Inner Experiential Awareness in Dharma Actualization

Question: After truly realizing that one's entire being is empty, what is the inner experiential feeling like?

Answer: For those without meditative concentration (dhyāna), after understanding the principle that the five aggregates are empty and devoid of self, there is almost no profound, transformative bodily or mental experiential feeling. They merely perceive emptiness—just a perception, and nothing more. Without meditative concentration, their contemplative practice fails to touch the fundamental manas (the seventh consciousness, or root mind), and thus there is no stirring within the body or mind, let alone any sense of profound transformation. Only when the stirring arises from the depths of the manas will there be a genuine, deep, and significant experiential feeling in body, mind, and spirit. Only then does one truly feel as if transformed into a different person.

Currently, due to the severe deficiency in the merit (puṇya) and meditative concentration among the general public, contemplative practice fails to stir the manas. Consequently, such practice remains confined to the surface level of consciousness (manovijñāna). The outcome is merely an intellectual understanding that the five aggregates are empty and a feeling that the self is empty—yet in reality, it is not truly empty. When faced with situations, one cannot transcend them: the doctrine remains doctrine, and the person remains the person—the two never intersect. This is the common state among current Buddhist practitioners; I hesitate to call it a universal flaw.

The experiential feeling after truly realizing emptiness is also not suitable for public discussion. One may inquire privately with those who have attained it. If the true feeling is publicly disclosed, some who learn of it may subtly hint everywhere that they possess such an experience—essentially implying they have attained the fruit (of enlightenment)—with the aim of gaining certain benefits, such as fame and material gains. Human hearts are no longer pure as in ancient times; they are naturally complicated, excessively worldly, and pervasive in their worldly desires.