Form is the dance partner of emptiness – and emptiness cannot be understood apart from form. Emptiness is the dance partner of form – and form cannot dance without emptiness. Form could be said to be the apparently tangible aspect of experience and existence – but form is empty. One can only understand form in the confident absence of tangibility. That does not mean however that everything is nothing. When we speak of emptiness as nothingness or voidness, we are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation—but in terms of nothingness being inseparable from everythingness.
p49, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7
Today—when I teach—if someone doesn’t understand me, I try a few alternative ways of explaining. If these fail I know that the person must have some philosophical construct— that is acting almost like a computer virus—that I have to unearth. Most people are not even aware that these viruses exist in the fabric of their perception – so they do not know what they do not understand. It’s then up to the teacher to identify it. That is not always as difficult as it may sound – because it’s usually connected with one of the four philosophical extremes: monism, dualism, nihilism, or eternalism.
If a person wants to hang on to any one of the four philosophical extremes as being valid – then Buddhism will either never make sense, or become distorted.
This is what I learned from Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche – and a great deal more. Each story that follows elucidates some aspect of Buddhism. Rinpoche’s method was to teach me how to find my own answers – and find them to be Buddhism.
p76-77, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.
Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4
Form is the dance partner of emptiness – and emptiness cannot be understood apart from form. Emptiness is the dance partner of form – and form cannot dance without emptiness. Form could be said to be the apparently tangible aspect of experience and existence – but form is empty. One can only understand form in the confident absence of tangibility. That does not mean however that everything is nothing. When we speak of emptiness as nothingness or voidness, we are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation—but in terms of nothingness being inseparable from everythingness. 