Everything is Possible

In the last series of articles we talked about how we come to understand the concept of emptiness. What effect is going to have on us in this world? A lot of people think that if everything is empty of any kind of identity, then there is no reason for us to take seriously anything that we do. In fact, they find it a very depressing idea. A lot of the stuff they thought was important for them no longer is significant anymore. This is that old fear that you see popping from time to time in the Buddhist tradition throughout all of its history.

We’ve said that a clear understanding of emptiness involves a wise appropriation of the categories of the world. This is an appropriation with a sense of freedom and buoyancy. Emptiness, in the end, is that kind of freedom that we talked about before which characterizes Buddhist people.

If you can feel the doctrine of emptiness as I have been trying to express it, what you sense is not a feeling of negativity. You feel some sort of a surge of infinite possibility. Often the doctrine of emptiness is expressed as power. Not as disability, but as being genuinely powered.

If nothing has any kind of identity in its own right, then is not real barrier to accomplish anything that you want to accomplish. You can bring to bear an ordinary experience a sense of freedom and directness. That would be difficult if you were caged in this world of frozen objects which are what they were, and can’t change.

The doctrine of emptiness is often expressed in the Mahayana tradition by the phrase “Everything is possible for someone for whom emptiness is possible”.

This article is part of the series about Emptiness.