SUNYATA

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"Whatever can be conceptualized is therefore relative,

and whatever is relative is Sunya, empty. Since absolute
inconceivable truth is also Sunya, Sunyata or the void is
shared by both Samsara and Nirvana. Ultimately, Nirvana
truly realized is Samsara properly understood."
Nagarjuna

sunyata: literally, emptiness

sunya: means zero, nothing
ta: in context, a suffix, means "-ness"
the Wanderling

SUNYATA: As can be seen, the meaning behind the word sunyata comes about
by sunya being cojoined with the suffix ta. Sunya meaning zero, nothing --- the
total absence of something. When cojoined as thus used it is taken to mean
empty. When that junction is fulfilled and ta is added, it has the same function as
the suffix -ness, making the adjective into a noun. So sunyata means Emptiness.

SAMSARA: basically translates into the day-to-day world of those

whose attainment is unrealized.
NIRVANA: considered by some as the Enlightened state, is generally
thought of as being directly opposite of what Samsara is.

SUNYATA although typically carrying the meaning "emptiness" ahead of itself it

remains, thanks to Nagarjuna, steadfastly related to Buddhism's "middle way" --so much so the two are often thought of as being the samething. It is one of those
chronically misunderstood and misinterpreted words whose meaning continues to
plague both Buddhism and things-Zen to this day. The primary reason being
because Sunyata is so intertwined in both Mahayana and the generally accepted
Buddhist concept of the "middle way" it is taken to mean the "middle way."
As the "middle way" Sunyata is thus taken as being in the middle, half-way
between the Samsara and Nirvana because it is the "middle way." Sunyata ends
up being pictured, for example, like the fulcrum in the middle of say a teeter-totter,
with everyday common Samsara balanced at one end, Sunyata in the middle,
and Enlightened Nirvana on the other end.
The problem with such an anology, besides being patently NOT so, is that it
creates a dualism that isn't there...Samsara being at one end, Nirvana at the
other. Sunyata is NOT the fulcrum balancing both equally, Sunyata is the
WHOLE, encompassing, encompassed and THE encompassing. Enlightenment
is NOT Nirvana, Nirvana is NOT Enlightenment. Sunyata, on the other one hand
clapping, is...is what? Well, lets find out.
The following somewhat more indepth view regarding Sunyata, which had been
presented here previously under "author unknown" and with "minor restructuring,"
has been returned to it's orginal format in that the author, Professor of Religious
Studies at Humboldt State University, Wiliam Herbrechtsmeier, has been
identified and the material most graciously made available to us for our purposes
here:

Sunyata ("Emptiness"). The Mahayana tradition has put a special

emphasis on sunyata. This was necessary, in part, because of the
tendency among certain early Buddhist schools to assert that there

were aspects of reality that were not sunya, but which had inherent in
them their "own-being". Several important Buddhist philosophers
dismantled these theories by arguing for the pervasiveness of sunyata
in every aspect of reality. (Nagarjuna was among the most important of
these.) The specific arguments are too complicated for us to deal with
here. But it is important to appreciate that understanding absolutely
everything as sunya could imply that even those things most revered
by Buddhists (such as the arhant ideal and the rules laid down in the
vinaya) were empty. Mahayanists tended to argue that members of the
Hinayana traditions were attached to their ideal forms as if they were
not sunya.
To some extent, sunyata is an extension of the concepts made explicit
in The Three Flaws. All things being impermanant, nothing can be
seen as having an independent, lasting form of existence. And this is,
in essence, what sunyata is all about. Strictly speaking, sunyata can be
defined as "not svabhava". The concept svabhava means "own being",
and means something like "substance" or "essence" in Western
philosophy. Svabhava has to do with the notion that there is a form of
being which "is" and "exists" in a form that is not dependent on context,
is not subject to variation, and has a form of permanent existence. As
such, the "soul" as understood in Abrahamic religions would have
svabhava. God would certainly have svabhava. The Platonic forms
(such as those described in the allegory of the Cave) would have
svabhava.. Certain abhidharma teachings conclude that the building
blocks of reality have such svabhava. But Mahayana philosophers like
Nagarjuna concluded that sunyata is the fundamental characteristic of
reality, and that svabhava could be found absolutely nowhere.

