Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [57]
But do not become confused: This certainly does not mean that the world and everything in it doesn’t exist; it simply means that there is nothing behind appearances. It’s all surface, mere temporary appearances. It is all cause and effect. All things, by definition, are impermanent—like dreams, echos, or mirages. We know, of course, that we dream, some nights peacefully, others chaotically; we also know that these dreams are not as real as we think they are while they are taking place. They, and everything else, are empty and relative—arising because of cause and effect, or interdependent origination. Everything arises as if from emptiness and is resolved back into the unborn nature of emptiness. We do not need to rid ourselves of these dreams, merely to understand and see through them, even as they vividly manifest in our perceptions.
Different schools of Buddhism define sunyata differently. The Idealist Mind-Only School, which profoundly influenced the development of Zen Buddhism, says that everything is empty because all things are projections created by the mind. The Tibetan Middle Way School (Madhyamika) says everything is empty because everything is relative, merely an expression of various conditions temporarily coming together—like the sound of the drum. There is nothing concrete or absolutely real behind the sound—or behind anything else. It is all like magic, yet how marvelous!
In traditional Mahayana Middle Way philosophy, emptiness is indicated by saying what something is not, or by some form of un-dogmatic negation. Therefore sunyata comes to mean void, or devoid of concrete ultimate reality.
In the non-dual Dzogchen-Mahamudra teachings, sunyata is viewed in positive terms as the supreme reality. This is not a nihilistic black void or vacuum, not an independently existing reality. It’s intangible, yet vividly dancing with sounds and colors—shimmering, fertile, and effulgent—a radiant, rainbowlike display, not unlike a cinema projection. That’s why we call it the fertile womb of emptiness from which all Buddhas emerge. Sunyata, the mother of all the Buddhas, is the mother of all of us too.
Buddhism is a very hearty spiritual tradition. The essential message is that each of us has the soul or spirit of a Buddha. It just doesn’t use those same words, because the word “soul” implies a fixed entity, which runs contrary to the laws of cause and effect, and the fact of impermanence. All beings have Buddha-nature. All creatures great and small.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF
DOUBT ON THE PATH
Small doubt, small enlightenment; big doubt, big enlightenment.
That’s what Korean Zen master Nine Mountains always told us. He understood that doubt and perplexity play a vital role in the spiritual path. The Buddha warned seekers to be prepared to meet five primary challenges or hindrances on the spiritual path. Doubt, which is one of these five, is a likely challenge that Westerners will encounter as they ponder the Buddhist view of reality and the world. Karma, rebirth, no-self, enlightenment, innate Buddha-nature—the Dharma’s perspective on all of these can seem quite questionable and foreign to someone with a Western worldview and upbringing.
The wonderful thing about doubt and healthy skepticism is that it’s not just an obstacle; it’s also the propellant that fuels the spiritual engine. I realize that this positive take on doubt may sound overly upbeat when you are going through the barren deserts or fearsome minefields of what Saint John of the Cross called “the dark night of the soul.” I have to admit that I myself don’t always feel at one with life, but more like “at two.” Yet don’t these fluctuating moods become increasingly transparent as we mature spiritually? Seeing through the antics of our monkeylike minds is liberating. We don’t want to reinforce any form of mood addiction or mental fixation.
When you experience your