Emptiness—Nirvana

Emptiness, nirvana—the ultimate state of inner peace in Buddhism—is a state without self, without passions, without desires. It is a state beyond thought, beyond words, beyond any intellectual attempt to grasp what it is.

Yet paradoxically, in this emptiness there is fullness, fearlessness and enlightenment. It is a marvelous, mystical state, almost impossible to describe.

Father Moon calls the state of Emptiness the ‘zero point.’

He explains the mystical feeling as a resonant connection with God, who also dwells in Emptiness when He creates the world. Father Moon also teaches an active way of self-emptying in the service of others.

Self-giving, living for others, giving even when it is difficult to give: these practices can lead to the zero point just as surely as meditation.

“All states are without self.” When one sees this in wisdom, then he becomes dispassionate towards the painful. This is the path to purity. Dhammapada 279 The Man of the Way wins no fame, The highest virtue wins no gain, The Great Man has no self. Chuang Tzu 17 (Taoism)

Where egoism exists, Thou art not experienced, Where Thou art, is not egoism. Adi Granth, Maru-ki-Var, M.1, p. 1092 (Sikhism) Torah abides only with him who regards himself as nothing. Talmud, Sota 21b (Judaism)

The Plain of High Heaven is not a specific place localized here or there, but refers rather to a pure state without any anomaly or excess. In terms of the human body, it is a state within the human breast without thought, contemplation, or passions. Masamichi Imbe, Secret Oral Tradition of the Book of the Divine Age (Shinto)

This is Peace, this is the excellent, namely the calm of all the impulses, the casting out of all ‘basis,’ the extinction of craving, dispassion, stopping, Nirvana.19 Anguttara Nikaya 5.322 (Buddhism)

When a man is free from all sense pleasures and depends on nothingness he is free in the supreme freedom from perception. He will stay there and not return again. It is like a flame struck by a sudden gust of wind. In a flash it has gone out and nothing more can be known about it. It is the same with a wise man freed from mental existence: in a flash he has gone out and nothing more can be known about him. When a person has gone out, then there is nothing by which you can measure him. That by which he can be talked about is no longer there for him; you cannot say that he does not exist. When all ways of being, all phenomena are removed, then all ways of description have also been removed.20 Sutta Nipata 1072-76 (Buddhism)

For him who has completed the journey, for him who is sorrowless, for him who from everything is wholly free, for him who has destroyed all ties, the fever of passion exists not. He whose senses are subdued, like steeds well-trained by a charioteer, he whose pride is destroyed and is free from the corruptions— such a steadfast one even the gods hold dear. Like the earth, a balanced and well-disciplined person resents not… He is like a pool, unsullied by mud; to such a balanced one, life’s wanderings do not arise.

Calm is his mind, calm is his speech, calm is his action, who, rightly knowing, is wholly freed [from defilements], perfectly peaceful and equipoised. The man who is not credulous but truly understands the Uncreated (Nibbana), who has cut off the links, who has put an end to occasion [of good and evil], who has eschewed all desires, he indeed is a supreme man. Dhammapada 90, 94-97 (Buddhism)

Here, O Shariputra, form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness. Here, O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.

Therefore, O Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness… There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment. Therefore, O Shariputra, it is because of his indifference to any kind of personal attainment that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana. Heart Sutra (Buddhism)

Nan-po Tzu-k’uei said to the woman Nü Yü, “You are old, and yet your complexion is like that of a child. How is this?”21 Nü Yü replied, “I have learned Tao.” “Could I get Tao by studying it?” asked the other. “I fear not,” said Nü Yü. “You are not the sort of person. There was Pu-liang Yi. He had the qualifications of a sage… so I began teaching him. In three days, all distinctions of high and low, good and bad, had ceased to exist. Seven days more, and the external world had ceased to be. In nine more days, he became unconscious of his own existence. He first became ethereal, next possessed of perfect wisdom, then without past and present, and finally was able to enter where life and death are no more—where killing does not take away life, nor does giving birth add to it. In that state, there is nothing he does not welcome, nothing he does not send off, nothing he does not destroy, nothing he does not construct. This is to be at Peace in Strife. He who can be at peace in strife is on the way to perfection.” Chuang Tzu 6 (Taoism)

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart; If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease; While the deep meaning is misunderstood, it is useless to meditate on Rest. It [the Original Mind] is blank and featureless as space… At the ultimate point, beyond which you can go no further, You get to where there are no rules, no standards, To where thought can accept Impartiality, To where effect of action ceases, Doubt is washed away, belief has no obstacle.

Nothing is left over, nothing remembered; Space is bright, but self-illumined; no power of mind is exerted. Nor indeed could mere thought bring us to such a place. Nor could sense or feeling comprehend it. It is the Truly so, the Transcendent Sphere, where there is neither He nor I. For swift converse with this sphere use the concept ‘Not Two’; In the ‘Not Two’ are no separate things, yet all things are included.

