Buddhism isn't only about quietly sitting in meditation. If it was only about that then the outcome of the Buddhist path would be like the
effects from taking a drug to numb some pain - you could get some relief temporarily but the cause of the pain would still be present.
So Buddhism is also about insight and then finally acting (taking action, living) based on that insight. This is another way of saying 'release and benefit'.
Note again here that in Buddhism, 'mind' is the primary focus. We work on the mind because that is how we experience. Change the how and you change the experience. What follows below will challenge you to change that 'how'.
Where there is insight there is release
Where there is insight into the true nature of THIS experience right now, there is release of tension, release from the grabbing that is 'the fear of..' and the grabbing that is 'the wishing for..'
Where there is release there is benefit
When you are released from your own problems truly, you naturally want to share this benefit with others because, well.. for you, there's not much else that is meaningful.
One particular method that Buddhism uses to gain insight is logic and reasoning.
Madhyamaka (mod-JA-mah-kuh) is a philosophically based path of Buddhist practice. It relies on reasoning and logic (which are conceptual processes) to lead one to a non-conceptual (direct) insight into - or the correct view of - reality.
Madhyamaka means "middle way school" and it rose out of the Buddhist teachings on "emptiness" known as the "prajna paramita" (perfection of wisdom) scriptures .
Emptiness aka "voidness" is the ultimate existential mode of all phenomena and is a term which is interchangeable with the term "interdependence".
The middle way path is designed to free you from the commonly held but extreme views of (a) eternalism - the view that "things are inherently real", (b) nihilism - the view that "things are inherently NOT real".
As Buddhists, we seek release, and a big part of that is to relax our conceptual grip on things as being 'absolutely solid and utterly real', or 'absolutely an illusion'.
We need this release, but we need it through insight and not through false conceptual experiences such as conceiving of an 'eternal heavenly afterlife' or idealizing that 'nothing is real or meaningful' in any way.
To get a taste of the Madhyamaka method, try to follow me for a while in analyzing these short statements below.
Please remember, according to Buddhism, "things" are "knowable things" - they are things that appear as knowable experiences in our mind. There are no unknowable things. There are things that we might not have discovered yet (unknown things), but there are no things possible that are unknowable once we discover them.
Because there is anything
Everything is ultimately void
Because nothing can exist ultimately
All things prove their ultimate voidness
Because of something's voidness
There is something to be void
Because everything is ultimately void
Voidness and anything are the same
Lets break this down..
"Because there is anything
Everything is ultimately void"
Just the mere fact that we experience anything at all, or that anything appears to our mind at all, just this mere appearance means that this appearance had to be produced from conditions and causes. If it was not produced from causes and conditions then it would not be anything - it would not appear in our experience as anything.
But because it IS produced from causes and conditions, because it IS "anything at all", when we see it (when anything appears as "there, thing!") we are not seeing IT, we are actually seeing it's causes and conditions. This means that "it" (aka "anything" and by default, everything) is void of itself, or just plain void.
But why is EVERYthing void?
Everything is void because not only is the single thing that we are focused on void (as if there could be any "single" things anyway) but void also are all the causes and all the conditions that produce any thing as well - stretching out infinitely, endlessly.
Because the appearance of anything is 'causally produced from' and 'conditionally dependent upon' everything, a thing's appearance can only mean one thing, "Everything is ultimately void".
"Because nothing can exist ultimately
All things prove their ultimate voidness"
No thing anywhere, at any time or in any place what so ever, can exist independently or ultimately - as it's own thing. Why not?
Because it is produced. If it is produced it is constructed from causes and conditions that are NOT it's self, NOT it's own being. Therefore, this thing does not exist ultimately, as it's own independently self standing thing.
In other words, it does not and cannot exist ultimately.
And so, because this is the case, because no thing can actually exist in an ultimate, absolute sense, on it's own, this mere fact that there is a thing at all appearing in our experience proves that it is void of being it's own isolated being. In other words, just by mere fact that something appears at all, proves conclusively that the thing is void.
So, it follows that based on the fact that 'nothing can exist ultimately', when we have an appearing 'thing' this mere appearance of the thing proves it's own voidness of ultimacy, proves it's absence of being it's own thing. This then in turn applies to all things.
