BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism A quote about Impermanence and Emptiness

If everything is impermanent, then everything is what we call empty, which means lacking in any lasting, stable, and inherent existence; and all things, when seen and understood in their true relation, are not independent but interdependent with all other things. The Buddha compared the universe to a vast net woven of a countless variety of brilliant jewels, each with a countless number of facets. Each jewel reflects in itself every other jewel in the net and is, in fact, one with every other jewel. Think of a wave in the sea. Seen in one way, it seems to have a distinct identity, an end and a beginning, a birth and a death. Seen in another way, the wave itself doesnt really exist but is just the behavior of water, empty of any separate identity but full of water. So when you really think about the wave, you come to realize that it is something made temporarily possible by wind and water, and is dependent on a set of constantly changing circumstances. You also realize that every wave is related to every other wave. -Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Do you know, it took me several lifetimes and part of this one to get my head around the "Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form" and the "Self, Not-Self" business.
I now know I've got it (by George!) at last, but I had to read several dozen books, and speak to several dozen more fellow Buddhists before it sank in, and I understood it for myself. Or my Not-Self, if you prefer.....

But it is one heck of a brainer....!

I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea of emptiness. How can you be empty yet not? When I think I understand it, I read something else and my balloon gets deflated so to speak. I think that concept is the hardest to grasp of all things in the Buddhism practices.

Another good quote..


Moon reflected in Water

All the various objects of experience
are like the moon reflected in water --
neither really true nor really false.
Those appreciating this do not lose the view.

~ Arya Nagarjuna, Sixty Stanzas on the Nature of Emptiness

Listen, jeanette, I can try to explain it to you in the poor layman's terms I would use...but even then I can't guarantee you'll get it... but I'll do my best, if you want me to have a go....As in all things though, don't just take it from me, ok?

I approached it from the 'web of life', the interconnectedness of everything, the John Donneness of the world. For me, starting at that end made it possible to realize that we are only reflections of reality because reality is only that which is connected to all else.
It makes sense to me inside, but I am not doing a good job with these miserable things we call words. For me, it is allowing myself to be empty so I can know the fullness of the universe.

I do understand it Alexandra, like I said until I read someone else's version of what it is lol I have my own definition in my head, i can't quite put it in terms that makes sense to anyone but myself. I wouldn't mind hearing your version though if you have time.

Ok, great...if you understand it in the way you understand it, and I understand it in the way I understand it - I think it's safest to leave it at that...!!