"The Void", Emptiness, Sunyata

I was recently asked by a reader if I had any information on "The Void". The man who asked the question had encountered "The Void" in a meditation practice he had been doing. He found the experience very peaceful, but wanted more information. He quoted some sayings of the Buddha in his question.
Below is my response to him. (Any mistakes are purely my own and do not reflect the teachings of my teacher.):

Here are some other names for The Void:
India/Hinduism: Shunyata, Sunyata

Tibetan Buddhism:
Clear Light
Dharmakaya
Emptiness (state of being empty)
Suchness
Skylike Vastness (where our perceptions are clouds)
Basic Space
Luminous Emptiness
Tibetan metaphor: Sky, Mirror-like
In Vajrayana, we steer away from the term "void" because Westerners often mistake it for nihilism

Zen Khensho: seeing one's true nature

Kabbalah: at the top of the tree of life is the sphere Kether ("crown"), and above the crown is AIN, nothingness

Sufi: The Unknowing that is Knowing, Invisible Black Light, state of Spiritual Poverty (were "poverty" emptiness)


This is an authentic spiritual experience.  My understanding of the Buddha's teachings on emptiness is this: All that we experience is an illusion, in the sense that it is like a dream. We are all wisdom beings who reside in Pristine Awareness  but we have forgotten this fact. That is why humanity is said to be asleep. They have forgotten the Vast Pure Wisdom that they really are. Glimpsing the void is remembering who you really are. The point of true meditation and an authentic spiritual path is to create habits that will support remembering our true nature.

The tricky part is this: the ego is afraid of the Void, because it senses it may be annihilated. The work of the path is to trick the ego into experiencing Insight in a spontaneous way. In Western Occultism, there are many sad tales of premature exposure to The Void. This why an authentic teacher is so important.


My personal experiences include a near death experience: I was not able to be in my body. I found myself trying to talk to my daughter (who couldn't see me), then I was in the future witnessing future events. Finally I was in that beautiful space that you described in your question to me. All this took place in 45 minutes. 

So, you see, your glimpse into the The Void as brought you to the very core of why we have Spiritual Traditions.

Like you have pointed out, this is a hard topic to describe. Forgive me if i have not clarified very well!

Debra

Synchronicity Note: withing minutes of posting this I picked up a book at random from by bookshelf: MOEBIUSTRIP, by Giti Thadini. The book opened on the last page and these words jumped out at me:

"It is the face of zero, of sunya.
It has a unique enigma.
It is indivisible."

The writer ends her story at a goddess shrine in Kunzam Pass (India). Upon opening it she discovers a mirror: emptiness.

Poem Synchronicity

My first post on the Pandora's Feast blog was an unplanned poem that flowed out of my pen the day I posted it:

It was a time of tricksters and thieves,
a liminal point between aeons.
Chaos reigned.
(Her name was Eris.)
Pandora freely bestowed gifts upon humanity
in the form of epidemics, plagues & mysterious illnesses.
Pan had been displaced, or maybe he had a sex change.
Who Knows??


Last night, four days after the poem was written, was our condominium HOA (Home Owner's Association) meeting. My husband is on the board, and I fill in where needed. I almost didn't make it due to illness. 2 board members could not attend due to illness. One homeowner was in attendance needing approval for a project.... because of illness.

A new homeowner who had just purchased a unit came to just to say "Hi". The name???
ERIS!!!

In the poem the goddess of chaos is called "ERIS", AND Pandora is spreading "epidemics, plagues, and mysterious illnesses".
Hopefully no thieves were there!

Now I need to write something about abundance, lottery winnings and random acts of awesome-ness.

Is that way this sychronicity and creativity thing works?? :-)

Once in a Blue Moon

We use the saying "once in a blue moon" to refer to something rare, or unusual. Last night's blue moon was such an event. The second full moon for the month of December 2009, and it was on New Year's Eve.

I had a dream last night- the details escape me- but I woke up knowing that an obstacle had been removed. I woke up to a bright sunny CA day. As I pulled my curtains back, I found an unusual sight. There was a small newly opened iris growing in the clay pot outside my window. Now, these plants were given to me 2 years ago by my neighbor. They just wouldn't bloom. In the 3 years I have been here, they have never bloomed. Yet, still, I watered them. It was very sweet seeing this bloom on New Year's morning.

