The True Nature of Reality

Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is also not other than emptiness.

https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/heart-sutra

Without the wisdom realizing ultimate reality,
Even though you have generated renunciation and the mind of enlightenment
You cannot cut the root cause of circling.
Therefore, attempt the method to realize dependent arising.

https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/three-principal-aspects-path

The Christian way of explaining God as something universal and omnipresent is good. Actually, that's a good way of understanding things—better than "My Buddha; my Dharma; my Sangha." That's rubbish! That itself is the problem. If you get attached to the particular object of "my lama" or "my things," it's ridiculous. Buddha himself said that we should not be attached to him, or to enlightenment, or to the six paramitas. We should not be attached to anything.

https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/three-principal-aspects-path-lty

Dependent arising is the other side of the coin of emptiness, in the sense of the absence of a substantial and unchanging entity anywhere in subjective experience. Experience or existence is nothing but conditions. This leaves no room for positing a self of any type.

Quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda

All objects of the senses—visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tangible—as well as the objects of the mental sense power—in sum, all phenomena that appear to the six senses, are the object of negation. They’re all hallucinations. The entire world, even the Dharma path, hell, god realm, positive and negative karma, and enlightenment, were made up by your own mind. Your mind projected the hallucination of things existing from their own side.

This hallucination of inherent existence is the foundation. Then, on top of that, you pay attention to certain attributes and label “wonderful,” “horrible,” or “nothing much.” When you think, “He’s awful” and get angry, you label the person an enemy. Not aware that you created the enemy, you believe there is a truly existent one out there and project all sorts of other notions on him. You justify your actions, thinking they are positive, when in fact you created the enemy. In fact, there’s no real enemy there. There’s not the slightest atom of an enemy existing; not even a tiny particle of true existence. Simply by hallucinating that an action is harmful or bad, anger arises and you label the person who did it “enemy.” You label “harmful” or “bad,” anger arises, and you’re your mind projects “enemy.” Even though that enemy appears real, there’s no enemy there.

It’s the same with an object of attachment. By reasoning that a person is intelligent or by projecting beauty on the body, then attachment arises and you project “friend,” but friend doesn’t exist because it’s built on the foundation of seeing a truly existent person, which does not exist. The special insight section of the Lam-rim Chen-mo describes this process. I think this is extremely important psychology. Through such analysis, we can see that anger and attachment are very gross superstitions. We understand the process by which ignorance causes us suffering.

https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/interview-emptiness

You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing.

Quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda

Although emptiness sounds profound and difficult, the logic of emptiness is always the same. It is hard for us to understand because of the discrepancy between what we are thinking and what emptiness is; so we need to change the way we are thinking and the sutra gives us many ways to comprehend emptiness and to shift our minds. Once we have some recognition of emptiness, it will become stable because emptiness never changes. It is a truth.”

https://kagyuoffice.org/the-nature-of-everything-is-emptiness/

Vipasannā is actually about understanding the law of nature. To me, Buddha was one of the first naturalist persons. Somebody who studied nature so thoroughly, and nature is the five aggregates. These are natural phenomenon which constitute us, and going deeper deeper, the facts that he came across—dukkha, anicca, sunyata, anatta—they are all to do with nature. How the five aggregates naturally behave in a certain condition, the nature of so-called “truth”, and the realisation of the reality are the properties or facts about what is already there in nature.

Transcribed from https://wisdomexperience.org/wisdom-podcast/sonam-thakchoe/

Someone who sees the infallible cause and effect of all phenomena in cyclic existence and peace, and destroys all false perceptions, has entered the path which pleases the Buddha. Appearances are infallible dependent arising; emptiness is free of assertions. As long as these two understandings are seen as separate, you have not yet realized the intent of the Buddha. When these two realizations are simultaneous and concurrent, from a mere sight of infallible dependent arising comes certain knowledge which completely destroys all modes of mental grasping.

https://www.dalailama.com/news/2021/three-principal-aspects-of-the-path

Here’s an easy summary:

https://www.learnreligions.com/sunyata-or-emptiness-450191

by Long Yinghan
2004, 90 x 70 cm, Oil on canvas
fleurir17@gmail.com

The 'Impermanence Series' is my early series of works exploring the temporal nature of life. It is a poetic seeking of freedom and reconciliation with this universal phenomenon of change, that even seemingly unbreakable man made-structures are vulnerable and do not last forever. Yet on the other hand, things will be rebuilt again, forming an endless cycle of change.

by Angelica Atzin Garcia
2020, 21 x 29.7 cm, Coffee and paint
atzin.garcia@gmail.com

The earth made us and that’s where we will end up.

by John Vo
2016, 127 X 96.52 cm, Watercolour on silk
byjohnvo@gmail.com

“Swim Good” is a meditation on the concept of the vehicle, and the responsibility one holds when recognizing the interconnected nature between what one carries and what carries us in this life. The visual inspiration for the piece stems from a visit to a temple in Saigon, Vietnam and Guatama Buddha’s white flower sermon.

by Long Yinghan
2012, 101.6 x 71.1 cm, Charcoal and ink on paper
fleurir17@gmail.com

A charcoal drawing inspired by the Buddhist teaching of emptiness, or the lack of inherent existence, through the re-interpretation of the traditional Chinese acupuncture points diagram.

According to the Chinese meridian system, the ear is an important part of the body which has points that link it to the rest of the body. In the same way, by renaming these points with seemingly random names, I seek to propose how ideas, people and 'unrelated' entities interweaves to make up a so called 'self', which seems ultimately 'empty' in essence when broken down into parts.

by Myrthe Biesheuvel
2021, 20 x 15 cm, Oil paint on MDF
https://www.myrthebiesheuvel.com

For me, abstract painting is about catching a moment of being in the present. Rather than trying to achieve likeness as with figurative painting, I am concerned with shapes, textures, and colors based on what I am experiencing. It’s about observing what’s inside and translating it to the canvas which can only be done successfully when letting go and being open to the unpredictable.

Integration is a precious work to me because it captures one of those joyful moments and I will never be able to copy its energy exactly because that exact state will never return. I named it Integration because I see the unification of two layers. The thick white layer connects with the colorful, hidden background through the carved lines.

Bonus: When you turn it on its right side you can also spot three travelers in the snow.

by Angelica Atzin Garcia
2021, 21 x 29.7cm, Wax and ink
atzin.garcia@gmail.com

This piece talks about the different faces we see daily and how we connect through the space we share.