Is This Not Love
What’s Not Here (excerpt)
Rumi, translation by Coleman Banks:
I start out on this road,
call it love or emptiness.
I only know what’s not here.
Resentment seeds, backscratching greed,
worrying about outcome, fear of people.
When a bird gets free,
it does not go back for remnants
left on the bottom of the cage.
***
“Emptiness” is one of the most important concepts in Buddhism. But this “emptiness” does not mean “nothingness” or some great “void”. It means the fundamental nature of our heart/mind when greed, hatred, resentment, worry, fear, confusion, etc are not present.
It is our fundament nature to be “empty” of these. When we experience this emptiness, we are free. Is this not love?
Guy Armstrong says it much better than I can. Listen to his talk, Emptiness: A Practical Introduction for Meditators.