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Emptiness makes everything possible
When the river no longer chased impermanent clouds, she went home to herself and heard her own suffering. In deep contemplation she realised “she is made only of clouds,” discovering that “the clouds are in her,” and so attained non-obtention: nothing to obtain, for what she wanted to become she already was. Free of attachment, she greeted every cloud with joy, embodying arrival in the here and now.
Sister Annabel has served this area for more than ten years, helping build the Sangha in New England. Thầy asked her to return to Europe to co-found the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany, offering courses such as:
- preparation for young people about to marry
-
support for those who have just lost a beloved one
…plus dozens of other courses taught in English, German, French, and more.
Nāgārjuna’s verse offers three terms for touching reality:
- emptiness (śūnyatā)—everything is “empty” only of a separate self
- conventional designation (prajñapti)—names like “flower,” “president,” or “house” exist only by the non-flower, non-president, non-house elements that come together
- the Middle Path (Madhyamaka)—transcending all opposites (no birth/no death, no being/no non-being, no coming/no going, no sameness/no otherness) so that “thanks to emptiness, everything is possible.”
