Exploring the emptiness of self - supporting a deeper movement towards joy, compassion and equanimity arising from insight.

The emptiness of self is one of the central aspects of the emptiness teachings at the heart of the dharma. The self is understood to be a dependently originated fabrication lacking inherent existence. At the same time in the midst of our daily lives the experience of self may feel unquestionably real. Our whole life is wrapped around this important and at times complex sense of self.

In the ‘anatta’ (not-self) practices we will become more familiar with the mind’s intuitive tendency to identify with the objects of experience; we habitually conceive of the bodily sensations, thoughts, mind states, emotions and moments of consciousness as either belonging to ourselves or as parts of our selves. In this meditation practice we learn to compassionately let go of this habitual identification and to see all experience as neither self nor belonging to self. This way of practicing can lead to a profound understanding of the nature of the self and perception, and supports a deeper movement towards joy, compassion and equanimity arising from insight.