Expert: Joe McSorley - 5/8/2006

Question
I have a few questions I hope you can help.

1. Can you explain what it means when nagarjuna says that all things are empy

2. I am having trouble translating the argument in Mulamadhyamakarika XX concerning cause and effect. I also dont know how that has anything to do with emptiness.

3. Also what is the significance of the doctrine of emptiness in obtaining liberaion.

4. How can you prove that the a part of the way to become enlightened is to realize there is no ultimate truth to the way the world works.  

Answer
Hi Brandie,
 The questions you are asking me are not Zen in particular.  I will give you some general answers that might help you.


1.   Can you explain what it means when nagarjuna says that all things are empy
  This is the topic of a book or volumes but I'll try it in a few paragraphs, fool that I am.  Emptiness does not mean empty.  It means that we do not have a separate substance from the rest of the universe that exists independently from everything else.  Like the wave, all things are interdependent, each one defines the other.  This is the significance of the yin/yang symbol.  Dark is dark because there is light and vice versa.  One is the ground or foundation for the other. So neither one exists without the other, they are ‘empty' of their own nature each defining the other.  So in the wave analogy the wave awakens to realize that it is not separated but actually empty of an individual self, it is the entire ocean articulated through one wave and one wave realizing the whole ocean.  So by emptying itself of its false individualism it is full of the ocean or in our case the universe.  
 You might understand this if you do a sport.  If in the process of running or playing you lose yourself or empty yourself of any thought and just purely act you have become full by emptying yourself.  This is a very minor version of this but it might give you some insight.  When Siddhartha stopped the mental process and became ‘empty' the universe was then expressed fully through him, he was awakened.  So don't think of emptiness as that which is opposed to fullness, it is that which defines fullness.


2. I am having trouble translating the argument in Mulamadhyamakarika XX concerning cause and effect. I also dont know how that has anything to do with emptiness.

I am not familiar with this translation so I can't address it directly but I will talk about the idea involved.

First of all we have to define what cause and effect or karma is.  The term originally comes from Jainism and meant “ reaction to action”.  What that meant was that our minds stir up or react to outside stimulus and that it is a false view of the world.  The idea was to keep the mind still and to see things without creating thoughts, to see things directly.
Karma has since come to mean causation in regards to reincarnation but that is not a very good understanding of it.  What karma really means is simply cause and effect; that one thing causes another to arise.  Ultimately nothing exists on its own so you can relate this to Emptiness.

3. Also what is the significance of the doctrine of emptiness in obtaining liberaion.
For self liberation you need not know any doctrine but need to overcome the dualistic discrimination of the mind in a profound and thoroughgoing manner.  For some this path might be understanding doctrines to the point where they become a personal existential problem but this is not necessary at all.  If you really understand the doctrine of emptiness then you reach a dilemma; if we are empty what can become enlightened?  So there is an ultimate conundrum that does not even allow you to hold on to a doctrine, it becomes self-negating.  Those who just hang on to a doctrine as a belief truly miss the point.


4. How can you prove that the a part of the way to become enlightened is to realize there is no ultimate truth to the way the world works.

You can't prove it and why bother trying.  The world is a concept of our minds and whether or not there is an ultimate way the world works isn't really consequential to our individual lives.  When you are hungry or in pain what good does it do to know this?  Who is it that even creates the idea of world or truth?  These questions belie the problem of self at the root of all of this.

 I hope this had helped you.  Take care,
       Joe