Śūnyatā should represent emptiness of essence/intrinsic nature (svabhāva) in what is conditioned. On the other hand, the unconditioned is svabhāva. Related, one should understand that ‘no-thought’ (acitta) is the domain of the supreme essential nature (paramārthikaḥ svabhāvaḥ) which is never other than unconditioned. If this sounds confusing then perhaps the reader is reading these words with a nihilistic bias.
Unfortunately, the modern understanding of Buddhism is for the most part nihilistic and quite extreme. The Buddha preached against nihilism. He did not deny the transcendent or absolute spirit which was unconditioned and non-dual (advaya). In fact, I should add that enlightenment or gnosis proves this. One, in fact, attains this transcendent state which is totally unthinkable.
Trying to explain this with words which give rise to thoughts is a fool’s errand that a good teacher, nevertheless, has to partake in. Our human form is like the 305-meter-wide dish at Arecibo Observatory into which data enters but the absolute is not one of those things. No matter how subtle our thoughts are, our thought/reasoning stops us from entering the so-called kingdom of heaven.
Comments