Feelings, consciousness, matter, thought, in short, Being, and Reality, are all empty. They are all impermanent and do not exist independently. They all depend on something else, they have a cause, and therefore the thing itself is always in constant change. Being in constant change, doesn’t make it not real, or not existing, but makes it empty of a permanent nature. Our current linguistics make this hard to recognize, as we classify things and perceive them as being stable and permanent, they “are” the name we give them, while this is appropriate conventionally, in an ultimate sense it is actually the antithesis to the truth.

                   This “emptiness” is devoid of any label you can put on it, since a word doesn’t accurately describe as it is in the moment, it’s an illusion we use to refer to it. All material things you put a name to, such as a chair, don’t describe it as it is in itself, just as a mental connotation, a conceptualization that forms as a way to represent the item and distinguish identities for practical purposes. When viewed down to a microscopic level, the chair itself is more empty than having an actual solid molecular existence. This is true, but just an example, that the reality we are viewing using words isn’t one that accurately describes it conclusively, only to a degree of the preciseness and articulation of our speech. Based on any phenomenons subjection to continual change, the object, as a permanent entity, doesn’t “Ultimately exist” in a concrete manner, in reference we are more accurately depicting its true nature through the connotation of emptiness, or not as we think it is. What we think something is, is necessarily contained in a perceived image, or conceptualized thought formation, and is based on the filtration of our neural and conceptual system in its formulation, it is merely a representation, in a way that is practical to our usage, of defining or envisioning the phenomenon. Its existence within this moment is dependent on the infinite number of factors that are at play within the universe at any given time, the “object” is conditioned in this way, always, every “object” is only in its current state due to other conditions being present. It is not something itself, it is codependent. This goes for all phenomena, not only is anything material that exists empty of an inherent nature, impermanent, subject to change, dependent on conditions, but the mental phenomena we experience in consciousness contains the same characteristics. This is the nature of sunyata, or emptiness. Emptiness sums up all these factors in reference to any phenomena we can point out, in a manner depicting the “ultimate truth” rather than “conventional truth”.

                   Understanding emptiness empowers us to not be attached, or cling, or hold as important, things in the material realm, or people, or anything that is taken in through the senses, due to it all being impermanent, subject to change, and having a cause and cessation. Such as, if I’m feeling angry now, and I think “I am angry” both the “I” and the “angry” are constantly changing, empty of anything concrete, thus convincing yourself of such a conception as being concrete, you will hold on to the negative emotion and draw it out for a longer length of time than you would if you were to see it as it is, merely a mental formation that is subject to change, empty of any permanent nature. As soon as you attach a concrete identity to a phenomenon, and fail to see it as impermanent and empty, you become entangled in the illusion that it is something with a concrete nature. The correct way to view this would be acknowledging that the emotion is taking place, and be the viewer of the emotion on your body, recognizing it as something impermanent that will change, and something that has a cause, and an end or cessation.

                   In this context the ego is a mental formulation of a way to describe who we are, such as a story of our past or the person we think we are. The true “self”, or the space in which our consciousness is revealed to us (contains all our experience) is not explainable, it is the one who can view the ego. Understanding emptiness allows us to pull away from our ego, to not need to project power over others or to “show off”. The ego is that which seeks to define who we are using a narrative that we ourselves view as appealing, or descriptive, in a manner that limits the scope of its true nature, and is driven by the desire to be respected or admired by others. The “true self”, or the conceptualization of the Being that encapsulated the totality of our experience, is not explainable, “we” as in, not a permanent being, but in a conventional sense, are just the viewer of the content of consciousness as it arises in the world. None of these things composing of our false self are permanent, they all change, and one day will die, or cease to be. Therefore, the false self and the true self are two different things. This false self has never truly existed, and never will, that is, in actuality, its existence is that of an illusion we create, it is in our belief that this false self matches up to reality that we err. The “true self” in this context, is merely the recognition that what we are is devoid of a permanent, unchanging nature, it is merely the recognition of emptiness as being the defining characteristic of the core of any state of Being which encapsulates “our” experience. It can never just be, it is impermanent and changing. The true conceptualization of ourselves, in this manner, needs to negate this ego, this false self, as being empty, as being without any true essence, and not worth holding onto, similar to an emotion. It is something we can watch, and it is something that our we can choose not to act upon, like anger. Removing the false self whenever it emerges, or attempts to manifest itself in instantiating thought, speech, or action, is part of the process of realization the fundamental characteristics of who we truly are. The removal, albeit, never permanent removal but merely temporary, or something which is subsumed by Correct View in its removal, necessitates the emergence of not only a higher state of understanding ourselves, but opens a doorway to a better experience of wellbeing.

               The state of being characterized by insight into the empty nature of all phenomena, is coupled with the realization of non-self, and, once it is in reference to this “mode of Being” that many mystics attempted as defining as encompassing paradise, or heaven, or Nirvana, as an internal state of mind, that we all have, lying beneath the illusion of the ego. According to this view, we all are “enlightened”, or we all have the potentiality for peace within, that can be instantiated through Correct View in regards to the fundamental attributes of existence. This peace lies beneath the delusional view that our biological system has good reason for creating, for practical purposes, as a natural means to understand the world. Seeing not only the conventional sense of reality, but the ultimate nature in its fundamental characteristics, as relayed by concepts such as sunyata, or emptiness, allows you to see two sides to the same coin in reference to the reality which we face every day. The practical application of language towards our everyday life, is useful for navigating in the world, and the ultimate truth available through direct insight, is useful to our internal understanding of the actual nature of reality which produces this conventional reality.