Emptiness is not nothingness

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Emptiness does not mean physical or mental nothingness - it is the law of total openness and infinite possibilities. Emptiness is like the vast clear sky that allows clouds, birds, planes, etc to come in and go by, allowing infinite phenomena to occur within it.

Emptiness is this infinitely more than everything that the unenlightened can perceive. It is because of emptiness that everything including ourselves can continually change for the better. Anything can transform into something else when the right combination of causes and conditions is present.

Similarly, anyone can become enlightened if one cultivates spiritually. Emptiness is thus teaching full of hope.

Emptiness of Mind and Matter

Emptiness applies to all physical entities. Much more subtly, it applies to all mental entities (mindstates).

All physical entities upon closer inspection are unceasing fluctuations of molecules, of atoms, of electrons, neutrons and protons, of particles, of sub-atomic particles of ... energy. All is only infinite manifestation of energy.

All mental entities upon closer inspection are only processes that change subtly all of the time. For example, we know we have thoughts, but how subtly each thought flows to another and another is most unnoticeable to the untrained mind.

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