GRAPHIC COPYRIGHT GAIL ATKINS

One of the images used to illustrate the nature of reality as understood

in Mahayana is The Jewel Net of Indra. According to this image, all
reality is to be understood on analogy with Indra's Net. This net
consists entirely of jewels. Each jewel reflects all of the other jewels,
and the existence of each jewel is wholly dependent on its reflection in
all of the other jewels. As such, all parts of reality are interdependent
with each other, but even the most basic parts of existence have no
independent existence themselves. As such, to the degree that reality
takes form and appears to us, it is because the whole arises in an
interdependent matrix of parts to whole and of subject to object. But in
the end, there is nothing (literally no-thing) there to grasp.
Pratitya-samutpada ("Dependent Co-arising"). The flip side of
sunyata is pratitya samutpada. They are two sides of the same coin.
They mean the same thing, but from two different perspectives. To the
extent that sunyata is a negative concept (i.e., not svabhava), pratityasamutpada is the positive counterpart. Pratitya-samutpada is an
attempt to conceptualize the nature of the world as it appears to us, not
(as with sunyata) by saying what the world is not, but by characterizing
what is. I would say that pratitya-samutpada is probably just about my
favorite religious-philosophical concept from within the traditions of the
world. It is wonderfully subtle, and Buddhist philosophers have
developed it beautifully.
As mentioned above, this concept is understood in two quite different
ways in Theravada and Mahayana thought. In Theravada dependent
co-arising (usually designated by its form in Pali, paticca-samuppada)
is understood as a logical-causal chain which illustrates in a linear
fashion the preconditions of suffering that can be analyzed and
eliminated according to a strictly codified pattern of behavior. In
Mahayana, on the other hand, which emphasizes the emptiness of
things, dependent co-arising as a concept is used to clarify the nature
of sunyata by showing that all things that appear to have independent,
permanent existence are really the product of many forces interacting.
Thus, in Mahayana it is stressed that all things are dependently coarisen, because their seemingly independent existence really depends
on the coming together simultaneously (the co-arising) of the various
parts and forces that go into making them up. As such, pratityasamutpada is more a metaphysical concept in Mahayana, and it is
nonlinear inasmuch as it attempts to picture a universe in which all
things are inextricably linked in a cosmic wholeness that cannot be
unwoven into independent threads or pieces.

One illustration of sunyata and pratitya-samutpada is the Jewel Net of

Indra (see above). Another is a rainbow.(see) We know that a rainbow
is real in some sense, because we can see it, locate it, measure it, and
so forth. However, it is also clear that a rainbow is no "thing", but rather
the product of various forces interacting as sunlight shines through an
atmosphere that has water droplets in suspension. Mahayana thinkers
have asserted that all phenomena, including especially individual
human beings, are like this, inasmuch as it is impossible to locate any
basic particle or entity that is dependent in no way for its definition and
existence on the relationship that it has to other things. All things are,
therefore, "empty" and "dependently co-arisen".
Many great Buddhist philosophers have thought through with great
care the nature of shunyata and pratitya-samutpada. This is but a
simple illustration of much more complex reasoning, such as that found
in the writings of Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti, and other subtle thinkers.
(See Smith, 82-112. See also Paul Ingram. 1990. "Nature's Jeweled
Net: Kukai's Ecological Buddhism" on Electronic Reserve. )
It may seem that the articulation of such ideas "tends not to edification",
or that it resembles absurd philosophical speculation such as "how
many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" However, the study of
these (and other) philosophical concepts has typically been linked with
practices that train Buddhists to release themselves from attachment to
or striving after "things" that might seem to offer some lasting sort of
satisfaction. One of the most basic forms of attachment is the mind's
tendency to grasp after objects of thought and perception as real (i.e.,
as having svabhava), and this tendency is reinforced in ideas that we
have about the world. The use of philosophical reasoning to

deconstruct such misconceptions (as they are understood within

Buddhism) is a powerful vehicle for eliminating seeds that can
eventually grow into very serious obstacles in one's orientation to the
world.
Among the most important applications of these ideas with Mahayana
has been to expose the emptiness and the co-dependently arisen
qualities of even Buddhism itself. Mahayana claims itself to be an
important vehicle to liberation, but it also points to its own provisional
character. Mahayana does not see itself as an end, but as means to an
end. That end is liberation, enlightenment, and an end to suffering.
However, as with all religions, there is a tendency for the religion to
reinforce itself as real, as an end in itself, within the minds of its
adherents. The philosophical traditions of emptiness and dependent
co-origination are important correctives to this tendency. There is an
important saying within Zen: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill
him." When people come to see the Buddha as a being to be revered
merely for the sake of piety itself, or when Buddhism itself becomes the
chief focus of its practitioners, then it is time to "kill the Buddha", to
point to the emptiness and provisional quality of Buddhism itself.
(source)

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: THE LAST AMERICAN

DARSHAN
RECOUNTING A YOUNG BOY'S NEARLY INSTANT TRANSFORMATION INTO THE ABSOLUTE DURING HIS ONLY DARSHAN WITH THE
MAHARSHI

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's.
Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that
experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of
itself.

