by Greg Goode
You may have noticed that some of the texts and teachings on emptiness are formatted as dialogues. Dialogue is a very direct, immediate and powerful form of communication. Some of Nagarjuna’s dialogues are actually like small debates.15 In the Tsongkhapa-inspired Gelug tradition, debate is a significant part of emptiness teachings and of monastic education in general. Georges Dreyfus tells us more about this. Born in Switzerland, he spent fifteen years in a Tibetan Gelug monastery, becoming in 1985 the first Westerner to receive the Geshe degree, which is roughly analogous to a Western doctor of philosophy degree. Dreyfus writes about how one of his teachers uses debate as a skillful teaching method.
Gen Nyi-ma would use debate as a way to undermine the students’ attempts to stop the investigation and fasten on any one answer, especially the traditional one. In this way, he was illustrating the full potential of the [debate] practice as a mode of inquiry, not just a useful pedagogical tool.
It is not inappropriate to speak of a wisdom acquired through the practice of debate. ... Debate develops the ability to explore ideas and take a stance while keeping in mind the fragility and uncertainty of those ideas.
Dreyfus (2003)
There are many different kinds of emptiness meditations, both in Buddhism and in the various Western approaches that we discuss in this book. These meditations focus on different targets. They all proceed inferentially at first and they are all helpful – sometimes a little bit, and sometimes a lot! The insights that they convey can become direct realizations of emptiness.
Direct Realization
The direct realization of emptiness goes beyond inferential realization. Like the inferential kind of realization, the direct realization of emptiness is a cognition of the absence of inherent existence, but this is now a nonconceptual realization. With the direct cognition of emptiness, the power of inference is not operative, and there are no concepts at play. At the moment of realization, there is no concept or experience appearing. There is no mental image of the object about which you were meditating, and no conceptual filter that limits the absence of inherent existence to just the one object with which you began your meditation. There is not even any appearance of subject or object.
In the Prasangika Madhyamika teachings, direct realization is described as like water being poured into water. Because the realization is not accompanied by any conceptual or imagistic grid, it is said that direct realization is not limited. Your realization includes the emptiness of all phenomena, even emptiness itself.16
There are aftereffects of the direct realization of emptiness. Whereas before such a realization, the much-discussed distinction between conventional existence and inherent existence was hazy, afterwards, it is much clearer. It’s almost as though you now see that the very idea of inherent existence doesn’t make sense, no matter what it supposedly applies to. Things may still appear as though they exist inherently, but you know that they do not exist in this way. Things become kaleidoscopic, illusion-like.
Enough direct realizations of emptiness are said to remove all the artificial conceptions of inherent existence, along with their accompanying afflictions. Artificial conceptions of inherent existence are the ones that have been picked up from teachings and philosophies which state or imply that things exist inherently. You no longer assent to these ideas, and the world becomes lighter.
There is further to go in this path, however. This is a Mahayana path, so the meditator is a bodhisattva, who vows to keep working until all sentient beings are free from suffering. The bodhisattva vows to attain omniscience and skillful means in order to better assist sentient beings in becoming free from suffering.17 There are also said to be innate misconceptions of inherent existence. For example, even the objects of the senses are said to appear to the senses as though they are inherently existent. These appearances are abandoned only by a fully realized transcendent Buddha, who at this point is also said to be omniscient.18
What makes direct realization of emptiness possible? Direct realization is said to be the union of calm abiding and special insight (which is emptiness realization). We discussed emptiness realization above. Calm abiding (shamatha in Sanskrit) is a special kind of meditative stabilization that produces mental and physical pliancy, in which the mind and body feel light, flexible, and able to be used for virtuous purposes. 19 Calm abiding requires one to be able to hold the mind in an alert but non-jumpy way on the same internal object over a prolonged period of time. Calm abiding is devoid of sleepiness and mental scattering.
You can use many different kinds of objects to help develop mental stabilization and calm abiding. Sometimes it is better to begin with objects that are easier to keep in mind, such as the breath, candle light or some other physical or mental object that is helpful in your general practice. But in order to cultivate a direct cognition of emptiness, your object must eventually become emptiness itself.
Getting to the point where you can calmly abide in emptiness is developed like this: once you have developed the separate abilities to calmly abide on an object, and to realize emptiness inferentially, you then combine them in the same meditation. When your inference hits its conclusion, you stabilize on the conclusion. You draw it out as long as you can until you lose the force of the realization. Then you apply the inference again, until the force of the inference presents the conclusion again. Then you stabilize on the conclusion again, using your skills at calm abiding. You alternate back and forth between analysis and stabilization, making sure that (i) you don’t remain in the machinery of the inference but in the conclusion, and that (ii) the object of your calm abiding is the result of the inference, and that you haven’t turned the mind to some other subtle object, such as nothingness or blankness.
