“Emptiness is not very easy to explain, because it is not definable or describable. Emptiness can not be described or expressed in human words since distinct languages existing on Earth can only designate existing feelings or things. 

It is not an exaggeration to affirm that human languages are not appropriate to express things and feelings that do not exist but which are still tremendously real.  

To try and define Illuminating Emptiness within the earthly limits of a limited language through the forms of existence is foolishness and error.

It is necessary to know, to experience in a living way the illuminated aspect of consciousness. It is urgent to feel and to experience the empty aspect of the mind.

Modern and common people of everyday life, people with sleeping consciousness, subjectively perceive angles, superficial lines, but never complete bodies, inside and outside, above and below, front and behind, etc., nor can they perceive their aspect of Emptiness.

The man with an awakened consciousness and illuminated and empty mind, has eliminated from his perceptions the subjective elements; he perceives the complete bodies and the empty aspect of everything.

Emptiness is that which has no name… this is what is real… this is what is truth and some people call it Tao, others Inri, and others Zen… Allah… Brahma or God, it does not matter what you call him.

The man who has awakened his consciousness experiences the tremendous truth that he is no more a slave and with sorrow he can see that people walking on the streets are dreaming (sleeping) and they look like real walking corpses.  

When this consciousness awakening becomes continuous through one’s inner remembrance of himself (self-observation), from moment to moment he can arrive at objective consciousness, pure consciousness, the empty aspect of the mind.”

Meditation is the wise person’s daily bread and, combined with mystical death, is the ultimate means for the awakening of consciousness.

The practice of meditation:

First, we must choose a clean, silent and airy place. The bedroom is ideal.

Then, we must accommodate ourselves in a comfortable position, where we can remain a long time without moving. We can sit down with our legs crossed in oriental style or we can lie down stomach up, legs stretched out and feet joined. 

The most important thing is that the  position be comfortable enough to slowly relax until we fall asleep.

After that, we must relax the whole body.

The next step is concentration, using a Koan.

Koan is an enigmatic expression which has the goal of proposing a problem to the mind, a problem that it can not solve. By this means, we make tire our mind by looking for an answer it can not find, since an answer to a koan is beyond the mind, at a superior level.

As the mind is getting tired it is also getting peaceful until it remains in complete silence.

This is the goal of the koan: to silence the mind and at the same time slowly bring on sleep. When we sleep with our mind in silence, we experience the grandiosity of the awakening of consciousness.  

“The sixth Patriarch asked the Bodhidharma: How can you reach TAO?

The Bodhidharma answered: Externally all activity ceases, internally the mind stops its agitation. When the mind has become a wall, then TAO comes."

You can choose one of the koans presented below to practice your meditation:

“Who is alone among ten thousand things?”

“If everything is reduced to unity, what is unity reduced to?”

“It is not the mind, it is not Buddha, and it is nothing. What does this mean?”

Then, what we must do is bring one of these questions and order our mind to answer it. The mind, certainly, will tend not to obey and bring wrong answers (because, of course, it does not know an answer to a koan) or to wander to other thoughts.

We must insist that it obey and bring the answer to the koan.

Remember: any answer presented by the mind will be wrong, because it could never know anything beyond the affections and the mind.

Continuously practicing these techiniques, the mind will obey more and more and get quiet.

It is common knowledge that practicing during the early morning hours, after you have already slept for some time, it is easier to achieve a mystical experience, because besides the physical body being more rested (which will provide a lighter sleep) the early morning atmosphere is also more peaceful and silent.

Have a nice experience!

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