QUESTION
Dear Venerable:
Is meditation on emptiness when there are no thoughts and no emotions? Just emptiness in the mind? Silent and clear?
Thank you,
H
ANSWER
No, H, “emptiness” here is referring to the “emptiness of inherent existence,” a particular way that Buddha says we mistakenly think things exist, which is the root of all of our problems.
We need to realize that that way of existing – inherently, intrinsically, etc., etc., – is not true.
It’s a pretty advanced realization!
Love,
Robina
QUESTION
Hello Venerable Robina,
Fifteen years ago I had an experience.
I was meditating after some energy body work and I was looking to the wall, the pictures on the wall and the door. And the pictures on the wall and the door were all the same. It was once, the same thing, nothing, but at the same time there was the wall and the pictures and the door. The things were connected to each other as they were melting in each other.
Was this an experience from emptiness?
Greetings,
H
ANSWER
Yes, H, I’d say you had some sense of spaciousness, a taste of emptiness.
We need to practice and practice until it becomes natural.
One step at a time!
Love,
Robina
QUESTION
Hello Venerable Robina,
My question is: does all the fear I have come from the ego?
And what can I do to make my ego smaller, or let it go?
Greetings,
H
ANSWER
Dearest H,
Yes, our strong grasping at our sense of self — a wrong sense of self: over-exaggerated, tight, usually negative, not happy at all! — is why we have attachment and anger and depression and all the other problems in our mind.
And they’re all rooted in fear.
Practicing the path to enlightenment in the order that all the holy beings before us have practiced is the way to go.
Here’s a very simple overview of the entire path for you to read and think about.
Love,
Robina