空觀

What This Concept Is Saying

Contemplation of emptiness (空觀, *śūnyatā-vipaśyanā*) is not imagining the world as "a total blank," nor is it repeatedly telling oneself that "nothing matters." It is a rigorous method of observation: facing any physical or mental phenomenon (身心現象, *rūpa-citta-dharma*) currently arising, one carefully investigates and analyzes it along its causes and conditions (因緣, *hetu-pratyaya*), examining whether there is truly an independent, fixed, self-governing entity within it. The result of this examination is not that "phenomena do not exist," but rather: although phenomena manifest in reliance upon conditions, no self-nature (自性, *svabhāva*) can be found that stands independently without relying on conditions.

The *Mohe zhiguan* (《摩訶止觀》, *Great Calming and Contemplation*) formally designates this as "contemplation of entering emptiness from the provisional" (從假入空觀). "Provisional" (假, *prajñapti*) here does not mean false or deceptive; rather, it refers to coming together through causes and conditions and being established through provisional designation (假名安立, *prajñapti-saṃniveśa*): things can appear, function, and be named, yet they are not isolated, unchanging entities. "Entering emptiness from the provisional" means not bypassing the experiential world, but precisely seeing that the experiential world lacks self-nature right in its immediate reality (當體, *dāngtǐ*) through its very conditionality.

Therefore, in a single sentence: contemplation of emptiness is the contemplative practice (觀行, *vipaśyanā-caryā*) of contemplating that dharmas arisen from causes and conditions are empty in their immediate reality (當體即空), eradicating delusions of view (見惑, *dṛṣṭi-kleśa*) and delusions of thought (思惑, *bhāvanā-kleśa*) through fourfold examination (四句推檢).

Here are three key points that must be maintained simultaneously:

First, what is empty is "self-nature," not cause and effect (因果, *hetu-phala*) or phenomena.

An argument certainly occurred, and hurtful words leave their impact; however, this argument was not produced in isolation by some eternal "evil nature" of a person. Fatigue, past experiences, tone of voice, expectations, misunderstandings, physical states, and mutual reactions all participated in it. Precisely because it was formed in dependence upon conditions, it lacks a fixed self-nature; and precisely because it lacks a fixed self-nature, when conditions change, the relationship can potentially change.

Second, contemplation of emptiness is a contemplative practice, not merely a philosophical conclusion.

Knowing the phrase "all dharmas are empty" (萬法皆空) is not equivalent to actively contemplating emptiness. Genuine contemplation of emptiness takes place right when greed (貪, *rāga*), anger (瞋, *dveṣa*), fear, shame, or self-justification are arising: can one stop to examine—where actually is this object that "must be obtained," or this "self" that "must never be denied"? How does it arise? Is it truly as solid as imagined?

Third, contemplation of emptiness serves a clear function on the path to liberation (解脱道, *vimukti-mārga*): shattering delusions of view, suppressing and severing delusions of thought, and harmoniously entering ultimate truth (真諦, *paramārtha-satya*).

"Delusions of view" lean toward cognitive attachments, such as clinging to a fixed self, or asserting a certain explanation as absolutely real; "delusions of thought" are the habit-energies of greed, anger, ignorance (癡, *moha*), etc., that repeatedly ignite when encountering external realms. The former is like an incorrect map; the latter is like a well-trodden old path. The *Mohe zhiguan* therefore speaks separately of "entering emptiness from provisional views" (從見假入空) and "entering emptiness from provisional thoughts" (從思假入空): one must both see through the reification in concepts and loosen attachments at the actual arising of emotions and desires.

The core method of contemplation of emptiness is the fourfold examination. The verse cited in the *Mohe zhiguan* states:

“諸法不自生，亦不從他生，不共不無因，是故說無生。” *Dharmas do not arise from themselves, nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause; therefore they are said to be unarisen.*

This verse originates from Nagarjuna's *Mūlamadhyamakakārikā* (《中論·觀因緣品》, "Examination of Conditions"). The so-called four positions (四句, *catuṣkoṭi*) exhaustively examine the possible ways a fixed arising of a phenomenon could occur:

