It’s all empty.

It’s all empty, the essence of liberation is contained within those three words. How many times have you already heard them, and how many more times will you need to hear them before understanding arises?

The Master is like the loving parent who sits on the edge of the bed whilst their child is having a nightmare, holding their hand and caressing their face whispering, ‘wake up, you’re dreaming, it’s just a dream, wake up, wake up.’

The Dhamma refrain is always the same. The world and how you experience it begins and ends with you. Nothing is more real and substantial than you make it and then hold on to.

But it’s all empty. No birth, no death, no suffering, no enlightenment, it’s all empty.

The eight worldly conditions belong only to the mind of the one who empowers them; the hope for gain and fear of loss, the hope for pleasure and fear of pain, the hope for good reputation and fear of bad reputation, the hope for praise and fear of blame. To build a life, even a moment of life, with any of these things in mind is to live in the realm of infinite limitations: Samsara, the world of  birth and death, but it’s all illusion. Nothing is more real than you make it and the moment you intuitively understand this, you are free.

You cannot bring happiness or pain to another, no matter how it seems superficially, because in every moment the world we are experiencing is the world that we are creating by our attachment to the mind and therefore an attachment to an illusory self.

Many times you will reject this deepest truth, and so many times you will continue your suffering.

But it’s all empty - everything - all of it!

So relax, look only to making your world a loving, harmonious and compassionate place, first for yourself and then for all beings. Even if you cannot change the world of another by anything you do or say, you can be part of a loving environment where that can happen.

In the end, everything is empty, but love is all.

May all beings be happy.