How to meditate on the emptiness of space

One of the things I’ve been thinking I’ll miss about Colorado is the endless space. It may be just “karmic wallpaper”, as a Buddhist nun friend helpfully put it; but the skies are huge, the windows are large, the sun keeps shining, and there’s a wide rooftop opening to the mountains. The mountains themselves, that I have really loved spending time in, soar into endless space. Even the city of Denver feels spacious, not crowded, and I can get anywhere effortlessly and blissfully in my nice spacious car. To me, this has all been seeming pretty different to the huge city where I’m going next. (Which will have its own beauty, including “beauty in the details” as my friend M said; but that’s not the point here.)*

Carrying on from this article: How to meditate on the emptiness of time. 

So I’ve also been meditating on the emptiness of this space that I’m attached to and have come to the fantastic conclusion that it is not outside of my mind and therefore I can take it with me. And for good measure I meditated on the emptiness of the space of London, and how the emptiness of the space of Colorado is not different to the emptiness of the space of London.

If none of this is outside my mind, does that mean I can have the best of both worlds?! Of all worlds?! One friend upon hearing my news said: “You will take the mountains with you.” Another, even more encouragingly, said: “You take the Pure Land wherever you go.” Which is entirely the point. I don’t want to live in the Colorado OR the London I normally see – I don’t want to live in samsara whereas I do want to live in Heruka’s Pure Land. But even the Pure Land I normally see doesn’t exist – it is likewise mere projection of mind not other than emptiness. It just happens to be a projection of blissful compassionate thoughts as opposed to crunchy self-limited ones. We can learn to choose our thoughts. We get to decide how we impute time and space.

To clear out the crunchy thoughts and make room for open-ended ones, we can meditate on the emptiness of space using the so-called “four essential points”. Here goes:

Meditating on the emptiness of space

1.  Identify the object of negation – the space we normally see

This can be a generic idea of space, like those examples in this earlier article: Wherever we go, there we are, or be some specific space that we are grasping at in our lives at the moment. For example, the space of Colorado, which has taken on this extra significance as I prepare to leave it.

2. Ascertaining the pervasion

If this space exists outside of my mind, I should be able to find it there, either inhering within its parts, eg, up, down, left, right, east, west, in, out, here, there; or separate from them. If I cannot find it, it is not there.

3. Ascertaining the absence of oneness

I can look for the space of Colorado in its directional parts, but it isn’t there. And it is also not the collection of these parts because these are all things that are not it.

4. Ascertaining the absence of difference

Colorado space is none of its parts, but take these away and there is no Colorado space. This is true of all space.

Conclusion/object of meditation

Space is unfindable and therefore lacks inherent existence. We can meditate on this space-like absence that is the emptiness of space for as long as possible – it is the truth and the direct antidote to our self-grasping ignorance.

We can never point at space existing objectively, in and of itself, or from its own side. Space is not outside of my mind. This means it goes with me if I want it to.

It turns out that there is way more space inside us than outside us.

Time and space are mental creations

If time and space do not exist from their own side, yet they appear, how is it that they can and do appear? It is mind that brings time and space into existence, that “appears” time and space, that labels, names, or projects time and space. This means that time and space exist dependent on naming, conceptual imputation, or projection. Because time and space are mentally created, there are as many versions of time and space as there are conceptions imputing them.

Normally we see time and space as completely unrelated to our minds, existing independently, perhaps like some sort of soup in which we float; but the truth is that time and space, as well as all other phenomena that appear to our minds, are the same nature as our minds. What they are and how we view or perceive them depends upon our minds, and without our minds they wouldn’t exist at all.

Time and space do not exist other than emptiness. It is the emptiness of time and space that appears as time and space.

It might be worth pointing out that mind imputes the emptiness of time and space as well. Sometimes we’re tempted to think of emptiness as existing from its own side, out of which things somehow manifest or appear; but emptiness is as dependent upon mind as everything else. We can and do need to meditate on the emptiness of emptiness. (Find out more by reading the extraordinary book on emptiness called Ocean of Nectar).

What does all this mean?!

