Without ceasing, without being generated. Without annihilation, without permanence. Without coming, without going. Without being different, without being one.
– Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the “Middle Way”
Achieving Moksha – the ultimate state of enlightenment, liberation, and release from worldly suffering and entanglement – has long been the aspiration of Buddhist practitioners, as well as followers of many other religions that originated on the South Asian subcontinent.
Without turning this into a religious history essay, it’s worth briefly noting that while Buddhism was born in the region straddling modern-day Nepal and India, much of its evolution and the flourishing of its schools occurred elsewhere. In particular, Mahayana Buddhism was largely developed and refined in China and across East Asia, where it became deeply intertwined with indigenous traditions such as Confucianism (e.g., filial piety1) and Daoism (e.g., constellation worship and Tai Sui deities2) in practice.
To realize this profound harmony and attain nirvana, the concept of Śūnyatā becomes a key element that broadens our understanding of the universe. Śūnyatā – a philosophical notion – is often translated as “emptiness,” “voidness,” “vacuity,” or “hollowness.” Its meaning can shift depending on the historical and didactic context: it may refer to a metaphysical characteristic of existence, a meditative state of consciousness, or a methodological approach to experiential inquiry.
At first glance, the introduction of Śūnyatā seems to establish a kind of binary opposition, with Rūpa – “form” – on the other side. In Buddhist thought, Rūpa generally refers to all material presence, including human bodies, physical objects, and everything perceptible to the senses or nameable through language. Śūnyatā, by contrast, pertains to the intrinsic, intangible dimensions. One occupies space; the other transcends being. They seem to represent contradictory and mutually exclusive qualities.
Now, the biggest ego-dissolving leapfrogging happens here. The moral philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism unites the two, reconciling their apparent duality by recognizing that everything is Lakshana – often translated as “appearance in consciousness.” In other words, all our impressions, experiences, and memories are shaped by consciousness, unfolding continuously throughout our lives. The classic parable of the blind men and the elephant, which also appears in Buddhist scriptures, beautifully illustrates our innate biases in constructing an understanding of the universe, because no natural person’s senses, collectively or individually, are omniscient. By the same logic, what lies beyond our cognitive consciousness is ultimately unthinkable – a truth reflected in the fact that linear and polynomial patterns, more easily grasped kinesthetically in daily life, are far more comprehensible to the human mind than exponential growth3.
Therefore, since everything exists to us as a form and as “appearance in consciousness,” they are all empty of any Svabhāva, i.e. “own-being,” “inherent nature,” or “intrinsic existence,” as we perceive them4. Since “everything” includes the sensations and ecstasies we experience, I will be discussing how the concepts of form and emptiness apply to fetishism – particularly in helping us become better owners and interpreters of our emotions and physical responses during a session, ultimately unlocking greater pleasure, deeper experiences, and better self-realization.
- A Chinese-English bilingual version of the Sūtra of Filial Piety can be found at https://sunnyvale.ctzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/sutra-on-profound-kindness-of-parents-v.02.8-20131216.pdf ↩︎
- A video of the Tai Sui Blessing Ceremony held in February 2023 at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore can be found at https://www.buddhatoothrelictemple.org.sg/c-tsb-020323 ↩︎
- More discussions on this can be found in an article by the Mathematical Association of America at https://maa.org/math-values/can-we-really-understand-exponential-growth/ and another piece by Intercepting Horizons at https://interceptinghorizons.com/2019/04/09/technology-is-exponential-but-humans-are-linear/ ↩︎
- More discussions on this can be found in a book by Christopher W. Gowans in 2014 at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Buddhist_Moral_Philosophy/8W8KBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 and a blog by Existential Buddhism in February 2024 at https://existential-buddhism.com/understanding-nonduality/ ↩︎
Nomadic Zen 
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