1. Self-arising (自生): Does it arise from itself? If it already completely existed prior to arising, it would not need to arise again; if it does not yet exist, a non-existent "self" cannot give birth to itself. 2. Arising from another (他生): Is it produced solely by an "other" that is entirely unrelated to it and possesses a completely independent nature? If things without any relation could produce it, anything should be able to produce anything. What the scriptures negate is not conditional interaction, but an independent other-entity possessing a unilateral, fixed generative function. 3. Joint arising (共生): Is it produced jointly by self-entity and another-entity? If neither self-arising nor other-arising can be established on its own, adding two causes that cannot stand independently will still not produce a fixed self-nature. 4. Causeless arising (無因生): Does it suddenly arise without any conditions whatsoever? If it were truly uncaused, all things should randomly appear anytime and anywhere, rendering spiritual practice and the creation of karma (造業) completely meaningless.

Since none of the four positions can establish a fixed, self-sufficient "arising," it is called unarisen (無生, *anutpāda*). "Unarisen" here does not mean that phenomena visible to the physical eye never appear; rather, it means phenomena have never arisen in a manner of possessing self-nature. Arising through dependent origination (緣起, *pratītyasamutpāda*) can still stand, but arising of self-nature is unfindable.

From this, there are two further levels:

- **Emptiness of nature (性空, *svabhāva-śūnyatā*)**: "Investigating nature through the four positions, no nature is seen." Examining self-arising, other-arising, joint arising, and causeless arising yields no fixed arising nature; this is called nature emptiness; the *Mohe zhiguan* calls it "shattering nature at the level of conventional truth" (世諦破性). - **Emptiness of characteristics (相空, *lakṣaṇa-śūnyatā*)**: "Investigating names through the four positions, no names are seen." Not only is substantial entity unfindable, but upon further observation, the names and characteristics we use to frame it are also established merely based on relationships, functions, and consensus, without an absolute boundary; this is called characteristics emptiness; this is "shattering the provisional at the level of ultimate truth" (真諦破假).

For example, "failure" seems like a person's fixed identity. First, examine its "nature": it is not innately self-formed, nor is it an entity shoved in from the outside by a single performance review, nor is it a physical thing produced jointly by "innate nature plus review," let alone appearing without cause. Next, examine its "name": when scores, job titles, peer comparisons, and family expectations change, the scope and meaning of "failure" change accordingly. The event and consequences remain, but the unchangeable ontology of "a failure" can never be found. This is advancing from nature emptiness to characteristics emptiness, rather than escaping review by saying "everything is empty."

The *Mohe zhiguan* further expands the general contemplation of emptiness into the Eighteen Emptinesses (十八空, *aṣṭādaśa śūnyatāḥ*): internal emptiness, external emptiness, internal-and-external emptiness, emptiness of emptiness, emptiness of nature, emptiness of characteristics, great emptiness, ultimate-truth emptiness, conditioned emptiness, unconditioned emptiness, beginningless emptiness, dispersed emptiness, ultimate emptiness, all-dharmas emptiness, ungraspable emptiness, emptiness of existing dharmas, emptiness of non-existing dharmas, and emptiness of non-existing and existing dharmas. They are not eighteen competing types of "emptiness," but rather safeguards to prevent the mind from re-establishing entities in different corners:

- Internal emptiness, external emptiness, internal-and-external emptiness: Observed from three angles—internal mind-and-body, external realms, and internal-external relationships—none possess independent self-nature. - Emptiness of emptiness: Even the concept of "emptiness," which breaks attachments, cannot be clung to as an entity; once medicine cures an illness, one cannot turn the medicine into a new illness. - Emptiness of nature, emptiness of characteristics: Respectively shatter the grasping at fixed essence and the grasping at the boundaries of nominal characteristics. - Great emptiness, ultimate-truth emptiness: Do not establish substantial nature within broad domains like the universe or directions, nor solidify ultimate truth into a possessable, ultimate object. - Conditioned emptiness, unconditioned emptiness: Conditioned dharmas that arise and cease by conditions lack self-nature; dharmas termed unconditioned also cannot become new entities of attachment. - Beginningless emptiness, dispersed emptiness: Even when tracing back to beginningless transmigration, or observing the dispersion and destruction of dharmas, one cannot find a real self or real dharma running throughout from beginning to end or hiding behind dispersion and destruction. - Ultimate emptiness, all-dharmas emptiness, ungraspable emptiness: Emptiness is not peeling away appearances temporarily to leave a core behind; carried to the ultimate, no self-nature can be grasped or obtained in any dharma. - Emptiness of existing dharmas, emptiness of non-existing dharmas, emptiness of non-existing and existing dharmas: One cannot establish entities on "existence," nor reify "non-existence"; the conceptual frameworks of existence, non-existence, and their combination must not be stubbornly attached to.

