Silhouetted human figure sitting in a field, looking up into a deep blue sky at dusk

Rest In the Isness of All Things

Since everything is dependently arising, nothing has any true independent existence. Put another way, nothing that appears to exist actually exists autonomously, as a single entity. Why? Because everything is arising in dependence on something else.

From a deeper perspective, the nature of interdependence is the basic space that is the ground of all that arises. It is the space that transcends all thoughts. What it is, is: the isness of all things. It is the space of all possibilities and it is the space of awareness.

When your awareness embraces this space, then you can transform anything. Everything becomes possible. Nothing is impossible.  

So, whatever is interdependent, or dependently arising, is “emptiness.” That does not mean it is nothingness, but it is emptiness. It is the is-ness, or the suchness, of that thing. The reality of it.

It is important for us to know that, to experience this, we don’t need to focus on emptiness for hours and hours at a time. We don’t need to have a long, long, long experience of emptiness. That’s not how it works. How it really works is simply directing your mind toward that reality and resting for a moment, or from moment to moment. That is enough to give you the experience of shunyata, which is the Buddhist term for “emptiness, openness, or the suchness of all things.” 

That experience of shunyata is liberating. Because, as you can see clearly, we have a habitual misunderstanding of how things exist. We think that things exist independently. And that misconception is called unawareness, or ignorance. It is the cause, or the root, of all our confusions and sufferings, the beginning of every crisis. But if you can cut through that unawareness and connect to the fundamental principle of interdependence and emptiness, then you cut the root. You cut the cause of all confusions, all crises, right there.

Remember:

1. Whatever is interdependent, is emptiness

2. The nature of interdependence is the space of all possibilities

3. When we understand interdependence, everything is possible

4. The Buddhist term shunyata is translated as emptiness, openness


To learn more, check out the meditations, short videos, and courses on
freshmind.info.