rocks, rice, and emptiness

[Guest guest]

> Lewis: A question to ask is what does one see and

> understand before emptiness when seeing rice and

> rocks? Are not rocks and rice defined and used as

> they can be and are seen and used as inherently

> self-existing things, - they exist independently on

> their own as separate objects with all their uses and

> purposes and complex web of meanings, perceptions,

> emotions, thoughts conceptions, attachments etc.

> involved in them? Now, after emptiness dawns, what

> does one see and understand when now seeing what was

> formerly rice and rocks?

 

 

OhmGod! What a WONDERFUL question!

 

After emptiness dawns the rice and rocks are seen *as

through* emptiness. It is as if emptiness has become

*conscious* and is now (realized as) the BEHOLDER. The

sense of " all is a dream " is just this quality of all being

experienced as *through the lens of* emptiness. " After

emptiness " what is beheld is beheld as both *in* emptiness

and as *by* emptiness Itself.

 

So what is really different before and after emptiness

is a matter of consciousness. Before, the emptiness was

not conscious, so even though the rice and rocks were

beheld in emptiness (there is no place else they could

be beheld), the full nature of that was not

realized. The rice and rocks got all of the attention,

while emptiness, being inherently in " stealth mode " ,

was as if it weren't there.

 

After emptiness, that each moment is as *in emptiness*,

that all experience is as *through emptiness*, becomes

salient and evident. And the fundamental nature of

emptiness as bliss also becomes evident. So each moment

is beheld as deeply imbued in emptiness and the fundamental

nature of each moment comes to be seen as the nature of

emptiness itself. The content of any given moment comes

to be seen of minor significance... be it rice, rocks,

unicorns, or kings.

 

 

Bill