This layer-by-layer unfolding is meant to prevent a common situation: just as one lets go of "existence," one grabs onto "emptiness"; just as one stops clinging to external realms, one begins clinging to "I have realized ungraspability."

There is also a distinction between "analytical emptiness" (析空) and "experiential emptiness" (體空). The *Mohe zhiguan* states: "Analytical emptiness is exclusive to the Śrāvaka/Lesser Vehicle; experiential emptiness is shared by both Lesser and Greater Vehicles." Analytical emptiness focuses on dissecting provisionally combined dharmas layer by layer, observing that they consist of parts and conditions, ultimately finding no entity; experiential emptiness observes directly on the present dharma: right as it manifests, it stands relying on conditions and is empty in its immediate reality, without needing to wait until it is dismantled or extinguished to become empty.

Take a cart as an example: analytical emptiness observes the wheels, frame, power system, etc., noting that apart from parts and combinatory relationships, there is no other physical "cart"; experiential emptiness sees further that even while the whole cart is traveling at high speed, "cart" is established merely upon parts, functions, uses, cognition, and naming, lacking independent cart-nature right in the present moment. The two are not a simple distinction between "low-level analysis" and "high-level intuition." The *Mohe zhiguan* explicitly reminds us that contemplation of emptiness spans the Lesser Vehicle, Greater Vehicle, provisional teachings, and perfect teachings; one must clearly distinguish the levels of doctrine and contemplation, and not assume that hearing the same word "emptiness" means the doctrinal principle is completely identical.

If one still cannot awaken and enter through the four positions of cause and effect, one can observe "provisionality of continuity" (相續假): how exactly do previous thoughts and subsequent thoughts constitute a continuous "self"? If the previous thought has already ceased, how does it pass itself to the subsequent thought? If it has not ceased, how do we distinguish between before and after? If it is both ceased and unceased, it still suffers from the difficulties of both sides; if it is neither ceased nor unceased, one still cannot derive a substantial continuous entity from this. The experience of continuity is not denied, but outside the moment-to-moment flux, no other unchanging master can be found.

Contemplation of emptiness is simultaneously connected to the precepts (戒, *śīla*). The *Mohe zhiguan* states: "Contemplating that dharmas arisen from cause and condition are immediately empty—this is upholding precepts through contemplation of emptiness." Drawing upon the raft metaphor from the *Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* (《金剛般若波羅蜜經》, *Diamond Sūtra*), it quotes: "Even dharmas should be abandoned, how much more so non-dharmas?" This by no means implies that good and evil are empty, so precepts need not be kept; rather, the exact meaning is: do not cling to non-dharmas, nor turn the precepts one upholds into tools for self-superiority, attacking others, or seeking identity. This is called "precepts in accord with the path" and "unattached precepts," capable of "preventing delusions of thought and harmoniously according with ultimate truth." For the original text of the *Diamond Sūtra*, see [Kumarajiva's translation of the *Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra*](https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T0235_001).

Contemplation of emptiness is not the entirety of the path to liberation. Among Tiantai's Three Contemplations of Emptiness, Provisionality, and Middle (空、假、中三觀): contemplation of emptiness shatters entity-grasping; contemplation of the provisional illuminates the distinctions of dependent origination, cause-and-effect functions, and skillful means for benefiting sentient beings; contemplation of the middle abides in neither side of emptiness nor existence. The three are not three mutually isolated rooms. The *Mohe zhiguan* states: "Such three sicknesses arise within a single mind; such subjugations are subjugated within a single contemplation." Using the names of three contemplations serves to show different aspects of single-mind contemplation.

