Advanced Buddhist Practices

Abiding in Emptiness

The various impediments (enemies) to abiding in emptiness are noted below.

1. We have strong attachment to objects of mind and our sense door pleasures.
2. We experience strong desire and cravings as our norms.
3. We over-attach to forms of affection.
4. We may become stuck in grief related to our experienced suffering.
5. We may get stuck in our self-centered desires, wants, needs, cravings, clinging – the I/Me/Mine syndrome of misery.
6. We may act with disinterest of the needs of others – greed!
7. In severe cases, we may have a total absence of caring about others.
8. We get stuck in samsaric conditioning for pleasure only over boredom and suffering.
9. We are captured by the effects of the five aggregates (form, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness) even if they are impermanent and unsatisfactory.
10. We may wonder why we feel so unfulfilled no matter what we have in life.

The various processes that support abiding in emptiness are noted below.

1. We live with loving kindness and compassion for others.
2. We do cherish life – all life.
3. We have deep appreciation for authentic joy, knowing it is impermanent in nature.
4. We practice strong gratitude for what we do have now, not what we want.
5. We have learned to remain in the present moment of experience, where our personal power resides.
6. Our depth of meditation has reached a point where we experience inner peace and inner stillness.
7. Our mind becomes still, no longer seeking, desiring, craving.
8. We embark on non-doing for the sake of more non-desiring.
9. We act with generosity in the interest of others.
10. We escape the grasp of clinging and grasping by eventually relinquishing desire and craving – the passions to satisfy the self.
11. Through the Four Nobel Truths, The Eight Fold Path, regular meditation practice, and walking the talk of the Path we become Enlightened.
12. We no longer seek sense-gate satisfaction, pleasure conditioning, fear of suffering – we have arrived!

For more information refer to Armstrong, G. (2017). Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, pp.159-171.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness  

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!