EMPTINESS AND NON-DUALITY

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

Emptiness is the arena in which everything occurs. It is the creative space in which form comes into being. Form can only exist because of emptiness; which is why emptiness is often referred to as ‘the great mother’ or ‘the womb of potentiality’.

Some words which value emptiness positively are: freedom, spontaneity, opportunity, relaxation, serendipity, inspiration, potential, humour, creativity, relief, wonderment, vastness. We must enjoy emptiness if we are to enjoy form. A gracious relationship with form is impossible unless we relate courageously with emptiness – because emptiness and form are non-dual. They are aspects of each other.

This spiritual practice consists simply of learning to dance with the emptiness and form of phenomena.. We develop the ability to actively savour apparently polarised tension, rather than experiencing it in a victim rôle. This apparently polarised tension, after all, is merely created through ongoing attempts to attach to form whilst rejecting emptiness.

We need to observe the way in which we attempt to solidify emptiness. In so doing, we crush our freedom through attempting to impose form on situations where reality is in creative flux. Alternatively—in the disconcerting gaps between contrasting segments of life—we might sense a dimension of being that is independent of circumstances. It is interesting—on finding this space—to allow events to remain undefined a little longer than usual. Settling into uncertainty and feeling its texture – life can disclose itself as emptiness and form: beads on the thread of energy which comprise the nature of experience. We can simply flow with the multiplicity of definitions manifested by reality. We can swim in swirling torrents of form and relax in still pools of emptiness.

This requires that we allow polarities to coexist. We can deliberately entertain experiential and existential paradoxes. We can embrace our impulsiveness and caution, credulity and scepticism, craziness and absolute sanity. Unless we are prepared to feel the texture of these erratically alternating possibilities – the energy of being remains incomprehensible. If we delightedly embrace the possibility of expanding into the fierce totality of each moment—as it arrives—we can know what it is to be alive.
http://arobuddhism.org/…/form-emptiness-and-non-duality.html