May I ask about suññatā (emptiness)?

Question (F): May I ask about suññatā (emptiness)?

Than Ajahn:  Emptiness is like space. Emptiness means no thing. In order for this place to be empty, what do we do? We have to get rid of everything, right? People have to get out of here. All the things that we put here have to be taken out. Then, this place becomes empty.

Nibbāna is emptiness of the mind. The mind is cluttered with so many things – with our thoughts, our desires, our emotions. These things clutter the mind and make the mind unhappy. The Buddha said that we have to get rid of all the things that occupy the space in our mind. We have to clear everything out of the mind, i.e. clear out all our desires, our cravings, our greed, hate and delusion, our love and fear. We have to get rid of everything that we have in the mind. And the way to do this is to meditate. 

When you meditate, you concentrate your mind on one object such as your breath. If you can keep on concentrating on your breath, your mind will gradually stop creating all these thoughts and emotions.

Everything in the mind is created by the mind itself – by its volition and its memory. You think, you remember, then you start to create all kinds of feelings and emotions about the things that you think about. 

When you stop thinking, everything disappears. Then, the mind becomes empty. When you enter jhāna, that’s when the mind becomes empty but there is a part of the mind which will always remain in there – it will not disappear. What remains is peace and happiness. This is what emptiness is about – the emptiness of the mind.

What you need to do is to meditate. When you meditate you stop creating all the things that clutter the mind, which is your volition or your thoughts. 

You can stop them by using mindfulness, by concentrating your mind on one object. For sitting meditation, the Buddha recommended us to use the breath as the object of concentration to stop the mind from thinking, from creating all the things that clutter the mind.

If you can do this, when the mind stops generating thoughts, the mind becomes empty. When it becomes empty, it enters jhāna. It becomes calm and peaceful. It has no emotion, no hatred, no love, no fear and no delusion. This is the first step of creating emptiness in your mind, creating suññatā. But this is a temporary situation because once you come out of your meditation, your mind starts to generate all kinds of thoughts again. When you see something, when you hear something, you start generating desire or cravings, start having likes and dislikes again.

The next step to do if you want to get rid of the things that clutter your mind is to apply wisdom or insight that the Buddha has discovered that is teaching the mind to stop reacting to what it comes into contact with. Teaching the mind to see that everything it comes into contact with is impermanent. It can cause you suffering or sadness. You cannot control or manage it to always give you happiness because everything comes and goes, everything rises and ceases, everything is impermanent.

If you can see that all things that the mind comes into contact with are anicca (impermanent), dukkha (causing sadness or suffering), anattā (not under your control), then you know that it’s better not to get involved with them. Just know them but you don’t have any attachment towards them. This is wisdom that the Buddha has discovered in order to empty the mind. Then, the mind will be empty of thoughts and emotions regardless of what the mind comes into contact with. 

The mind will be empty like it is in samadhi or in jhāna, without you going into jhāna. This is the way to empty the mind permanently. Once you have this wisdom, then you can always teach the mind not to generate any kinds of emotions, any kinds of love, hatred, fear or delusion. Then, the mind will be empty.

So, there are two steps. The first step is to meditate, to see what it’s like when you clear the mind of all the clutters. You’ll find that you’re much happier without anything. The next step is when you come out of your meditation and you come into contact with things, you teach your mind that it’s better not to have anything or be involved with things that could clutter your mind because they cause you more suffering than happiness. It’s better to be empty – to be empty is happier than to have something. This is wisdom.

This wisdom will teach the mind to let go of everything, and not to desire or crave for anything. Even though the mind still comes into contact with things and people, it has a different attitude towards them. The mind takes them for what they are. They come and go. They rise and cease. Whatever happens to them doesn’t cause any suffering to the mind because the mind has no attachment. It has no desire for them. They can come; they can go; they can leave; they can die because these are the things that you cannot control. It’s like nature. You cannot control nature. You cannot control the sun, the rain, the wind but you can live with them happily. This is teaching the mind to empty everything from the mind.

“Dhamma in English, Aug 14, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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