[Buddha-l] Re: Emptiness

[curt]

Jim Peavler wrote:
>
>  Emptiness, as an experience is, if I have experienced it, quite a 
> terrifying state of mind to come out of the first time or two because 
> I, at least, am completely disoriented. Or it may be my senility 
> kicking in.
>
>

I think there are "nice" emptinesses - and some that aren't so nice. 
There's the "in love with everything" emptiness - and then there's the 
"abyss". I am definitely not a big fan of the abyss.

I think the experience of "the abyss" is a lot like that Twilight Zone 
episode where the guy who loves to read is the only person who survives 
a nuclear war that wipes out the entire human race - he survives because 
he is deep in the sub-sub basement on his lunch break doing what he 
loved to do - read. At first he freaks out - but then he is thrilled 
when he finds a library - now he doesn't have anyone or anything to 
distract him - and he starts planning the rest of his life based on 
reading all the books he has wanted to read - but never had enough time 
to before. And then he drops his glasses and steps on them! The episode 
even has it's own wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last

Curt Steinmetz