the mental and the material are really here, but here there is no human being to be found. for it is void and merely fashioned like a doll, just suffering piled up like grass and sticks.
though form appears to exist as established by virtue of its own characteristic as being the basis of these essential and specific terms predicated of it, that it exists as it appears is something that must be repudiated. just as the fact that it exists even nominally in the way it is cognized by the cognition that conceives of it as existing in that way must be repudiated.
form and so on appear to sensory perception to be the basis of essential terms, and nominally form does exist in this way. both the appearance of form in this way by virtue of its own characteristic and forms being, as it appears to be, established in this way by virtue of its own characteristic, are mere imputations by name and conceptual thought. they do not exist even nominally the way they are imputed. forms being the basis of essential and specific terms is an existent imaginary entity, whereas forms existing in this way by virtue of its own characteristic is a nonexistent imaginary entity.
form appears to sensory perception as being, by virtue of its own entity, the basis onto which expressions are predicated. conceptual thought then cognizes the appearance of form in this way. linguistic latent potentialities that existed previously in the mental continuum are again and again nurtured by means of the process in which conceptual consciousness cognizes form to exist in the same way as it appears to sensory perception. form which appears in that way to sensory perception is called the cognitive basis of conceptual consciousness.
the essences of all things do not exist in their causes.
like a dream, like an illusion, just like a city of fairies, so is arising, so is abiding, and so is destruction taught to be.
no entity whatsoever arises ever or in any way from self or other or both or causelessly.
if everything was not empty nothing could arise or cease. where emptiness is possible there everything is possible.
empty things, such as a reflection, are known to depend on the collection of their parts. just as there can arise an image from an empty reflection, likewise, while all phenomena are empty, they arise from empty causes.
even though reality is an ultimate truth, the existence of reality should be understood to be conventional. it neither exists not is it nonexistent by virtue of its own nature.
since the compounded does not exist, how can the uncompounded exist?
the buddha has said that form is like a ball of foam, feeling like a bubble, recognition like a mirage, composition like a plantain tree, and consciousness like an illusion.
when it does not arise from itself how can one claim that it does not arise from other things?
when attached and clinging, see that your attachment is to no real object. appearances are self display, their emptiness is a natural emptiness.
perceiver and perceived are indivisible as an appearing emptiness.
in the seen, there is only the seen, in the heard, there is only the heard, in the sensed, there is only the sensed, in the cognized, there is only the cognized. thus you should see that indeed there is no thing here.
phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature, and mind is merely the flux of awareness, no self nature: just energy flow. no true nature: just like the sky. all phenomena are alike, sky-like.
at bottom, the nature of things isn’t a product of causes, nor of conditions
nondual emptiness teachings - goode