apart, empty, missing

... Being Mu, nothing but Mu. Just inhaling, just exhaling, the breath just as it is, without getting tense, without judging, weighing, or considering. Just this.

Nothing But Mu — Maurine Stuart

"The self is inherently illusory .... There is no God with which to merge. Instead, our true inner nature is a vast, still emptiness."

Buddhish — C Pierce Salguero

I would swallow my pride,
I would choke on the rinds,
But the lack thereof would leave me empty inside.
I would swallow my doubt,
Turn it inside out,
Find nothing but faith in nothing.
...

Nothing But Faith in Nothing — 1998 song by Eve 6 titled "Inside Out" ...

To know emptiness is not just to understand the concept. It is more like stumbling into a clearing in the forest, where suddenly you can move freely and see clearly. To experience emptiness is to experience the shocking absence of what normally determines the sense of who you are and the kind of reality you inhabit. It may last only a moment before the habits of a lifetime reassert themselves and close in once more. But for that moment, we witness ourselves and the world as open and vulnerable.

... Shul — Stephen Batchelor, in Buddhism Without Beliefs, in the chapter titled "Emptiness"

... Yet the void created by this crisis may be an unexpected gift. This emptiness presents to us a mystical and uncluttered view of life as we have been living it until a few weeks ago. Life will never be the same. Each day, it becomes more apparent that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to consider a fundamental question about the spirit and morality of our way of living: Having emptied ourselves, what do we really want to fill our world with once it is time to rebuild?

Now on Sundays as I look out over a field of silent pews, I am reminded that self-emptying is, in fact, a divine virtue. Christian tradition calls it kenosis, the Greek word taken from the famous passage of Paul's Letter to the Philippians, in which he writes, "Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself."

Early Christian thinkers viewed Jesus' kenosis is a sign of divine supreme power, not the loss of it. The sight of Jesus' empty tomb was the first sign of his resurrection, believed by Christians to be God's greatest act. Now that I have adjusted somewhat to the emptiness, I find myself keeping vigil with the opportunity of this time, hoping that something better will be on the other side.

The Christian contemplative Cynthia Bourgeault writes that we can emulate Jesus' self-emptying love in our own lives by practicing letting go of the things, thoughts and feelings we cling to. This insight is more often associated with other religious and spiritual traditions.

The Tao Te Ching teaches that the usefulness of the clay vessel lies in its empty hollowness. Mahayana Buddhists use the spiritual discipline of meditation to cultivate an acceptance of emptiness, or sunyata, using the famous Heart Sutra: "Emptiness is form, form is emptiness." The lesson transcends religious divides; emptiness is not something to fear but to explore as a spiritual reality that leads to detachment from self-interest and greater compassion for the world. ...

Emptiness Blessings — Steven Paulikas