Fri, 12 Mar 2010
Form Is Emptiness
Next comes the most famous verse in the Hart Sutra:
Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. Form itself is emptiness; emptiness itself is form. So too are feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness.
Shariputra was the disciple of the Buddha who was foremost for his learning and intellect. And the rest of the sutra has Avalokiteshvara explaining to Shariputra what he had realized through his meditation. For while emptiness can only be realized through the practice of meditation, it can also be understood through the intellect. Which is the point of this explanation, otherwise there would be no reason to try it.
The verse won't make much sense without understanding what emptiness is. Emptiness is the lack of independent reality in a thing. For example, the border between Mexico and the United States is the Rio Grande River. But the border has no independent reality, it only exists in the minds of people. Even though the border performs a function (it separates the two countries) and has a basis of designation (the Rio Grande River), the border has no existence outside of the minds of people who conceive it. Similarly, even though the five skandhas perform a function and have a valid basis of designation, they have no existence outside the mind.
Why is that? The simplest explanation is that the five skandhas are composite. And all composite phenomena are unreal. The body is the form skandha. But the body can be divided into parts: bones, flesh, blood, hair, and so on. None of the parts individually is the body. Nor is the collection of parts the body. Body is only a designation used when the parts are assembled in the usual manner. So it is with any composite phenomenon. There is a name for the assembly of the parts, but it is only a name. It is not some ghostly reality that floats above them or in them. Since all the five skandhas are composite, all are empty. It may not seem that consciousness is an assembly, but it is a collection of different moments of experience.
So now for the reverse statement, emptiness is form. This indicates that emptiness is not some reality above or beyond the phenomena which are seen as empty. Emptiness is a mere designation indicating the lack of independent reality in phenomena. In other words, emptiness itself is empty and the statement "emptiness is form" indicates this.
