I came across an interesting conversation today about labeling. As one of my friend said, good and bad is just a label…I won’t be good or bad, I’ll just be correct. So what’s correct, what’s not correct? Is being bad not correct and being good is correct? According to whom and what standard are you correct? We all don’t want to be labeled, but we are constantly labeling ourselves or I should say putting too much emphasis on the word labeling itself. To me I believe that we labeled and named things because there’s a “need” for recognition and not for discrimination. Just like a valet guy would never be able find our car in a parking lot full of cars if we just said car and not blue or red car. When we put too much thought into a simple simplicity or dependency… we make it complex. Ah dependency, this where Buddhism emptiness come in.

“Emptiness” is a central teaching of all Buddhism, but its true meaning is often misunderstood. So what’s emptiness? It does not mean nothingness! Actually it mean that nothing exist independently…What!!? We will go back to the example of being GOOD. Just like there’s a cause and effect, for this example I’ll say a action and reaction. You gave money to a homeless, he is able to get some food to eat for tonight, that’s an action; You feel good about yourself(thinking you are good person) or someone saw your action and react to it by saying you are a good person. But now if you don’t believe that homeless person need that money or that’s nothing good about helping someone then the “GOOD or being GOOD” doesn’t exist. Just like I think a blue car is beautiful but to you it’s not, so to you there is no “beautiful blue car,” Now the car exist but it not the same car to you there for the beautiful blue car doesn’t exist. So emptiness mean that nothing we see or hear exist on it own or the way our grasping self supposes they do.

So how can we use this in our meditation. Just like emptiness doesn’t mean nothingness, when we meditate, it doesn’t mean that we clear our mind and think of absolutely nothing, that’s impossible and it’s also where many think wrongly about meditation. Instead we will use emptiness as a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. We take away the presuppositions and attachment to a dependent that we usually add to the event or experience. Existence and nonexistence are just created by our minds. Nothing exist on it own, same with anger, it does not exist if we don’t hold on to it.

That’s my view on Emptiness, I hope it help and please share your view, so we could all learn from each other. May all have a peaceful day.