Sun, 14 Mar 2010
A Contradiction
The next verse of the Heart Sutra starts:
Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, feeling, cognition, formation, or consciousness
This statement contradicts the earlier statement, "emptiness does not differ from form." What we have here is an equivocation, a term used in two different senses. The earlier statement spoke about form as it actually is: empty. This statement speaks about form as we usually understand it: as independently established. Since all phenomena are empty, no independently established form can be found. So, "in emptiness there is no form." But because form arises in dependence, "form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form." This is the middle path, beyond the two extremes of exaggeration and dismissal.
