xxx