Note: Those of you familiar with other writings on the Enneagram’s Holy Ideas may be scratching your heads, “I don’t remember seeing Holy Emptiness before…” I’ve taken liberties, based on intuition and experience, in adding to and modifying aspects of these teachings. I see these modifications as complementary, not a commentary or critique of others. In my own spiritual life the teachings on Emptiness have been pivotal. As these writings also serve as a teaching framework for the groups I work with, it’s felt natural to find a place for this wisdom, and that place appeared effortlessly. So this Holy Truth (as I call the Holy Ideas, another modification) finds itself within the Enneagram image. I hope you’ll find this illuminating and useful.
Looking at the image of the Enneagram diagram, our eyes are naturally drawn to the black lines that form the shape and perhaps to the numbers if they are present. But look again, do you see what is most plentiful in the diagram? White space. Empty space.
The same is true of all physical objects. Atoms are over 99.9% empty space. Objects, being made of atoms, are also over 99.9% empty space. Our bodies are physical objects and thus similarly almost entirely empty space. This empty space may be the most common denominator that we and all objects share.
Some wisdom teachings take this empty space further, declaring that it is the basic nature of all things, physical or not. It’s named “emptiness” and identified as a fundamental fact of all existence. Empty of what? The Buddha taught that “all conditioned things are empty of inherent self-existence”. “All conditioned things” means everything, because there are no things that are not conditioned or impacted by other things. “Inherent self-existence” means something we can point to in ourselves or in others or in other things that demonstrates full autonomy from everything else. Unity and Emptiness both show us that nothing has a self that is independent of the rest of existence.
Because we are empty of inherent self-existence, because there is no part of us that is separate from Unity, everything can move and flow. If it weren’t for this emptiness, everything would get stuck, the vast Unfolding would grind to a halt. Emptiness allows for movement, growth, dissolution. This dynamism is impermanence in motion. Back to the Buddha – he taught that all things are marked by three characteristics – impermanence, no separate self and unsatisfactoriness. Everything is constantly changing – becoming or dissolving in gross or subtle ways. Underlying and allowing this dynamic, nothing is separate from anything else, it’s just one Existence unfolding.
But why unsatisfactory? That’s our contribution, it’s not a trait inherent to all things. All things become unsatisfying to us when we try to hold on to them, when we try to stop the natural flow of impermanence and make something last, or when we want to claim something as ours, separate from Unity. We most clearly do this with ourselves! We resist change – both growth and dissolution – and we hold ourselves apart from Unity, claiming we are our own autonomous being. When we do this, we will be dissatisfied. When we resist strongly enough, we will suffer. These are the Buddha’s first two Noble Truths; the fact of life being often dissatisfying and the fact of that dissatisfaction being a result of our holding on and our resistance.
Luckily his second two Noble Truths offer us a way out of our suffering. Stop resisting change, stop holding ourselves apart from Unity. How do we do this? The Buddha offers his “Eight-Fold Path”. The simple practices offered later in this series are a good place to start and overlap with some of his Path. The most basic practice is - observe when you resist change, notice when you hold yourself apart from others or your life as it’s arising. Just noticing honestly what’s happening, and your response to what’s happening, can begin the alchemy of transformation.
Holy Emptiness extends even further. It is the fundamental nature of all Existence. It precedes all Existence. We’ve talked about the Ocean and the Waves. Emptiness is even the fundamental nature of the Ocean. Before there is a source for Existence, there is non-existence. What was there before the big bang? Scientists posit a “singularity” – an almost infinitely dense single point of almost infinite energy. This energy held the potential for the entire universe. At the same time, it was devoid of any form, preceded time, was beyond any perception or measurement. Emptiness is like this. It is the Void, the Plenum, the Eternal. Some terms for this emptiness – Godhead, Brahman, Dharmakaya, Ein Sof, the Tao. It is the underlying silence and source of all existence, interpenetrating every manifested aspect of Unity.
Thank you for reading this post, I welcome your comments and questions below. Please share this with anyone you think may be interested. To learn more about classes, discussion groups or one-on-one consultation please contact me at keith at theawakenedenneagram.com.