When you are able to calmly abide on emptiness strongly enough without wavering, the imagistic, conceptual component fades away. This imagistic component was the absence of what you looked for in the meditation. It was the specific absence of inherent existence of the self or whatever object you began the meditation with. When this image or concept fades away through calm abiding, you are still realizing emptiness, but all defining limitations have faded away. The result is that you are realizing emptiness in an unlimited and nonconceptual way. You are realizing the emptiness of your self and of all things.
It Sounds Hard, but There’s Good News!
It sounds difficult even to begin! According to this quite traditional explanation, both the inferential and stabilization aspects are very specialized and involved. In addition, both these aspects presuppose a full spectrum of other Buddhist practices as well. Getting to fully enlightened, omniscient Buddhahood is an immense task. It is said to require many stages. Countless rebirths may be necessary.
But there are two kinds of good news about this immense task.
One kind of good news about inferential and direct realization of emptiness is this. Not everyone accepts all the traditional, orthodox elements of Mahayana Buddhism. Yes, the complicated explanation of calm abiding and the direct realization of emptiness are part of the traditional, orthodox field of Mahayana Buddhism. This orthodox field includes the doctrines of rebirth and bodhisattvas as transcendental entities. But not everyone accepts all these details. As Mahayana Buddhism comes to be taken up by Western practitioners and interpreters, certain orthodox and traditional aspects of the teaching begin to drop off. Stephen Batchelor’s Buddhism Without Beliefs is a well-known example.
A more relevant case in point is Jay Garfield’s essay entitled “Nagarjuna’s Theory of Causality” (Garfield 2002b). In this essay, Garfield reports not accepting the doctrine of rebirth. He accepts a broadly physicalist philosophy of science, and even argues that the doctrine of rebirth is incompatible with the emptiness of the self and the emptiness of causality. What is interesting about this is how Garfield argues that the emptiness teachings are deeply transformational, but he does not accept all parts of the orthodox, traditional teaching. Similarly, in The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibe
tan Buddhist Monk, Georges Dreyfus (2003) tells of his fifteen-year course of study to become a fully qualified Tibetan Gelug monk with the Geshe degree. He reports differing in significant ways from his Tibetan teachers. In a nutshell, Dreyfus reports being skeptical about transcendental entities known as “dharma protectors,” whereas his teachers had traditional beliefs about them.
These are small indications that you can embrace the teaching and benefit by it, without assenting to all its traditional, orthodox details.
The other kind of good news about inferential and direct realization of emptiness is this: you don’t even have to worry about the inferential/direct distinction. This is because any kind of emptiness realization can rock your world. This is time-tested, and it works to de-substantialize the self-feeling, while permeating life with a luminous clarity. Each single realization is a move towards sweetness and lightness. I (Greg) still feel the effects of realizations that happened decades ago, in childhood through college. Even replaying old realizations is thrilling and uplifting. And even small realizations leave positive and therapeutic aftereffects. The benefit is instantaneous, and it can be felt quite tangibly. The self and the world become more open and expansive and loving.
So as far as we are concerned, you can proceed with the meditations without worrying about the hundreds of details set forth by the traditional path. But of course because the whole path is empty and flexible, you are also free to embrace it in an orthodox manner if you are so inclined!
Emptiness Realization: Who Realizes?
This is an important question for some non-dual teachings. But for the emptiness teachings, it is almost a non-issue. If there is realization then there is a realizer. But these things are only conventional designations, not objective truths. So it is the conventional self who realizes its own emptiness. The entire Buddhist teachings are conventional only. Even a fully realized Buddha is nothing more than a conventional being.
What allows this question to be no big deal? It is the democratic nature of the emptiness teachings. It is the fact that the teachings refute the inherent status of everything across the board. Because of this equality, nothing is set aside as more empty than anything else. Of course it is most helpful to realize the emptiness of the self. But everything else is empty in just the same way. And the more you realize the emptiness of one thing, the more your realization picks up, snowballs and generalizes. So there is no need to pick on any one particular thing, such as the self, and make it the only empty thing or the most empty thing. There is no reason to talk about realization and then seriously say, “It was realized by no one.” Things are simpler than that. As far as our ability to use words in a conventional way, no nouns or pronouns are outlawed. They can all be used. This ties in to the insight that mountains and rivers are mountains and rivers. Just not inherently so!
Emptiness Realization: How Is It Done?
In Buddhism, you proceed by doing the emptiness meditations. Emptiness meditations are like a treasure hunt. In the meditation you look in a systematic and detailed way for the inherent existence you have been projecting upon things. And in the meditation you fail to find this inherent existence. What you find instead is the absence of inherent existence. Finding the absence of inherent existence is realizing emptiness.
The meditations have several stages, which are as follows:
1) Generate compassion – This is sort of a background condition in your life which prepares you for the meditations. And then right before you do the meditation it helps to generate a strong feeling of compassion. You can do this by performing a metta or loving-kindness meditation.
