"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
From a Buddhist point of view, we spend most of our life in ignorance of our true nature and this creates suffering. Basically, this means we think that there is me in here, and the world exists out there, and they are separate.
What the Heart Sutra is actually telling us is that the world and I exist as a co-arising experience in each and every moment. Another way of seeing this is to realize that both the perceived world outside and the one perceiving both arise from the same source; therefore they are interdependent and can't be separate.
As one scientist put it, "We are what the Universe has created in order to understand itself."
It is useful to remind ourselves why Buddhism is called the Middle Way: rather than being caught up in either of the extremes of emptiness or form, we can see that both exist independently. If we look at this in relation to our mind, we can see that awareness is ever present, clear and luminous. You can't grasp awareness, you can't bottle it up, and at the same time awareness can said to exist.
So, for example, we might sit with the question "Who am I? Who is the one that is aware?" When we allow ourselves the space and time to really look at the nature of awareness itself, we can start to be with all that actually exists in our present moment.
We can stay with the ever-present witnessing awareness, the nature of mind, which is like a mirror, reflecting all forms but never in itself being tainted by the endless stream of forms that arise. Meditation allows us to be with the manifestation of life in every moment. And the true meditation is when we can integrate this presence into all areas of our life. Whether we are playing with the children or waiting at the bus stop, the essence of the Heart Sutra reminds us that everything is always changing, including ourselves. As the great Zen master Dogen reminds us;
:To know yourself is to forget your self, to forget your self is to be awakened by all things. "
- Huw Wyn.
