Burbea - Seeing that frees : meditations on emptiness and dependent arising

Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising

ROB BURBEA

Copyright 2014 Rob Burbea

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Hermes Amra Publications
Gaia House
West Ogwell
Devon
TQ12 6EW

ISBN: 978 0992848 927

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The publishers wish to thank all those anonymous donors whose
kind and generous financial assistance has supported
the publication of this book

Index

T he experience of emptiness is one of the most puzzling aspects of the Buddhas teaching. While we can intuitively understand and experience, at least to some extent, the truths of impermanence and unreliability, it may be difficult to relate to the term emptiness. In fact, in English, the word is not all that appealing. We may think of emptiness as a grey vacuity or as some state of deprivation. Yet, in the Buddhas teaching of liberation, of freedom from all suffering and distress, the realization of emptiness plays a central role.

Rob Burbea, in this remarkable book, Seeing That Frees, proves to be a wonderfully skilled guide in exploring the understanding of emptiness as the key insight in transforming our lives. This is not an easy journey. Beginning by laying the foundation of the basic teachings, he explains how these teachings can be put into practice as ways of looking that free and that gradually unfold deeper understandings, and so, in turn, more powerful ways of looking and even greater freedom. This unique conception of insight as being liberating ways of looking is fundamental to the whole approach, and it makes available profound skilful means to explore even further depths of Dharma wisdom.

Rob is like a scout who has gone ahead and explored the terrain, coming back to point out the implications of what we have been seeing, and then enticing us onwards. He shows how almost all of the Buddhas teachings can lead us towards understanding the fabrication, mutual interdependence, and, thus, the emptiness of all phenomena. And that it is this understanding of emptiness that frees the mind.

Following the thread of this understanding leads to great flexibility in how we view things, and it is this very flexibility that informs the entire approach to insight that is offered here. Many times throughout Seeing That Frees we discover how different and often opposing notions can be integrated into our practice. Instead of being caught up in a thicket of metaphysical views and opinions, the basic criterion here is, Does it help to free the mind?

Such discernment and understanding make possible a greater breadth in our approach to practice, which is illustrated in many ways throughout the book. For example, different traditions often hold quite different views regarding the place of analytical investigation and thought on the path: for some, they are an indispensable part of our journey; for others, they are seen merely as an obstacle. Rob very skilfully demonstrates the role that each of these perspectives can play as we deepen our practice.

Yet Seeing That Frees is much more than merely an attempt to form an approach that is broad and inclusive. Consistently, the limitations in and assumptions behind each view being considered are pointed out, and, each time, understandings that transcend that particular view are explored. Rob shows how so many of the insights that we might at first consider ultimately true are still only provisional, and yet he also shows how these very provisional perspectives can be used as vital stepping-stones towards a deeper and more complete understanding.

Another example of this progressive questioning and unfolding involves the various contrasting views of different traditions regarding the nature of awareness itself: Is awareness momentary? Is it a field? Is it the ground of Being? Rob has done a masterful job of highlighting how each particular view can help us see experience from a different perspective, and how each one furthers our ability to let go. But rather than simply resting in this appreciation of what each perspective offers, he goes on to demonstrate the conditional, fabricated nature of even the most sublime awareness, and then shows the emptiness of fabrication itself. In realizing emptiness, there is no place at all to take a stand; indeed, no place, and no one who stands.

It is rare to find a book that explores so deeply the philosophical underpinnings of awakening at the same time as offering the practical means to realize it. How does one talk about what is beyond mind, beyond concepts, beyond time? What does it mean to say that even emptiness is empty? Seeing That Frees does not shy away from these most difficult tasks of describing the un-describable. Although these descriptions could so easily become an exercise in abstraction, because this book is so rooted in experience, exploring with great subtlety and depth how we can put insights into emptiness into practice, it brings to life what Rob calls the awe-inspiring depth of mystery. This great book can inspire us to the highest goals of spiritual awakening.

Joseph Goldstein

Barre, Massachusetts

January, 2014

C uriosity and desire can be the most precious forces. For anyone curious about the Buddhist teachings on the nature of things and desiring to take their meditative practice and understanding deeper, my sincere hope is that this book will be a helpful resource. Its subjects emptiness and dependent origination are immensely rich and may be explored in a variety of ways. While purely scholastic approaches have their place and can have great value, it is primarily through practice that liberating insights are born and empowered. It is also mainly through practice that the fullness of the intimate connection between emptiness and dependent arising is understood. Guides to exploring the subtleties and nuances of practice and of insight as they deepen may therefore offer something useful.

This book is, first and foremost then, a kind of meditation manual one that pursues into great depth a fundamental philosophical inquiry. It is a book about practice, and about the profoundly freeing insights that anyone who practises can discover and unfold for themselves firsthand. Although presupposing some experience in meditation, and particularly in mindfulness and insight meditation, there is an attempt to explain things the teachings, most of the relevant terms, and the practices starting from first principles.