Space

Sometimes it seems we spend most of our time focusing on the “stuff” in our lives-things, people, situations, hopes, fears, future plans, past remembrances. The concepts and labels that we put on things and people can clutter our minds. Like a pack rat, we have collected both physical and mental stuff that bogs us down and blinds us to the innate sense and wisdom of being. In between all our “stuff”, within all this stuff, even within us, there is space, emptiness. Thich Nhat Hanh has a wonderful teaching on space. He suggests that we focus awareness not on the stuff, but rather on the space between, opening it up, expanding it, because that is where true freedom is. So, in this moment, take a few deep breaths. As you breathe in silently say, “I see myself as space”. And breathing out, silently say, “I feel free”. Breathing in—space, breathing out—free. The instruction is that simple.

Beyond what we spend the majority of our time focused on, beyond our mental and physical “stuff”, beyond these illusions is freedom. And within the very midst of them is freedom. We don’t have to go to India to find it; we don’t need any special equipment or time. We have the power to see the world in a totally different way--recognizing the essential emptiness of stuff. Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching is trying to help us drop our delusive thinking by instructing us to focus on the space instead--the space outside of ourselves and the space inside of ourselves and the space that is the essence of all things. Just for a minute, right now, take a few moments, and bring your attention to the empty space around you and empty space within you. Imagine that you can breathe in and out and expand the empty space, like de-cluttering your mental house, dropping the labels that we hold onto so tightly. Do some mental housecleaning. Let go of the perception that everything and everyone is something solid and permanent. Focus instead on emptiness as the essence of all things.

The concept of emptiness in Western culture can be very negative. You might hear someone sadly say, “My life is so empty”. We can look at this in another way. We could say, Yes! Great! I recognize that life is empty. These stories that we make up about everything and everyone in our life are just that—made up stories. In western culture, emptiness is seen as lacking, that a poor person that has nothing. And in Western culture, the person who has lots of things and people in their lives is thought to have everything. And yet, we know that judging happiness by the clutter in our lives won’t work. We all know many happy people with very little in their lives, and many unhappy people with lots of things. We don’t have to study Buddhism to witness that phenomenon. It’s not that having stuff is inherently good or bad, but rather our relationship to it that makes all the difference. If we can see the stuff as essentially empty and impermanent, we can free ourselves from the tethers of trying to hold on to it all.

Cleaning out the physical space in our lives is a valuable process, but cleaning out the mental space in our lives is also a valuable tool to discovering the peace and happiness that is here, right now, in this very moment. The irony is that we can’t see if for all our stuff.

Finding peace in our lives is as close as our next breath. Breathing in space, breathing out free.

“Far beyond delusive thinking, we attain complete Nirvana.” - The Heart Sutra