Impermanence and Emptiness: a Reversal in Perspective?

By Doug Smith | January 12, 2015

The Buddhist notion of emptiness (suññatā/śunyatā) is famously difficult to get one’s head around. In a presentation this past Saturday Sharon Salzberg described it as a combination of impermanence (anicca) and interconnectedness. This is a good first go at understanding emptiness, although the simple concept “interconnectedness” doesn’t really do justice to the recondite complexity of dependent origination…

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Listening to the Heart Sutra

By Doug Smith | May 10, 2013

The Shorter Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra (Heart Sutra) When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajñāpāramitā, he illuminated the Five Skandhas and saw that they were all empty, and crossed over all suffering and affliction. “Śāriputra, form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself…

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