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As to the subject of donations, for those of you who may be interested

in doing so as it applies to the gratefulness of my works, I invariably

suggest any funds be directed toward THE WOUNDED WARRIOR

PROJECT and/or THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.

THE THREE FLAWS

The three flaws which characterize all elements of the phenomenal world are:
1. anitya (Pali anicca) "impermanence." Impermanence has to do with the
transient quality of existence. No "thing" has any lasting quality beyond the
temporary qualities that arise as various constituent parts come together in
the moment. Our belief that there are permanent entities of any kind (e.g.,
material objects, ideas, personality traits, souls, spirits, angels, and demons)
is an illusion. We don't pay close enough attention to the nature of things,

and we make false conclusions about their nature. Things that we believe to
be permanent are not, claim Buddhists. Ideas supportive of permanence
break down under close analysis.
2. anatman (Pali anatta) "no-self, no-soul, no-ego". This truth articulates
the doctrine of "impermanence" from another angle. It focuses on the nature
of the "self", but not just the "self" in human beings. This refers to the
absence of "self" or "substance" for any existent entity. One might conclude
that there is an unchanging substance lying at the core of reality that
remains unchanged in the face of apparent impermanence. The Buddha
claimed (and argued) that there exists no such substance, and beliefs that
such a "self" exists collapse under close scrutiny. See: ANATTA: The
Concept Of No-Self In Buddhism
3. duhkha (Pali dukka) "suffering, misery, sorrow" Suffering is the
inevitable result of attaching one's self to false ideas and concepts. Just as
people hope that the world is permanent, and that they have selves with an
eternal quality, we also would like to believe that there is an "escape from"
suffering. Buddhists argue that dukka is inevitable within the realm of
samsara. The only means of overcoming suffering is through a
transformation of consciousness that allows experience to be different as
perceived. This transformation of consciousness does not alter, for example,
the inevitability of death or loss, but it does allow one to overcome the
sorrow of this loss by giving Buddhists the ability to abandon attachments to
states of being that cannot continue to exist permanently.
(source)

When I was a young boy with my mother ill and near death I was assigned to
live with a foster couple. The couple, without my father's tacit approval or
any approval, took me almost immediately to the ashram of the venerated
Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharahi in Tiruvannamalai
south India for several months. While there I met another young boy
basically living at the ashram my same age named Adam Osborne, the son
of Arthur Osborne the prolific writer of numerous books on the Maharshi.
On the Osborne page linked above I discuss how as a young boy at the
Ramana ashram I did not want to leave because for me, like in a movie I had
seen, the world had, from black and white, TURNED INTO COLOR. The
movie I was refering to was, of course, the Wizard of Oz.
Interestingly enough, others have seen fit to draw similar conclusions in
relation to the Wizard of Oz and Enlightenment. John Wren-Lewis, the
author of DAZZLING DARK: A Near-Death Experience Opens the Door to a
Permanent Transformation writes that following a near death experience he
was suddenly thrust into a permanent altered state of consciousness similar
to that typically attributed to the ancient classical masters. His perspective is
considered unique not only because his awakening was thrust upon him
basically out of nowhere without seeking it, but also because of that fact, he
questions many commonly held beliefs about spiritual awakening. However,
thrust upon or sought out, the end result, when put into words by the
experiencer, are hauntingly the same.

"(W)hereas mystical awakening for me has been like Dorothy's

in The Wizard of Oz: the realization that I never really left
home and never could."

Evan I. Schwartz, author of the just published book Finding Oz wherein he

discusses the Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum and where and how he
created the Oz books writes:

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is less than a coming-of-age

story, as some have suggested, and more a transformation-ofconsciousness story. Like the Buddha, Dorothy attains
Enlightenment."

How I, as the young boy was, would have ever concieved of such a thing on
my own is beyond me. An interesting sidelight from Schwartz's book --- as it
applies to me being at the ashram in the first place --- is that the mother-inlaw of Oz author Baum was a Theosophist. Through her, Baum and his wife
were drawn into that belief system. If you recall from the above, and of which
I have elaborated more in The Last American Darshan, the couple that
took me to India were Theosophists. The events of that visit to the ashram,
which I give title to as my first visit, led directly to my second visit as a grown
man and all the interesting aspects therein. Please see:

THE CODE MAKER, THE ZEN MAKER

SHANGRI-LA, SHAMBHALA, GYANGANJ, BUDDHISM AND ZEN