Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form

If you have been coming to our weekly dharma talk meetings, this will sound familiar to you. We have been going over the heart sutra during the last few weeks and this is one of the core concepts: "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form". Though I don't like the title of this article (because I don't necessarily think it's a paradox), here's a brief summary of what "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form" could possibly mean from The Times of India.

"By way of explanation, we are asked to observe a cup or any other container. Is the cup empty when it does not contain any liquid or solid in it? We say yes, it’s empty. But is it really empty? No, it’s not. It is full of air. Even when the glass is in a state of vacuum, it is not empty. It still contains space, radiation and maybe light.

Therefore the Buddhist point of view differs from convention. The cup is always full of something or the other. To describe it philosophically, the cup is devoid of its inherent existence. It has come into existence because of many other conditions coming into play."

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