2) Identify the object of refutation – You clarify what you are looking for: inherent existence of the object whose emptiness you are meditating on. If you are meditating on the emptiness of the self, then you try to identify the inherent existence of your self. In traditional teachings, this stage of identifying the object of refutation can require months. This is because it is not easy to distinguish the fixed and rigid “inherent existence,” which doesn’t exist, from the free and flexible “conventional existence,” which does exist.
3) Determine the entailment – You familiarize yourself with the overall logic of emptiness meditation. This is a way of gaining confidence that the meditation really works. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can be confident that it doesn’t exist. This way, you won’t feel that there are loopholes in the process.
4) Do the meditation itself – In doing the meditation, you are searching for the inherent existence of some object or phenomenon. It could be your own self or some other object. You are not looking for the conventional nature of this object (which you do not seek to refute). Instead, you are looking for the inherent existence of the object (which you do wish to refute). During the meditation, you will search in every place the object could be hiding, and you will fail to find it. This failure is your realization of emptiness, which is the realization of the absence of this inherent existence.
The First Stage – Generating Compassion
The first stage of an emptiness meditation is to generate compassion. In this section, we will offer a very simple method to open the heart. You may find it easier to do this simple visualization with your eyes open or closed. Either is fine.
For a more detailed discussion of compassion, love and caring, please refer to Chapter 5, “The Interplay Between Emptiness, Compassion and Happiness.” Chapter 5 also contains tips on some traditional ways of generating compassion.
For now, we will try this simple method. It is an abbreviated version of the well-known loving-kindness meditation, which is also available in Chapter 5.
Meditation – Loving-Kindness (Short Version)
Bring to mind the sincere wish that you be well, happy and free of suffering. Stay with this wish for a while.
Allow yourself to notice how other beings are just like you in this respect – they too are capable of being well, happy and free of suffering.
Now, extend your wishes to the loved ones in your life, whether they are people or other beings. Sincerely wish that they be well, happy and free of suffering. Stay with this wish for a while.
Now, extend your wishes to all those you have ever casually come into contact with, whether your relations are smooth and friendly, or not so smooth. Sincerely try to wish that they be well, happy and free of suffering. Stay with this wish for a while.
Now, extend your wishes to every being everywhere, whether you have been acquainted or not. Sincerely try to wish that they be well, happy and free of suffering. Stay with this wish for a while.
If you find yourself able to feel a sense of compassion even just a little bit, then you have successfully concluded this first stage of the meditation.
The Second Stage – Identifying the Object of Refutation
The object of refutation is inherent existence. It is the opposite of conventional existence, in which things depend on other things in a relational, Indra’s Net-like way. Conventional existence exists, but inherent existence does not. Inherent existence is a mode of existence in which a person or thing would subsist on its own without depending on anything else. Thinking and feeling in this way is called by Buddhism “having the sense of inherent existence.” Having this sense is actually the naïve way we experience ourselves and the world. This sense is exacerbated by some cultural and philosophical teachings that attempt to explain how things really are in and of themselves.
The sense of inherent existence does exist, even though inherent existence itself does not exist.
If you are meditating on the emptiness of your own self, you can tune in to the sense of inherent existence and make it easier to meditate on. You can do this by imagining being insulted and seeing how the insulted self feels very tangible and truly established. Or you can imagine yourself being praised by a stadium full of people. It feels like your insulted or praised self is really there and truly existent. If you are meditating on the emptiness of something else, such as a
car or table, then you try to tune in on how it feels that the car or table is also truly there, independent of your cognition and somehow behind or above its pieces and parts.
Tuning in to the sense of inherent existence can be very subtle, because it is difficult to distinguish inherent existence from conventional existence.
Inherent existence (if it existed) would be rigid, independent and unchanging. Inherent existence is non-existent; nothing exists in this way. But thinking that both we (and the world) do exist in this way causes suffering. It is the kind of existence we think things have when we ask questions like “Regardless of what we call this or what other cultures call it –what is it really?”
Conventional existence is regular, everyday existence by agreement. It is the kind of existence that’s “good enough for government work.” It is the kind of existence where everything in Indra’s Net depends on other things in the net. It is the kind of existence that allows us to find the car keys to drive to the store.
The emptiness meditations refute inherent existence, and they assume conventional existence. In fact, the Buddhist teachings base their power on our familiarity with the tools of conventional existence. In Buddhism, all Buddhas, as well as the Buddhist teachings, exist only conventionally. Conventional existence is used to realize the emptiness of inherent existence.
When we realize that inherent existence doesn’t exist, we realize emptiness. At this point, the sense of inherent existence and attendant suffering evaporate.
The Second Stage, Continued – So What Exactly is Inherent Existence Supposed to Be?
Inherent existence is usually taught as something’s existing by being independent in three ways: