a snakealope

Stay at Home Order … day 19 plus 14 seclusion retreat days

five types of emptiness:

• The emptiness of what did not exist before, pre-existence.
  • the lack of yogurt in milk
• The emptiness of what does not exist upon being destroyed, post-existence
  • the lack of milk in yogurt
• The emptiness of the utterly non-existent, non-existence
  • the lack of horns on a rabbit’s head*
• The emptiness of one not existing in the other, exclusion
  • the emptiness of an ox in a horse
• The emptiness of entityness,** separate self existence
  • non-inherent existence of all phenomena

*The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore (a fearsome critter) described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The word jackalope is a portmanteau of jackrabbit and antelope. … The Wyoming Legislature has considered bills to make the jackalope the state’s official mythological creature. For additional information regarding Wyoming’s jackalope, visit Jackalopes of Wyoming – Myth or Reality?

**Entityness is meant to suggest something that is capable of independent existence.

The emptiness of entityness is like the nonexistence of a human in a cairn that is mistaken from a distance to be a human.

To reflect upon the human body, sensations, sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, thinking, and consciousness one finds each of these are dependent upon contact; for example, ears, bird’s song, and hearing consciousness.

Recommended readings:

D S Lopez, Jr. The Heart Sutra Explained

Red Pine, The Heart Sutra

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Other Shore