Therefore, the direction of maturity in contemplation of emptiness is not retreating from the human world, but withdrawing from attachment and then entering causes and conditions with greater clarity. The famous line "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form" in the *Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra* (《般若波羅蜜多心經》, *Heart Sūtra*) precisely prevents understanding emptiness as the disappearance of physical form: form lacks self-nature relying on conditions, and precisely because it lacks self-nature, it can manifest relying on conditions. "Form" (色, *rūpa*) here refers not only to the physical body, but includes all form, materiality, and realms characterized by mutability and resistance. See [Xuanzang's translation of the *Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra*](https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T0251_001).

A Walkthrough in Daily Life

Imagine a very common scenario in an intimate relationship: you have been busy all day, and at night you send a long message. After a long time, the other person replies with just two words: "Okay then." You immediately think: "He doesn't care about me at all."

Do not rush to suppress your emotion with "emptiness." Contemplation of emptiness does not ask you to pretend you are not hurt, but to see this single thought completely and clearly.

First, identify present causes and conditions.

The two words on the phone screen, the waiting time, your fatigue, past experiences of being ignored, the other person's usual style of expression, your expectations for intimacy, and the current physical tension in your body together constitute this moment. The easiest place to misinterpret is treating "arisen from causes and conditions" as making excuses for the other person. Seeing conditions does not equal canceling responsibility; it merely pauses freezing a single piece of behavior into a person's eternal essence.

Second, distinguish between "provisional views" and "provisional thoughts."

"He didn't reply in time, so he has never cared about me"—this is where views begin to reify, belonging to the part that can be examined via "entering emptiness from provisional views."

A warming chest, repeatedly refreshing, wanting to send a sarcastic message, wanting to block them immediately—these are habit-energies such as craving validation and angry retaliation currently igniting, belonging to the part observed via "entering emptiness from provisional thoughts."

The most common mistake is analyzing principles intellectually without admitting that body and emotions are already embroiled; or merely soothing emotions while continuing to treat "he's just that kind of person" as a fact.

Third, examine the judgment "he doesn't care about me" using the four positions.

- Is it self-arisen? If this judgment were originally hidden completely inside oneself, it should appear identically no matter what message was received; in fact, this is not the case. - Is it arisen from another solely from the two words "Okay then"? If the words themselves contained fixed "lack of care," anyone reading them in any context should reach the exact same conclusion; in fact, this is also not the case. - Is it jointly arisen from a fixed "me" and fixed "words"? Since neither of the former two can find independent fixedness, adding them together cannot produce an absolute explanation. - Is it causelessly arisen? Obviously not. Fatigue, past wounds, expectations, and context all participated in its formation.

Thus you see: the feeling of being hurt genuinely arises, but "he definitely doesn't care about me" is not a fixed truth that automatically leaps out from inside the facts.

Fourth, see nature emptiness.

This single judgment has no fixed method of arising; anger is also not an entity living in the heart waiting to appear at any moment. It intensifies with conditions, and changes with breathing, sleep, new information, understanding, and communication. This is called investigating nature without seeing nature; it is not announcing "I have no emotions."

Fifth, see characteristics emptiness.

Look again at the name "lack of care": Is it not replying in time? Is it not explaining? Is it failing to meet expectations? In different relationships, situations, and cultural habits, its boundaries vary. The name serves a communicative function, but lacks an absolute, self-established substance. This is investigating names without seeing names.

Sixth, observe the provisionality of continuity.

You might be angry for half an hour continuously, thinking: "My anger has remained unchanged." Looking closely, however, you discover it is a sequence of different events: seeing text, mentally filling in tone, recalling past events, imagining the future, rehearsing a comeback. The preceding thought and subsequent thought are connected, but they do not form a single, unbroken, immobile entity of anger.

Seventh, do not abide in emptiness; return to the provisional and the middle.

At this point, instead of saying to yourself "since everything is empty, there's no need to talk," you take action according to causes and conditions: "You only replied 'Okay then' just now, which made me feel a bit disappointed, and I realized I might have added a lot of my own interpretations. Are you too exhausted right now, or do you have a different perspective on this matter?"

This sentence acknowledges the feeling without adding an entity judgment to it; it acknowledges that the other person's behavior has an impact without pinning them down permanently. Contemplation of emptiness loosens attachments, contemplation of the provisional discerns concrete conditions and communication methods, and contemplation of the middle prevents falling into either "he absolutely doesn't love me" or "nothing happened at all."

