How Can One Be Empty?

You have been engaged in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the four foundations of mindfulness, contemplating the body as a foundation of mindfulness, and observing the breath for several months now. What insights and realizations have you gained regarding the phenomenon of breathing? From partial breathing to the breathing of the whole body, from the subtle details of the breath to observing it as a whole—what discoveries have you made? Have you very clearly perceived the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—the impermanence—of the breath? Regarding the entire condition of the body, do you have a sense of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing? Have you had any experiential feeling of emptiness to some degree?

During the process of observation, do not bring in the mind consciousness's thinking and analysis; instead, perceive objectively and experience it firsthand. Forget all the theoretical knowledge you have learned, and rely purely on your personal perception. In contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), you should take a high vantage point, grasp the whole, and then condense the whole into a single point to contemplate. Do not merge with the feelings; do not focus only on the sensations of feeling. You must separate body and mind—let the mind leap out of the body, leap out of the feelings, leap out of the breath. It is best if the mind and body can be completely separated. Looking down, overlooking, surveying from above like a bird, you can then view the body as an object unrelated to yourself. In this way, you can objectively regard the body, regard the breath, and regard all phenomena that appear on the body. It then becomes easy to discover the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, and the mind can easily become empty.