What this means to me, practically, is that if I change my conceptions and perceptions of space and time, I change space and time for me. I can make them endless and timeless!

For example, there is more than enough time to do things in! That’ll take care of the endless treadmill syndrome, the endless running after the bus, or alternatively the endless twiddling of thumbs.

Or whenever I feel confined or stuck in some way, begging for an escape hatch, I can remind myself, “Space is infinite and depends entirely on my infinite mind. I can clear my mind and space will change.” And I can do this not just up a mountain but in a small room in a crowded city.

Of course, we have to get good at meditating on emptiness to do this; but any time spent practicing this is going to be repaid in spades.

I am remembering these days how Venerable Geshe-la would say that English weather is very good for meditation – why?! Because there is less distraction from it. As my friend put it, it is cozy; and a cozy place is as good a place to meditate as a mountain top. And when we go inwards, we realize we have all the time, light, and space we need already inside us. By putting our annual retreat season in January, Venerable Geshe-la kindly opened up the opportunity to transform the otherwise bleak mid-winter of the Northern Hemisphere into the happiest time of the year.

*I wrote this before I moved here and became a zealous London convert.

That wraps up my ponderings on time and space, so you can stop reading here! Or you can keep reading and get a bonus guest article because I’m now going to add a really helpful comment that someone left earlier.

Try, don’t worry

I have always loved thinking about these wisdom teachings and the feeling it creates in my mind that things are not as they appear, that my understanding can shift and my whole perspective with it. That freedom could be found in such a shift.

One thing I have been thinking about is how one can enjoy these mental gymnastics but then can go straight back to assenting to ordinary appearance – treating the contemplation like an enjoyable activity that once over we move on from and go straight back to ‘normal’…

So the challenge is – how do I let this exploration of how things exist actually inform my experience? If it’s really true that external things have no solid existence, and are not true sources of happiness how can this change the feeling of longing or sadness or disappointment I have in my heart? This is so much more challenging – no longer an enjoyable conceptual exercise, now I am in the messy, sticky arena of feelings.

But this is good – hard but good. It’s where the work is, and changes our practice from the intellectual, or even trite, into inner work.

I like doing thought/feeling experiments, starting with ‘If it’s really true that….’ – fill in with wisdom teachings such as ‘external things are not sources of happiness’, or ‘my feelings are the tail end of a long chain of cause and effect set in motion a long time ago’ etc etc and then think through the consequences of this, what that means for the action I need to take, and the impact on my feeling state.

For example – if the external thing is not actually the cause of the pleasant feeling I am longing for, then I need to try going inside for that feeling instead. I need to give that the time and focus to really try that, experiment with it.

Or, if my feelings are the end of a chain of cause and effect, to change my feeling I either need patient acceptance (which magically allows the feeling to soften and dissolve), or reliance on Vajrasattva and the 4 opponent powers – the most powerful method I have found for instantly changing my feeling state and allowing inspiration and creativity to return.

It needs a strong intention, the discipline to put aside the easy distractions my phone offers, the engagement and attention on the exercise. Mentally I am up against all the programming of my habits and beliefs.

But I know from experience now that this inner work is where it is at. These ‘experiments’ give glimpses of something more satisfying and reliable than any external person or object can offer. It’s know what I turn to when things go wrong, when life pulls the rug, or turns everything upside down. It’s still hard, requires my summoning effort and determination, but it’s accompanied by a deep sense of trust – of having done the experiment and having an experience of it working; a certainty in its truth. Having a stable core when things go wrong. Of being able to tap into blessings and love, and then share that steadying energy with others who are struggling.

Of course I don’t always manage this – but that stability is there whenever I remember to turn into it, it’s totally reliable – I just don’t always remember – the roller coaster of life can make me temporarily forget.

This is powerful stuff that seeps in slowly, tiny incremental shifts of experience. The change can’t be seen in the day to day, but you look back over months and years and I see my whole life has been transformed by this process. This is the power of Kadampa Buddhism, and I feel so fortunate to have this. I don’t want to imagine a life without it, and that is powerful motivation to keep going, doing the inner work. “Try, don’t worry.” as Venerable Geshe-la would say.

Over to your comments!