“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Emptiness is not separate from form,
form is not separate from emptiness.
Whatever is form is emptiness,
whatever is emptiness is form.”
The Heart Sutra
A cargo ship arrives in port,
laden with goods from the East.
It is not a ship,
it is a professor at his lectern,
speaking of *sunyata.
It is not a professor,
it is the ghost of an idea
haunting the West since *Heraclitus .
It is not a ghost,
it is a convenient illusion,
as we place our bets on daily life.
It is not an illusion, it is reality,
apparently the world is not as solid as it seems.
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*sunyata = (Sanskrit) The Buddhist notion of the emptiness/void/openness in which all takes place
*Heraclitus (535-475 BCE) Greek philosopher who first said ‘everything flows’ and ‘you can’t step into the same river twice’ meaning all matter is in constant flux and therefore change is the fundamental property of reality.
2016