Return of the Feminine and the World Soul: reading and internet synchronicity

Though I am a practitioner of the Tibetan Nyingma tradition, I still draw inspiration from a variety of mystical traditions. The time I spent in the company of Purna Das Baul - a Sufi- opened my eyes to the divine Feminine in a most amazing way. In Purna Das Bauls teaching's, a man develops a relationship with the Divine Mother ("Ma", or "Shakti") through developing the divine within: the Man of the Heart. Women are "Ma" embodied, by their very nature. This is the divine play of the longing for the Divine Other, the Beloved.

On Christmas Eve, I found myself reading The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul, by Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, an American Sufi.
On page 52 was the following passage: "The feminine mysteries of love --the sanctity of longing, the receptivity of the heart that is always awake, waiting for her Beloved, for that moment when love comes secretly and sweetly-- need to be reclaimed and honored. Only through receptivity can we give birth to the divine as a living presence within ourselves and within out lives." I then put the book down for a short break.
I decided to play a game of Scrabble Blast on line. The letters are random, computer generated sequences. I was surprised as I recognized the first word I would highlight on the game board: beloveds.
After completing the game, I picked the book back up to resume reading on page 56. A sentence on the page popped out at me: "For example, the Internet is a powerful, living image of life's interconnected oneness." Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee is talking about how the Internet is reconfiguring our collective unconscious, allowing our unconscious to communicate with us in new and non-traditional ways.
This sequence of events certainly has me thinking about the internet in a whole new way.
UPDATE (12/28/2009)This morning I discovered an relevant post on a Jungian analyst Heide M. Kolb's blog. On 12/26/2009, She had written an entry entitled On Avatar and the Return of the Feminine- a Jungian Perspective. She talks about the archetypal imagery in the movie Avatar, highlighting the World Soul/Anima Mundi. She also points out the parallels between the Na'vi people in Avatar and their similarity with the image of Krishna. (Krishna is also involved in the play of the beloveds through the lila of Krishna and Radha.)

Holiday Sychronicity

On my birthday (December 7), my husband and I were at a department store picking up a few things. My daughter called on my cell phone to tell me that she would be at our home in 2 hours. We had no specific plans for the day, she just wanted to see me. As we were getting ready to pay for our purchases, Larry & I saw some beautiful bird Christmas ornaments on extreme mark-down. We made an "impulse purchase", and brought the bird ornaments home. On the drive home we talked about not having a tree for the past 6 years, and how we would like a small living tree to put the birds on. Shortly after arriving home, my daughter walks up to our doorway with a small beautiful potted pine tree! She said, "Mom, I saw this tree and I just had to bring it to you! I don't know why." I showed her the bird ornaments. We all laughed about the mother-child telepathy bond always being there (she's 24) as we decorated the tree.

A Heartwarming Coincidence

In 1993, our second daughter, Laryssa, was born with a rare, spontaneous genetic mutation. (The probable cause of her condition was my own illness.) She was given 12 days to live, but she had other plans. She lived 1 year and 10 months. During our time with her, many wonderful people from the local hospice came to our home to help with her care. She died on 09/09/1995. And life went on...
Two years ago, my husband & I were trying to locate a doctor (under new health plan), who could treat my disorder. After a few false starts, I consulted with a neighbor (who is now my good friend) who worked in the administration of the largest hospital system in San Diego. She came to my home and made a phone call,asking one of the top people at the hospital "If you were very ill with a chronic immune dysfunction, who would you want to be your doctor?". A name was given to us. The Doctor's office was less that a mile from our home, and she was taking new patients. I set up an appointment. My husband accompanied me to the appointment, and sat with me in the office. When the doctor came in, she sat down reading my history. Then she stared to cry. She looked at us and said "I know you both. I worked with Laryssa as a volunteer." Suddenly I remembered her too, a young sweet woman who had lost her mother to cancer. We all cried and hugged. Then she said that she has a daughter now. I asked when she was born, and the doctor replied 09/09/1995. The very day Laryssa died! We were all amazed at the coincidences.
What a beautiful gift from the past!