"Because of something's voidness
There is something to be void"
This is easy, trust me. Can you see the pattern emerging? Because a thing is not made of it's self, because a thing is void of being it's own self standing being, because of this, a thing is able to be produced, is able to be there as something appearing. Why?
Because if a thing were not void, were not empty of self, it could never be produced from causes and conditions, it could never arise as an experience. How could something get produced from causes and conditions if it was already an ultimately existing thing?
And so, the reason we can experience this 'something' as an experience of 'somethingness' is on account of it's being void of itself, or because of it's voidness.
"Because everything is ultimately void
Voidness and anything are the same"
We are beginning to approach a non-conceptual mental process here.
You can't really get your mind around this idea of "everything". Maybe a Buddha can, but you or I probably can't in our present state of mind. So lets take this one one line (or even one word) at a time.
"Because" means that if this happens, that results. This is a fundamental law of reality and a basic tenet and teaching of Buddhism. Causation or cause and effect.
"Everything" means every conceivable AND inconcievable aspect of reality - what a Buddhist would call "experience". No matter where you turn, no matter what you experience, this, is included in the term "everything".
"Is ultimately void" means as we have been pointing out already, a thing is causally produced and conditionally appearing, so that means it is void of self. In other words, it is "ultimately void" (aka empty of ultimacy or ultimately existing).
And so, where ever we look, whatever the experience, it is ultimately lacking of an ultimately self-real presence - NO MATTER WHAT IT IS!
So we have this basic truth that is embodied by the statement "Because everything is ultimately void"
Now moving on to the final line here, "Voidness and anything are the same"- what does this mean?
Remember, voidness is the reason that anything can be, can appear, can be experienced. But if we stop at that we still have apparently real "things" that have voidness as a quality. There is still a perceived ultimacy to "things" but we have just added that quality called "voidness" to something real.
Said in another way, we may understand that this narrowly defined 'thing' we are focusing on is in fact, not existing on it's own, but we still think it's causes and conditions are inherently real.
We need to expand our minds here and really consider the wider implications of all this.
Not only is a thing void of itself, but it's causes and conditions are also void of "their" selves. A thing is not just made of other things, there are no inherently real things to be the cause of something! A thing does not exist as a thing! All things do not exist as things!
Can you see that, on account of universal causation, there is no thing to be the cause of anything. No thing to act as a condition. There -in fact- are no things existing as things! But where does that leave us?
Well, you have to be careful here, not to slip into nothingness, and yet, still allow release [truth] to occur.
And that leaves us with that final line:
"Voidness and anything are the same"
There is only voidness. Really... Im not joking.
But because NO THING exists in and of itself, ultimately, unconditionally, nonrelationally, independently, because of this universal fact, and because this universal fact ALSO APPLIES TO voidness (as a conceptual 'thing'), VOIDNESS (true voidness) is EXACTLY the very appearance of ANY THING. ANY THING and VOIDNESS are the same.
But we usually don't see this. And because we don't see this we grab and we hurt.
The goal is to KNOW, to thoroughly KNOW that all this, all experience is exactly interdependence - aka voidness. Once you glimpse it, you've just begun. You have to go back and go back, again and again to deepen this glimpse until it becomes your living truth.
Of coarse I don't mean you "have to", but at that point, you will really have found some degree of release and benefit and Buddhism will not be just a head game.
For now, there is just one more thing in this regard that I wanted to mention:
Emptiness and appearance are one - interdependence
Where there is appearance there is emptiness
Where there is emptiness there is appearance
This simply expressed "formula" is valid for all levels of the Buddhist path - even the highest (aka most subtle) whereby the appearance is the minds clarity itself.
Finally putting it all in summation:
Where there is insight
There is release
Where there is release
There is benefit
Because there is anything
Everything is ultimately void
Because nothing can exist ultimately
All things prove their ultimate voidness
Because of something's voidness
There is something to be void
Because everything is ultimately void
Voidness and anything are the same
Emptiness and appearance are one
Interdependence
Where there is appearance
There is emptiness
Where there is emptiness
There is appearance
This
Tathata, Dharmata
Absolute reality
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