The featureless source through which featured reality springs into being.
Analogizing to quantum physics: reality is waveforms that have collapsed into particular states; emptiness is the waveform potential for particular states to be.
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." Buddha.
Form is the expression of emptiness, the way a wave is an expression of the ocean. Wave is ocean, ocean is wave. No wave is the whole ocean. And yet each wave is energetically continuous with the entire sea. Each wave is the entire sea's expression.
You & I are waves on the sea of emtpiness. Emptiness is the Oneness underlying our temporary sense of separateness. It is the common medium supporting our apparent existence. The Brahman underlying our Atmans. The I beneath the you & the me.
No words or analogies can capture emptiness. Emptiness is incomprehensible & all-pervading. These words attempting to describe emptiness are themselves expressions of emptiness! No summary can be complete because the summary itself is a feature of what's attempting to be summarized.
Nor can emptiness be imagined. Picture all black - you're seeing blackness, not emptiness. Picture a blank space - you're seeing blankness. We can't picture emptiness the way an eyeball cannot see itself. Perspective is a feature of emptiness, not a separate vantage from emptiness can be viewed.
A snake swallowing its own tail, a face infinitely regressing between opposing mirrors, an echo echoing itself, a dog chasing its tail - this is the mind struggling to comprehend incomprehensible emptiness.
In our foolishness, we make it an ego thing & try harder. In our wisdom, we recognize the delicious irony of the pursuit & enjoy the momentary delight of feeling the universe laugh at itself in our laughter.
When it comes to emptiness, my advice is: seek not explanation, but appreciation. I hope these words help to that end.
