Buddhadasa, voidness

When everything is enlarged, paid attention, considered so important; it’s rather curious to study nothing, a.k.a. voidness. Such study starts with nothing, ends with nothing. It could be a very personal matter. No purpose, no expectation.

It is helpful on the other hand. The reading on voidness spiritually eases heart and soul. Once the suggested practice was applied, there was granted more space in mind. The whole thing is like creating a personal refuge.

 

Below are four pieces of interpretation on Buddhadasa’s teaching.

 

Either me or wisdom

Buddhadasa considered people can only experience either I/me/mine or mindfulness/wisdom. Buddhadasa gave a metaphor. Someone who was indulged in reading wouldn’t think of the self. This person was totally absorbed in, this person had mindfulness ,wisdom. There was the voidness of I/me/mine.

 

Void is Free

“ To feel that there is nothing which is me
Without worry or doubt that anything might be me
To feel that there is nothing which is mine
Without worry or doubt that anything might be mine.”

I/me/mine is attachments. As soon as people recognize something as their own, they are clinging to it. Self-centeredness, desire, greed, hatred, delusion, dukkhas are consequently developed. When people abandon I/me/mine, there is voidness. This person has no attachment. This person is free.

 

Void is Stop

Voidness is not only a status, but also an action. The voidness, in the stronger execution, is to stop grasping nor clinging. It’s a powerful intending to stop co-arising, to create nothing to be, to have, nor to do. Voidness brings an end.

 

Two methods to practice voidness

Buddhadasa suggested two ways to enact voidness. When there is a sense contact, the first is to stop satisfaction or dissatisfaction. I/me/mine is embedded in the judging. If the feeling has happened when it is noticed, the second method can be applied. That is to let it go. Don’t continuously react to the judging. Let it be, and let it go.

 

As a conclusion, Buddhadasa quoted from Visuddhimagga (xvi, 90),

“The doing is done, but no doer can be found.
The path has been walked to its end, but no walker is there.”

He encouraged people to contemplate what is worthy. Think it through. Evaluate the fundamentals in life, in being and having. When you develop your own evaluation system, you clarify something, and somehow feel more grounded.