The wise throughout the Ten Quarters have had access to this Primal Truth; For it is not a thing with extension in Time or Space; A moment and an aeon for it are one. Whether we see it or fail to see it, it is manifest always and everywhere. The very small is as the very large when boundaries are forgotten; The very large is as the very small when its outlines are not seen. Being is an aspect of Non-being; Non-being is an aspect of Being. In climes of thought where it is not so the mind does ill to dwell. The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One. Take your stand on this, and the rest will follow of its own accord; To trust in the Heart is the Not Two, the Not Two is to trust in the Heart. I have spoken, but in vain; for what can words tell Of things that have no yesterday, tomorrow, or today?22 Seng Ts’an, On Trust in the Heart (Buddhism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
While seeking absolute love, you should not have a consciousness of self. (279:146, August 4, 1996)

If we could totally subjugate our body, if our actions were always in conformity with our will, then we would not need religion. Jesus corrected the disunity between the mind and the body. This is also the purpose of the Buddha’s teaching that we should return to the state of nothingness, the zero point. If the mind and body are united, you do not feel [any distinction].

Why should we return to a state of emptiness? It is so we may experience Being. In a state of emptiness, the zero point, there emerges a counterpart with whom you can be in total harmony. Hence, at the zero point you can experience Being one hundred percent. (256:212, March 13, 1994)

God dwells in the ‘king zero point.’ Since God has such a nature, to meet Him you must become even lower than zero. Then you must guard that king zero point. The king zero point is like the mind, and as the flesh surrounds the mind, you should surround and protect the zero point.

Have you reached the state where you can guard the zero point? Can you go even lower than the zero point? This is what Buddhist meditation is about—to search the God-like mind for the deepest point. (230:134, May 1, 1992)

The [self-centered] ego has nothing to do with the ideal of creation. Therefore, we should completely deny ourselves. In order to find the true self, we should place ourselves at the zero point. That is the only place where we can be totally united in mind and body.

When God created us, He was in a state of total unity between mind and body. He was in a state of total self-giving, with absolute love and absolute faith. God had no space to think of His own benefit or situation. Herein lies the origin of love: it is a state of one hundred percent giving and living for the sake of others.

Where do you think you can find your true self? You find it by practicing a life of true love, always living for the sake of others. If you dwell at the zero point—denying yourself while living for the sake of your family, all humankind throughout the world, and God—you will find your true self without doubt. It is our inevitable destiny to do so as we walk the path of restoration, which leads to salvation. (356:301-02, October 21, 2001)

Although we yearn for God and seek to love Him as the Subject of our faith, our experiences of Him are vague and indistinct. We still wonder, “Where can we find God?”

Although He is definitely present, we cannot perceive Him with the certainty that we perceive things with our five physical senses. How, then, can we see God?

We do not begin by looking at God, but rather by looking into ourselves. When we look into ourselves, we find that we exist as mind and body. We should not focus on the body, but look into our mind.

Among a thousand fallen people, their fundamental nature may be the same, but each one has a different mind, a different personality each with different qualities.

When drawing a circle, you first draw a horizontal line and then a vertical line. From the point where they intersect, you draw the circle around it, starting from one degree, two degrees, and finally covering all 360 degrees.

The horizontal line and the vertical line determine a 90-degree angle.

Depending on their personalities, each person draws their horizontal line in a different place. Just as our faces are different from one another, our inborn natures are different. When drawing our circle through 360 degrees, we begin from zero degrees and trace it based on that standard.

However, if the baseline of our minds is not properly fixed, we will not have the proper standard for measuring the degrees of the circle. Indeed, the baselines of people’s minds are not the same. Why? As people’s faces, interests and feelings differ, they each draw their horizontal and vertical lines differently.

How, then, can you form a circle covering all 360 degrees?

You should find the zero point. Where is your zero point? Everyone has one. It is within yourself, within the core of your heart— there you will find it. When you draw a horizontal line from the zero point, you can properly fix the vertical line perpendicular to it.

We are to stand as object partners before God, our Subject Partner. Surely He has endowed human beings with a base to respond to Him as object partners.

Therefore, upon the basis of the horizontal mind, we should find the vertical direction, the true perpendicular. Surely there must be one. You see the horizon in two dimensions, but if you try and estimate the perpendicular, your measure could easily be off the mark.

If your horizontal is too high you must lower it; if it is too low you must raise it, to fix it at the zero point. In an electrical power plant there are many meters, and each one is calibrated to a zero point. That neutral point must be set properly to adjust the positive and negative voltages and to measure the power levels.

We, too, must accurately calibrate our zero point. Where is our zero point located? It is a position that exists but seemingly does not exist. People who practice Zen meditation say that they attain the state of ‘no-self.’

That is what I am talking about. We should reach that spiritual standard, the zero point state. Once we attain it, our horizontal standard will become responsive to all things. (76:125)