Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

The Middle Way
Reality is the Absence of Inherent Existence
You and the world around you appear to consist of solid, separate things that exist permanently.
It is the normal way of seeing. Yet to see appearances as having their own self-existence is not
only mistaken, it is a dangerous delusion that results in suffering. The Heart Sūtra declares this
teaching: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” To know the meaning of this one sentence
is buddhahood:
1. Form is emptiness – Direct perception into the ultimate nature of things reveals that no forms
can be found at all. All forms dissolve into a complete lack of inherent existence.
2. Emptiness is form – Though absent of any self-existent nature, appearances arise due to
karmic conditioning.
This is the wisdom of emptiness.
To see clearly and attain perfect wisdom is to see emptiness (śūnyatā). Emptiness is the principle
that everything is insubstantial, interdependent, arising out of Dependent Origination,
impermanent, continually changing, and ultimately inconceivable. What you see as things is only
the appearances of things. These appearances (dharmas) arise and fall away continuously. And
there is no underlying plane of ultimate reality from which any appearances arise.
The term Emptiness means that all things are empty of inherent self-existence (svabhāva). With
no intrinsic, eternal nature that is independently your own, you and the world appear to exist only
as a result of karmic conditioning. From the teachings of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras,
appearances are explained as ephemeral and insubstantial as: 1) the reflection of the Moon in
water, 2) a magician’s trick, 3) a face in a mirror, 4) a mirage from water, 5) the sound of an
echo, 6) clouds in the sky, 7) a ball of foam, 8) a water bubble, 9) the empty core of a plantain
tree, and 10) a flash of lightning.
This philosophy is called the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) because it rejects as extreme views
either of the two ideas that: 1) appearances have any kind of eternal existence, or 2) appearances
do not exist at all. Emptiness does not mean nothing exists at all, instead it is the awareness that
appearances lack inherent existence and arise only due to karmic conditioning. At the same time,
emptiness is not a quality of a supposed plane of ultimate reality from which appearances arise
and return. When you directly perceive the lack of inherent existence of all appearances, you
enter the bliss of nirvāṇa.
The profound and liberating value of this teaching is that there are no things for you to attach to,
no persons to cling to, no ideas to conceive, and no goal to achieve because there are no beings
in suffering and no buddhas who liberate them. It is the shocking discovery that all your
concepts about reality are wrong because the very nature of reality cannot be encompassed by
concepts. You will never understand reality. There is nothing to gain, and nothing that can
possibly be lost. And, without anything to attain, and no obstacles to oppose you, there is
absolutely no reason why you cannot be completely and perfectly peaceful and blissful in this
and every moment. Upon directly perceiving emptiness, all appearances dissolve into their
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