What Is the Meaning of Emptiness?

In the non-dual understanding, what is the meaning of ‘emptiness’, which is often used in Buddhism and other spiritual traditions to describe awareness or consciousness?

Rupert says: ‘There is no real language that can describe the nature of awareness. So, we borrow the empty quality of physical space and apply it to the quality of awareness. Prior to the arising of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions there’s nothing to be aware of. All that remains is just the fact of being aware.

‘But to call awareness empty is a concession to the object-knowing mind. If we were to ask awareness about its experience of itself it wouldn’t call itself empty. It would say it is full of itself alone. And I suggest that awareness’s experience of its own fullness is the common experience we call happiness.’

*This video is from one of Rupert’s in-person retreats at Garrison Institute, 22–29 March 2024. For more information on upcoming retreats (many of which can be attended online via livestream) go to:

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Timestamps:

0:00 What Is Emptiness?
3:08 Awareness Is Full of Itself
6:32 The Experience of Happiness
7:28 The Substance of Thought
8:56 Vedantic and Tantric Approaches
9:39 Thoughts Have No Power Over Us

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