Insight into emptiness

(…) look in the mirror and you’ll see life is impermanent. We’re changing. Our moods change, our bodies change, our thoughts change, the world changes around us. Now, you would think that facing that nature of reality, emptiness would be quite horrifying and that’s probably why we don’t want to face it, because we think this is terrifying, this is a nightmare – nothing lasts, and nothing really can be even said to exist by itself. And yet, as the Buddhist would say, when you have that insight into emptiness, the sign that you have really had it is joy. I think that’s a universal spiritual wisdom. There’s a Christian language for that which is ‘poverty of spirit’, which is the first of the Beatitudes. Jesus said, ‘Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. (Mt 5:3)’ That’s emptiness, for poverty of spirit doesn’t mean being miserable, having nothing, being negative. It means having that insight into the true nature of reality.

Grace at Work by Laurence Freeman OSB