Emptiness or selflessness is widely misunderstood in the West, even among Western Buddhists. There is a general belief that selflessness means no self exists, period. That emptiness equates to a total annihilation of ourselves. Thankfully however, this is not the case as selflessness is more subtle than this. Selflessness and emptiness entail that persons do not possess any kind of absolute ontological status. That is to say, appearances and conceptions of an objective referent of self, person or “I” are non-existent imaginaries. Yet, it does not follow from this that persons are completely non-existent. In this article I want to address the importance of understanding selflessness. But let us not get caught in the details of selflessness, rather let us simply cut to the chase and say: persons, self and “I” do exist within the framework of a kind of interdependent dynamic system.

In the aftermath of selflessness, like waking from a dream, you see how to really exist.

Understanding Selflessness

So, why then is selflessness important to understand? What is so important about knowing how I do not exist? Why not simply tell me how I do exist? Selflessness is important to understand because we strongly and habitually belief in a real referent to the first person pronoun “I” and this misconception is the cause of all our problems. Everything that has gone wrong in your life and will go wrong, has its genesis in this fundamental cognitive error. It is life’s “trouble maker”. Now, I can hear some of you argue: my life is going quite well at the moment thank you very much, and the times when I do suffer makes the happy times even more pronounced. Believing it is by experiencing suffering that gives happiness its punch, is to misunderstand of how the world operates. To believe there is an objective self is to see causal relations in two opposing forces (ignorance/reality) is not seeing how thing work. Perhaps a more sensible approach would be to look at our situation objectively, then to go from there. This is what many believe the Buddha did when he posited the 4 Noble Truths – true suffering, true cause; true cessation; true path. That is, we do experience suffering, no matter how small it may be, it is suffering nonetheless – true suffering. The cause of this suffering are dysfunctional states of mind such as anger, attachment and jealousy – true cause. It is possible to remove these minds through understanding fully at the deeper levels our existence – true path – and this then leads to freedom from that state – true cessation. However, he did so only after warning people not to accept this version of things out of mere respect, but rather, to go and do the experiments yourself. See if his results correspond to your results. Then, still, it is your choice as to whether to accept the results or not.

Through careful diagnosis, it can been seen that painful experiences arise through misunderstanding the operational facts about persons. We can use an example to illustrate this point: let’s say you did not know that you should look left and right before crossing the road. If this were the case, and you simply walked onto the road hoping that you would reach the other side, it would only be a matter of time before you were in fact, hit by a car. Thankfully, we have our mothers to teach us how to cross roads. Similarly believing in non-existent imaginaries (a real objective self) is what make you who you are, it will only be a matter of time before you are afflicted by dysfunctional states of mind. Boredom, dissatisfaction, being annoyed by your partner all count as painful experiences. Don’t think you can’t change your life. Know how you operate, then make the changes. Yes you can!

How Do I Operate?

Firstly we need to understand how our ordinary sense of “self” or “I” is misconceived. We need to see how the conception of an objective referent of self, person or “I” functions as the root cause of existential suffering (or if you react to the use of the word suffering, think dissatisfactoriness), as it is a necessary condition for the arising of afflicted and thus dysfunctional states of mind. Because conceptions of intrinsic persons pervade our ordinary cognitive process propelling us into dysfunctional actions in a self-perpetuating cycle of false appearances and dysfunctional actions, it is through the authority of ultimate cognitions negating an intrinsic self, which is the mechanism of the extirpation of these conceptions – hence selflessness. Thereby we gradually melt down the sense of a solid absolute self, separate and autonomous from the world around us. As this process takes place we begin to see how we are in fact relational interconnected beings. Because of this, not in spite of it, we are responsible for the shaping of our lives and our shared world.

In the aftermath of selflessness, like waking from a dream, you see how to really exist. It is through knowing emptiness or selflessness that leads to a sense of true relativity, and it is this sense of relativity that allows you to truly function in the world. This is why it is important to understand selflessness