IMPERMANENCE:  THE EMPTINESS OF TIME AND THE TIMELESS

EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay by Susan Kahn is about how to realize the self

as empty by realizing that time is empty. Susan challenges the notion that

there is a transcendent realm of timelessness, and she argues that such a

notion contributes to a sense that we exist as a separate, independent entity.

So often, we think of ourselves or the past as somehow frozen beyond time.

This kind of conception helps keep the sense of the inherent existence of the

self alive. It closes us off from the wonderful dynamism and creativity in life.

But if we see how time is empty (and Susan shows this in several unexpected

ways) we can more easily realize that the self is empty. See more of Susan’s

writings on her Emptiness Teachings website.

-Greg Goode

 

Check out great new emptiness teaching website!!  

www.emptiness.co

“Like Echoes” Video: Roberto Alborghetti Art Together With Susan Kahn Poem

Click on link to Roberto’s site to read about our collaboration and watch the video!

Empty Moon

“Empty things are born from empty things.”  Nagarjuna

All things are empty,
Empty of inherent being.
The fields of earth and sky
Are like echoes, or moonlight
Reflecting the sun.

Every thing is related to another,
Interconnection without essence.
As light is to the streetlamp,
Things connect without touching,
Relationships empty of self.

Neither this nor that.
Not one thing can truly be known,
For nothing is itself.
Reflections are not separate things,
Distant shores, words away.

Not even the sun is its own source.
Empty things born of empty things.
Existence, non-existence,
The seer and the seen,
There can be no true mark.

Nothing stands alone.
Winds blow, the sky clears
Before an empty moon;
Thoughts, feelings, lapping like waves,
All without a nature of their own.

Greg Goode on Emptiness Teachings:  

An interview with Scott Kiloby, Parts 1 and 2

http://kiloby.com/uploads/GregGoodeEmptinessJuly2011(Part_1)0.mp3

http://kiloby.com/uploads/GregGoodeEmptinessJuly2011(Part_2)0.mp3

Reconsidering Psychotherapy:  A Nondual Opening To Diversity

By Susan Kahn 

http://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/reconsidering-psychotherapy-a-nondual-opening-to-diversity/

Mind and Matter

Awareness does not live alone.  It dwells in vast fields of synthesis.
It arises through countless connections, measureless associations.

Perception, memory, the senses, physical objects, awareness, are all
interconnected, yet without true boundaries.

Awareness is dependent upon perceived objects that are not aware,
however subtle, both allowing for such arising.  Neither awareness nor matter, can be self-established.  The entire interrelation between the mind, body and the environment are an example of this, as none of them can be independently established.

Nothing can be found outside of a dependent existence, outside of
nonduality.  All is empty of “own self.”  For as everything is
interpenetrating and reflective, without independent being or power,
nothing stands alone.

It is so common to see matter as an irreducible substance, or likewise,
to see awareness as fundamental, as separate and immutable by nature.
But if this were so, we would have a fixed duality.  Where is such a
dividing line between mind and matter to be found?  They are interrelated.  

There are opposing positions arguing that matter, or on the other hand, that awareness is ultimate reality.  Is awareness real and matter unreal, or the other way around?

If the real is said to cause the unreal, then the real too, must be unreal,
as something cannot cause what it is fundamentally unrelated to.
And if the unreal creates the real, then we’d have an unbelievable
magic show.

So, awareness and matter are interrelated, not as separate entities
that effect each other, but as associations, each empty of autonomy.
Neither arises from out of nowhere or is produced independently.

Awareness and matter cannot be established as having their own
nature or essence.  Everything is empty of being either fundamentally
material or immaterial as neither exists independently and are merely abstractions that characterize phenomena.

“The fact that man produces a concept “I” besides the totality of his mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence behind such a concept. We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything.”    Einstein

Pretty good, huh? 

Introduction to Emptiness Teachings

 An audio interview of Susan Kahn

 

 

If the underlined link doesn’t work for you, you’ll need QuickTime, or just go to my website at :

 

http://www.emptinessteachings.com and look under “Media”!

No Separate Self

Sensation is mistaken for a separate self, but sensation must be a sensation

OF something that is not sensation. Likewise, you are not a separate self.

Everything that could possibly be seen to compose a self, also belongs to

other things. One thinks ABOUT something that is not solely a thought,

feels something about what is not itself a feeling. Furthermore, the mind

and body are made of sun, rain clouds and earth, innumerable things. All

is a web of interconnection that cannot be “mine.”