[illerlytoindy]

Hi, Truelotus,

The idea of "Emptiness", as the Buddha taught it, is an indictment of illusions of status and ownership. We can call ourselves all sorts of things, and think all sorts of things about ourselves, but in the end we are just another creature roaming the surface of this odd little ball-thing going round in circles in space. And anything we hoard here, we can lose any or all of it at any moment.

The idea is to let go of notions of status and ownership, so that the shifting circumstances of life do not trouble us. Things are just things. People are just people.

The Buddha put it this way: "Everything whatsoever is void of self or anything pertaining to a self."


Most of what passes for "Buddhism" these days has inflated this notion of "Emptiness" into a vague and convoluted metaphysics totally unrelated to the Buddha's point. So it goes.