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Emptiness, Free Will, and Our Emergence as Homo Conscious
Emptiness is made of free will, and free will of emptiness. By practicing mindfulness—walking, washing dishes, breathing deeply—we experience real freedom, not merely an idea. Manas, the perception rooted in ignorance, can be transformed (not thrown away) into the wisdom of non-discrimination (nirvikalpa-jñāna). Rather than dualistically rejecting “defiled dharmas,” we learn to hold and filter them—like muddy water—to reveal the ground of enlightenment already within.
To grow as practitioners, we must root ourselves in the Sangha as trees root in soil: recognizing that inside and outside, teacher and student, Sangha and self, inter-are. Shared activities—tea, walking meditation, washing dishes—are not distractions but opportunities to support one another. Deep looking into ourselves reveals not separate selves but a mesh of elements—parents, ancestors, clouds, topsoil—awareness of which frees us from fear, grief, and loneliness.
Human evolution reflects this unfolding of consciousness:
- Homo erectus
- Homo sapiens
- Homo conscious
With mindful walking, our liberated feet touch the Pure Land here and now. All phenomena—clouds, leaves, bodies, rivers—are manifestations of ālayavijñāna (store consciousness), never created or destroyed but ceaselessly manifesting. “You are not a creation. You are a manifestation.” Deep looking into this truth reveals our Buddha-nature, the living Christ, the Tathāgata—ever present beyond birth and death.
