[Reocourgigiot]

In a post of mine that seems to have been accidently deleted, I was trying to explain how in a conversation with Ajahn Sumedho last year, he said to me anatta, emptiness and the unconditioned are all the same thing.

My approach to this comes from previous Vajrayana practice and more recent Theravada practice. I don't know much about the Jhanas other than what I've read about them in the Pali suttas, and don't know what the equivalent terminology in Vajrayana would be, or if it even matters anyway.

My point is that one needs the experiential clarity, emptiness, wisdom and intuitive awareness etc gained from meditation practice, together with study, in order to have a complete understanding. This non-verbal understanding from meditation to me isn't the same as intellectual understanding because its beyond thoughts and concepts - and intellectual understanding isn't enough in itself.

In 'Don't take your life personally' Ajahn Sumedho states :

"What does it mean to realise desirelessness, cessation, emptiness or non-self (viraga,nirodha, sunnata, anatta) ? These are all abstractions; they are words that point to but cannot define. Realisation therefore has to come through intuition.

This is what I emphasise and encourage now in the way I teach. I see that people often don't have enough confidence in their own experience of emptiness and non-self. It's so easy to fall back into the questioning mode -' What is it?' - and want to objectify it in some way, want to pin it down or turn it into some mental object that can be verified and proven, maybe scientifically."


Ajahn Buddhadasa discusses emptiness with references to the suttas here:

http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/bo...SENTIAL_POINTS

.