And it’s all good

色即是空・空即是色

Shikizoku Zeku Kuzoku Ze Shiki

‘Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.’

This is the basis of The Heart Sutra. Yet emptiness is not what it seems on face value. Emptiness is not an empty void. Emptiness is that things are both themselves, but equally the ecosystem that allows them to exist.

A tree is not only a tree. A tree is a tree. But it is also part of the ecosystem it exists in. It is its roots, its leaves, its dirt, and it is equally the oxygen it provides to the surrounding ecosystem, and the surrounding world. This is emptiness.

When we extrapolate this, we realise that we are all part of each other. That we exist means that you are part of me, and I am part of you. It also means we are all pieces of each other.

When you go about learning, it’s piecemeal. It’s a combination of all the things that have an influence on us. Which is, of course, everything. Just by being we are open to all sorts of influences, whether we accept them or not is another story. Either way, the influences that are there are working their way into us. It’s easier to take them on head on, to take them at face value, and to accept them for what they are.

At times there will be contradictions, but these contradictions all come together to create our existence. And how we accept, how we recognise, how we take on these influences is always piecemeal. We are always taking from different things, and we are always accepting these different things. Collectively they form our sense of being, even though at times they may not always agree with one another, they all agree with one another in this moment. They are all piecemeal, and they are all collective. And this is emptiness.