The art of Emtiness

[Mayflow]

OUR INTRINSIC VIBRANT EMPTINESS

Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes. Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our intrinsic vibrant emptiness—the beginningless ground of what we are.


Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen by Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, page 49

[Samana]

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This is what the Buddha himself had to say:


Form is like a glob of foam; feeling, a bubble; perception, a mirage; fabrications, a banana tree; consciousness, a magic trick — this has been taught by the Kinsman of the Sun.

However you observe them, appropriately examine them, they're empty, void to whoever sees them appropriately.

(Phena Sutta)

Source:http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.095.than.html (http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/redir.php?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.accesstoinsight.or g%2Ftipitaka%2Fsn%2Fsn22%2Fsn22.095.than.html)


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[sahaja]

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Mayflow & Samana, nice quotes! And something hardly ever done in Buddhist Forums or websites and blogs, you've actually included references for cites from the author's book and a even Sutta/Sutra, no less.

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[A human Being]

OUR INTRINSIC VIBRANT EMPTINESS

Imagination relies on empty perception. Painting relies on empty planes. Sculpture relies on empty space. Music relies on empty time. Literature relies on empty concepts. If we are to realize the art of freedom, if we are to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our intrinsic vibrant emptiness—the beginningless ground of what we are.


Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen by Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, page 49
I like that a lot.

I know that for me, the concept of emptiness, just as the concept of nothingness, was a depressing, nihilistic idea, and I'm sure it's the same for the majority in my culture, which is a shame, as in reality all arises out of nothing.

[sahaja]

I like that a lot.

I know that for me, the concept of emptiness, just as the concept of nothingness, was a depressing, nihilistic idea, and I'm sure it's the same for the majority in my culture, which is a shame, as in reality all arises out of nothing.

I don't know what your culture is but i'm in the US. I had the problems with the concepts and figuring out what they were about. What's really strange is that i have still been relying on them all my life, the emptiness that lies behind and other things. I just called it something else. It took some time before i could relate, or translate what i had known all along. I'm wondering if it's due to western way of thinking that makes the simple so difficult to understand. There are terms that we do not translate into English because the west lacks even the concepts of their meanings. It may have be that's the reason that it sounds nihilistic to us. It's not a personal lack of understanding so much as a cultural one. Hopefully that will change in time.
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[Gem]

I don't know what your culture is but i'm in the US. I had the problems with the concepts and figuring out what they were about. What's really strange is that i have still been relying on them all my life, the emptiness that lies behind and other things. I just called it something else. It took some time before i could relate, or translate what i had known all along. I'm wondering if it's due to western way of thinking that makes the simple so difficult to understand. There are terms that we do not translate into English because the west lacks even the concepts of their meanings. It may have be that's the reason that it sounds nihilistic to us. It's not a personal lack of understanding so much as a cultural one. Hopefully that will change in time.
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Yes, and in Buddhism, the philosophy is only useful when combined with meditation, whereas Western philosophy is quite intellectual.