Checking when scrolling on a phone works similarly. A push notification makes you feel "I must click this open"; it is not that the algorithm created desire in isolation, nor that there is an eternal greed inside your body, nor that the two combined into a physical "addiction," nor is it uncaused. Notification colors, intermittent rewards, boredom, stress, habit, and content predictions all participate. So-called "the algorithm understands me" is usually just a model making probabilistic predictions based on data; this helps us understand how conditions shape attention, but cannot be used to claim science has proven Buddhism, let alone equating statistical models with the mind described in Buddhism. Algorithmic mechanisms can be measured, but subjective experience, the sense of self, and the nature of consciousness still contain many unresolved questions.

What contemplation of emptiness provides here is not a mystical explanation, but a gap of freedom: impulses arise based on conditions, so conditions can be rearranged—turning off notifications, moving the phone away, noticing anxiety, giving fatigue genuine rest. Lack of self-nature is not helplessness; rather, it means transformability.

Why Contemporary People Need It

One thing modern life excels at is packaging temporary states into fixed identities: a single mistake becomes "I am a failure," a temporary slump becomes "my life is ruined," a conflict becomes "he is purely malicious," and a consumer preference becomes "this is who I truly am." Platforms, brands, and social groups constantly invite us to confirm ourselves through labels.

Contemplation of emptiness does not tell people to have no identity, but to see the instrumental nature of identity. Professions, relationships, diagnostic names, and social roles may all be very important and bring real consequences; but they are established relying on numerous conditions and cannot exhaust a person. In this way, one avoids denying reality while also avoiding being imprisoned for life by a single name within reality.

It also provides three important liberating forces.

First, liberation from "it must be this way."

Craving often upgrades conditional needs into existential commands: "Only if I get this position do I have value." Contemplation of emptiness does not cancel effort, but asks: Is value truly sealed inside a job position? On what conditions do position, evaluation, and the sense of self respectively depend? When that immovable equals sign loosens, one can still work diligently without having to sacrifice one's entire life for a single outcome.

Second, liberation from "I am just like this."

Habits recurring repeatedly does not mean there is an unchangeable nature behind them. Why delusions of thought are difficult to sever is because they possess long-term habitual perfuming (熏習, *vāsanā*) and continuous force; contemplation of emptiness is certainly not "healed the moment one understands it." But if habit-energies had a fixed self-nature, spiritual practice would be completely impossible. Precisely because they arise from conditions, adjustments in precepts, concentration, wisdom, and living conditions can redirect the continuity.

Third, liberation from moral superiority.

Contemplation of emptiness in upholding precepts is especially important. A person might no longer cling to sensory pleasures, yet cling to "I am a clearer, purer person"; no longer building a self through desires, but building a self through spiritual achievements. The *Diamond Sūtra* says "even dharmas should be abandoned, how much more so non-dharmas"; this is not abandoning good dharmas, but not carrying the raft on one's back after crossing the river, and not turning the Buddhadharma into a new self-grasping (我執, *ātma-grāha*). Genuine non-attachment does not weaken responsibility; rather, it makes good deeds carry less performance, control, and self-reward.

Across the entire path to liberation, contemplation of emptiness fulfills the key work of "loosening substantial grasping." Precepts prevent behavior from continuing to generate coarse entanglements, concentration gives the mind the ability for stable observation, and wisdom sees as it truly is that self and dharmas lack self-nature. Contemplation of emptiness belongs to wisdom-contemplation, yet it cannot detach from precepts and concentration to become mere conceptual games; otherwise, when afflictions arrive, one speaks of emptiness with one's mouth while one's behavior remains driven by old habits.

On the Bodhisattva path (菩薩道, *bodhisattva-mārga*), contemplation of emptiness must also be linked with skillful means (方便, *upāya*) and compassion (慈悲, *karuṇā*). Seeing that "sentient beings" lack fixed self-nature is not thinking there are no sentient beings to care for; precisely because suffering arises relying on conditions, changing the conditions of suffering becomes possible. The *Mohe zhiguan* uses the metaphor of the "emptiness wolf" subjugating the "affliction sheep" to illustrate that contemplation of emptiness can subdue afflictions; yet Bodhisattva practice does not stop at individual tranquility, but enters the distinctions of causes and conditions to practice the six perfections (六度, *ṣaṭ-pāramitāḥ*) and benefit sentient beings.

