Understanding Zen Buddhist “Emptiness”

We all have our interpretations of reality… but are they accurate?
Are we really “seeing” the world as it is? What are our thoughts and feeling telling us? How do we interpret the meaning of
this information from our cognition?

Emptiness in the Zen tradition means to “empty our minds” of all preconceived ideas. But this is just an “idea” of what “emptiness” means!
The paradox is you cannot understand emptiness with your thinking mind
or with your feelings.

Emptiness

a small stone
hits a bamboo stalk
you see plum blossoms
beyond our preconceived ideas
another world
but no different than this one

the scales in our mind
always weighting things
we think or feel something
and we believe we understand reality

be empty of your preconceived ideas
stop replacing one thought
or feeling with
a better one

let all these thoughts and feeling be.
forget about the scale in your mind
things will work out

without any idea of religion
you have religion

I go to the mailbox
to get a letter

the Gingko tree
leaves waving in the wind

i have received a letter
from the world
of emptiness

What is it like to experience the world without
our preconceived thoughts and feelings? How
would we do that? To understand “emptiness”
through your experience is what Zen Buddhism
developed. After understanding something of the
idea about emptiness… you practice zazen.

Zazen is a form of meditation that is not really meditation.
It has no goal. It is just sitting quietly, in an upright posture
and noticing your breath and thoughts and feelings. In a way
I think it is a kind of training for understanding emptiness.

What is it like to experience “emptiness?” Do you need
to practice zazen to experience it? Is it an experience
that can be talked about? How is your life changed by
an experience of emptiness? If you are not viewing the
world through your preconceived thoughts and feeling
are you “seeing” reality as it real is?

Such a beautiful Gingko tree!