"BE AWARE OF THE EMPTY SPACE IN YOUR IMMEDIATE SURROUNDINGS". Does this statement suddenly add any extra quality to your perception? If yes, then this blog entry is for you. |
॥गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा॥ ..The Heart Sutra.. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail! "Form is Emptiness...Emptiness is Form" |
In the following passages...there is nothing to understand.
These words are just pointers that we are surrounded by infinitely deep mystery. Beautiful mystery.
It is all around us.
It is above us.
It is behind us.
It is below us.
It surrounds us.
Eckhart Tolle explains that awareness of empty space and silence are the key to seeing this beautiful mysterious infinity that is ever present in our surroundings.
Terms used by Tolle:
1. UNMANIFESTED = NO-THING. NOTHINGNESS. EMPTINESS. INFINITE SILENCE.
2. MANIFESTED = PHYSICAL WORLD.
(Modified Eckhart Tolle Passage.)
The Unmanifested is not separate from the manifested. It pervades this world, but it is so well disguised that almost everybody misses it completely. If you know where to look, you'll find it everywhere.
Do you hear that dog barking in the distance? Or that car passing by?
Be aware of the distance between you and the sound.
Be aware of the silence that surrounds the distant sound.
Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still.
Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word. The Unmanifested is present in this world as silence. This is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence. All you have to do is pay attention to it. Even during a conversation, become conscious of the gaps between words, the brief silent intervals between sentences. As you do that, the dimension of stillness grows within you. You cannot pay attention to silence without simultaneously becoming still within. Silence without, stillness within. You have entered the Unmanifested.
(Modified Eckhart Tolle Passage.)
Just as no sound can exist without silence, things cannot exist without the empty space that enables them to be.
Every physical object or body has come out of nothing, is surrounded by nothing, and will eventually return to nothing.
Not only that, but even inside every physical body there is far more "nothing" than "something." Physicists tell us that the solidity of matter is an illusion.
Even seemingly solid matter, including your physical body, is nearly 100 percent empty space --
What is left is more like a vibrational frequency than particles of solid matter, more like a musical note.
Buddhists have known this for over 2,500 years.
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form," states the Heart Sutra, one of the best known ancient Buddhist texts.
The essence of all things is emptiness.
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| AWARENESS OF THE EMPTY SPACE IN THE SURROUNDINGS. Awareness of the SILENCE that SURROUNDS SOUND. This is the key to the infinite, unspoken mystery. |
Further Reading:
Dakini Notes on Psychedelic Science.
Dakini Notes on Psychedelics.
