More than 2,000 years ago, in a tranquil place on the Nepalese border, Buddha (Shakyamuni) sat under a Bodhi tree and spent seven days and seven nights of meditation. During this time, he experienced all kinds of twists and turns in his heart, and after deep reflection and meditation, he finally realized the truth on the seventh day. The core idea of this enlightenment is summarized as "dependent arising emptiness", and these four concise words actually have profound connotations.
The Buddha's meditation under the Bodhi tree did not come out of nowhere, but stemmed from his profound observation of birth, old age, sickness and death. Siddhartha Gautama, the prince at that time, who originally lived in luxury and comfort, later went out once, so that he was full of compassion for human suffering. This concern prompted him to leave the palace and begin his quest for truth and liberation.
During his long practice, Siddhartha went through all kinds of austerities and became very thin, but he did not find the truth of liberation from all suffering. Eventually, he renounced his extreme austerity and accepted a milk porridge from a shepherdess. This milk porridge restored his body, but his heart was still unwilling to give up looking for a way to be liberated. Then he shaved his beard and hair by the Niren River, bathed in the river, and then went to the foot of the Bodhi tree and made a vow: If he is not fully enlightened, he would rather be crushed than get up from this seat! The Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha finally realized something, and it is said that the four words "dependent arising emptiness".
The wisdom of dependent origination
This concept shows that everything arises from the interaction of countless causes and conditions. In the Buddha's teachings, there is no such thing as an independent, eternal entity in the world. All phenomena are interdependent and interrelated. This explains the nature of impermanence, as everything is constantly changing.
The realization of emptiness
"Voidness" is another important aspect of the Buddha's enlightenment, which in the Buddha's teachings is that there is no inherent, independent entity. All phenomena are the result of the aggregation of causes and conditions, and there is no eternal and unchanging essence. To put it simply, everything in the world, or the emergence of all phenomena, is relative and interdependent.
For example, seeds and sprouts, because there were seeds in the past, so there can be sprouts now, and it is precisely because there are sprouts in the present that the seeds of the past can be called seeds, which is the reason for the relationship between different times. On the other hand, when the seed dies, it is also the time when the sprout is born, and when the sprout is born, it is also the time when the seed dies. This proves that the phenomenon of the birth and death of buds and seeds is a relationship that exists at the same time.
Some people believe that Buddhism's "dependent arising emptiness" and Taoism's "non-action" are the same, and the connotations of "emptiness" and "nothingness" are the same, but in fact there are differences. The so-called "dependent voidness" refers to the fact that all the opportunities, gains and losses, and even all the movements and changes of things, are caused by the combination of causes and conditions, and are an illusion that has no self-nature and cannot be self-dominating. The Taoist "non-action" refers to the fact that the change and movement of objective things in the world always follow certain objective laws, and the objective laws are not deliberate in the change and movement of objective things.
In the same way, human behavior should not deliberately interfere with the process of things, which is also the explanation of the idea of "non-action" from an applied perspective. It can be seen that, in essence, the "emptiness" of Buddhism refers to the fact that objective things have no self-nature, but are only the result of the aggregation of causes and conditions. The Taoist "nothingness" does not deny the objective existence of objective things, but refers to the objective laws that affect the operation and change of objective things, which are not visible and touchable like objective things.
Write to the end. The so-called "dependent arising" actually means that there is no unique thing in the world, and there is no permanent thing, and everything arises from the combination of causes and conditions. The so-called "emptiness" means that the false existence that arises from the harmony of causes and conditions is void in nature; If self-nature is not empty, then there cannot be, and this is the meaning of "vacuum creates wonderful existence". If you have any other opinions, please leave a message and discuss in the comment area. Buddhist culture