Q. If everything that can be described in words is an illusion, including emptiness, my trying to see things as empty is to add another illusion to the rest of them. Then, am I an illusion trying to understand illusions by making more illusions?

Q. If everything that can be described in words is an illusion, including emptiness, my trying to see things as empty is to add another illusion to the rest of them. Then, am I an illusion trying to understand illusions by making more illusions?

A. Yes, you are also an illusion unless you realise that you are emptiness itself. Everything is emptiness when you are enlightened, just as everything is an illusion when you are not enlightened. Whatever good things you may say or do, they are all just illusions until you get enlightened. When you are not enlightened, even emptiness is an illusion as well.

When you are enlightened, there is only emptiness and nothing else since it is non-Duality. In emptiness there is no one who tries to see things as empty and nothing to see as empty. This is why emptiness is also referred to as non-I. As long as there are things that you try to see as empty, and you yourself who tries to see them as empty, you and all things that you see and hear are illusions.

Student: “What is Emptiness?”
Master: “All illusions.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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