First, congratulations on an honest and beautiful piece of writing.
The Buddhist view of non-duality does not express a nihilistic state of nothingness. But, confusion can arise by translating the words emptiness or Nirvana, which may imply an endless void.
The Buddha taught that emptiness and appearances are inseparable. This teaching is the essence of Buddhism. While all things do not exist, they continuously appear anyway.
To put this clearly, you cannot annihilate life because it is already annihilated and to realise this is the final state of enlightenment.
Buddhism teaches different views for different mind ‘shapes’.
First, Nirvana is introduced — the Theravada path.
Next, there is the Bodhisattva training. A Bodhisattva renounces personal Nirvana to serve others — The Mahayana path. The Bodhisattva progresses through the ten ‘levels’ and ultimately reaches the state of a Buddha, which is the union of relative and absolute truth.
The direct path of the Vajrayana teaches that everyday waking life is already Nirvana. We continuously abide in the emptiness, and since that emptiness is all-pervading, the ego is a part of that.
If you go deep into Buddhism, it teaches that our very own awareness is Nirvana. There is no destruction of the ego, only the realisation of its illusory nature. Same with all phenomena.
One needn’t feel concerned about boredom or oblivion in Nirvana because such things are dualistic concepts. Nirvana is a state so pure and blissful that staying ‘in’ it for eternity would not be a problem. But in Buddhism, this is seen as a trap.
Enlightenment is the union of two sides of a coin - the absolute and the relative.
In Samsara, our current state, we abide only in the relative, and hence we take everything as real, like someone watching a movie who has fallen into the story and believes it to be true.
Abiding in Nirvana or emptiness is the absolute side of a coin. To embody that alone is like pausing a movie and just sitting there.
To complete the enlightenment of the Buddha, we need to embrace both sides of the coin, which the Buddha himself taught.
When you watch a movie, you can experience horror, grief, sadness, and you can enjoy these emotions because there is no central character. The whole thing is just a story - an illusion.
In the same way, in embodying the absolute and relative, we can play out our lives and enjoy everything, including pain, grief etc. Because there is no longer a real central character. All phenomena, including yourself, are the play of the mind.
The Buddha taught that we are already abiding in heaven. We always have been, and we always will be because there is nothing else.
In terms of actual practice, there is no need to escape. Just a hair’s breadth of perception — the difference between things being real or unreal — means the difference between an eternity of suffering and an eternity of bliss.
Thanks again,
Frank T Bird
