The Inner Experience During Direct Realization

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

Answer: For a person without meditative concentration (samādhi), after understanding the principle that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are empty and without self, there is almost no shocking experience affecting body and mind; one merely feels emptiness—merely feels it, that is all. Because there is no meditative concentration, the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) one performs cannot touch the fundamental manas of the self, and thus there will be no stirring of body and mind, let alone a sense of shock. Only when the stirring comes from deep within, from the manas, will body, mind, and spirit have a truly deep and immense experience; from then on, one will feel as if one has become a different person.

At present, because the general public is severely lacking in merit and meditative concentration, their contemplative practice cannot touch the manas; the contemplative practice they perform remains merely at the level of the mind consciousness. The result of such contemplative practice is merely an understanding that the five aggregates are all empty and a feeling that oneself is empty—but in reality, one has not become empty. When situations arise, one cannot get past them; the principle is the principle, and the person is the person, with no intersection between the two. This is the common condition of Buddhist practitioners nowadays—though I dare not call it a common fault.

As for the experience after truly realizing emptiness, it is also not suitable for public discussion; one may ask those who have gone through it in private. If the genuine experience were spoken of publicly, some people, once they learned of it, would go around hinting that they themselves have had such experiences—in effect hinting that they have attained realization of the fruit—with the aim of gaining certain things, such as fame, praise, and material offerings. People's hearts are no longer as they were in ancient times; they are naturally not pure, and worldly-mindedness is so severe that it penetrates everywhere.