Common Misreadings and Clarifications

1. "Emptiness means nothing exists."

This mistakes emptiness for annihilationism (斷滅, *uccheda-dṛṣṭi*). The *Mohe zhiguan* explicitly warns: "If one does not obtain the skillful means of prajñā, entering emptiness falls into non-existence." Emptiness negates self-nature existence, not dependently arisen existence. Fire lacks self-nature, yet it still burns; language lacks self-nature, yet it can still save or harm people; karmic actions lack self-nature, yet they still yield fruits according to conditions.

2. "Since it is empty in its immediate reality, there is no need to analyze causes and conditions."

"Experiential emptiness" is not skipping causes and conditions to announce everything as empty by intuition. So-called immediate emptiness is precisely because immediate reality IS dependent origination, lacking a dharma-entity independent of conditions. If one cannot see concrete conditions, so-called experiential emptiness easily degenerates into an abstract slogan.

3. "The fourfold examination proves that nothing has ever been produced."

What the four positions refute is self-nature arising: arising from oneself alone, arising from an other alone, arising jointly from self and other with fixed natures, or arising without any conditions. It does not negate conditional arising at the conventional level. When water, temperature, tea leaves, utensils, and operation are present, tea will be brewed; but apart from these conditions, no independently self-formed "tea" can be found.

4. "Characteristics emptiness means names can be changed arbitrarily and facts will disappear accordingly."

Characteristics emptiness shows that names are established based on convention, distinction, and relationships, not that naming has no constraints. Renaming harm as "growth opportunities" will not cancel the sufferer's pain; renaming exploitation as "striving culture" will not change actual labor conditions. Contemplation of emptiness shatters the substantiality of names while demanding a more accurate observation of what conditions names obscure.

5. "Contemplation of emptiness is suppressing feelings."

Suppression is "not allowing oneself to feel pain"; contemplation of emptiness is seeing completely how pain forms without mistaking it for a fixed self. Feelings need to be acknowledged before attachment can potentially be illuminated. Using "everything is empty" to stop oneself or others from grieving is using Buddhist language to evade experience, not contemplating emptiness.

6. "Ungraspability means not learning, not practicing, and not taking responsibility."

Ungraspability (無所得, *anupalambha*) refutes the imagination of a possessable, solidifiable enlightenment, not the practice of the path. Just as there is no single physical entity of "health" that can be permanently possessed, yet one must still eat, sleep, and exercise; there is no possessable entity of merit, yet one must still uphold precepts, cultivate concentration, contemplate wisdom, and benefit sentient beings.

7. "Contemplation of emptiness already contains all of Buddhadharma, so contemplation of the provisional and middle can be discarded."

If after contemplating emptiness one despises distinctions, cause-and-effect, and sentient beings, one very likely stops at lopsided emptiness. Contemplation of the provisional allows one to re-observe the myriad distinct functions of dependent origination; contemplation of the middle keeps the mind from fixing upon either emptiness or existence. The three contemplations can be explained separately, yet within a single mind they mutually identify and interpenetrate; mature contemplation of emptiness inevitably makes room for skillful means and compassion.

8. "After understanding lack of self-nature, delusions of view and thought will disappear immediately."

Agreeing with the meaning of emptiness conceptually may touch delusions of view, but will not necessarily change delusions of thought. A person can completely explain dependent origination clearly, yet still immediately retaliate when criticized. Therefore, the *Mohe zhiguan* separately establishes "entering emptiness from provisional views" and "entering emptiness from provisional thoughts": one must both break erroneous views and actually contemplate, uphold precepts, and harmonize the mind in every arising of greed and anger.

The deepest wisdom of contemplation of emptiness is not telling people "the world has no meaning," but revealing a more hopeful fact: no suffering, identity, relationship, or affliction remains eternally so by virtue of a fixed self-nature. Since they are formed relying on conditions, they can also be understood, borne, and transformed within causes and conditions.

Yet contemplation of emptiness must ultimately put itself down as well. If one grasps "all dharmas are empty" as an absolute answer, emptiness becomes a new entity; if because of seeing emptiness one is better able to respect cause and effect, less obstinate about oneself, more capable of understanding others, while not evading the responsibilities one ought to bear, contemplation of emptiness truly enters the path to liberation from a line of doctrine.