Question: “Having come from emptiness (no-where), returning to emptiness (no-where), why do we manifest in samsara?”
Emptiness isn’t exactly “no where.” It’s not nothing, zero, or empty. Emptiness simply means that the things we see everyday, the people, cars, houses, plants, etc., are not really JUST people, cars, houses, plants, etc. Emptiness is almost unexplainable beyond the superficial explanation I’m about to give, it is something we each individually discover on our own, in our own way. And everyone has their own interpretation.
When we look at a flower, we automatically think “flower” or “rose” or “tulips.” Looking at it from “emptiness” it isn’t just a flower, but also the components that make up that flower; the soil, the sun, water, air – all these put together make the flower and then when the flower is made, we call it “flower.” Our delusion and ignorance doesn’t let us see or think of anything besides “flower.”
Look around you, nothing is made up of its own. Nothing has come about without external causes to make that effect. A car is not a car without its engine or any of the other thousand components that allow it to run and take us from point A to point B. As humans, we are human and alive because of our organs, oxygen, and food. Not even a nail or a screw it made of its own. It’s made from a machine, that needs its own parts and screws, a person to operate and put together the machine who needed parents to exist, the machine is made from metal, that needed the earth and all the elements and time to create it. Everything comes from something. Seeing that is emptiness.
So we’re in this cyclic samsaric cycle because of our ignorance. Ignorance and desire are the made causes of our suffering and our obstacles in the way of liberation. Because we see things and people as this “oneness,” as this thing to last forever, and constantly desiring it and desiring more, that will keep us from escaping samsara. So with a disciplined meditation practice and constant learning, we can shorten the distance to the shore of enlightenment.
Smile and be well!