Value of Emptiness
A vase waits for flowers
Blank paper awaits a pen
A vacant room, furniture
An event to be, a ‘when’
Emptiness is the value
Of the space inside
A parking space awaits a car
A made bed, a sleeper
A parked car, a driver
A leap not leapt, a leaper
Emptiness is
Transformative
An empty stage attracts a performer
An empty playground, play
A vacant lot, a developer
The potter’s wheel, clay
Emptiness is
Opportunity
The thing that wants a fire
Is a fireplace
To receive your heart’s desire
Make the perfect space
The Tao Te Ching tells us that the value in a vase is its emptiness and similarly that the value in a house is in the space it affords. Many theologies, Western and Eastern, prescribe the emptying of the self in order to leave space for the deity to come in. But what is it that fills us so that we have no space?
We are filled with emotions. We desire after the future, fear the present and regret the past. Tomorrow we want something better than we had today; today we are afraid that we will lose what we have; and yesterday we are sorry for what we did or did not do. Our emotions speak to us constantly about what we should do or should have done.
Listening to the inner dialog of our emotions, we are deaf to the present moment. Any part of you that is concentrating on "then", be it future or past, is distracting you from fully partaking in what is happening right now.
Meditation quiets the mind - in effect emptying it of its tendencies to fear and grasping. Emptied of its anger and desire, the mind is free to allow the present to come in, with all of its immediate and irreplaceable beauty.
I wish you a life full of memorable moments, and that you should not miss even one of them because of being absent from the present.
