How to Understand Emptiness?

In the process of studying and practicing the Buddha's teachings, through long-term and extensive observation, once the wisdom with which one perceives people, affairs, and phenomena has been elevated, one's thoughts and views will change; when views change, attitudes change; when attitudes change, behavior changes; when behavior changes, karma changes; when karma changes, retribution changes; and when retribution changes, wisdom is liberated. Liberation is fully and effectively recognizing the emptiness and illusory nature of all dharmas, no longer clinging to or grasping at any dharma; the world becomes empty and tranquil, and the mind is at peace. When one recognizes emptiness, one feels that nothing in the world really matters; one muddles through worldly dharmas, and whether there is benefit in worldly affairs or not is unimportant—what matters is that the mind is empty, that bodily, verbal, and mental actions have changed, that one no longer creates karmic actions of greed, hatred, and delusion and afflictions, and that one's retribution becomes wholesome. If one still cannot recognize emptiness, there is a self in the mind; with a self there are afflictions and karmic actions of affliction.

Emptiness can be understood progressively and deeply from three aspects. The deepest is to recognize it from the perspective of the tathāgatagarbha, but without realizing the tathāgatagarbha one cannot recognize emptiness in this way. Somewhat deeper is to recognize it from the perspective of the Four Noble Truths. The shallowest recognition of emptiness is from the perspective of worldly dharmas—this is an accumulation of experience and clever wisdom, the wisdom of worldly sages; of course it is far from ultimate, but it is still better than those without wisdom. The most thorough and ultimate recognition is to understand all dharmas from the perspective of the functions and operations of the seeds of the seven great elements within the tathāgatagarbha; in this way one can be empty to the very end—even emptiness is empty, and the emptiness of emptiness is also empty, cutting off all mind and all objects, with all dharmas and objects being superfluous. At such a point, there is nothing more to be said; whatever is spoken is not it—there is no understanding beyond words, let alone transmission through words.