The Blesses Buddha once
said:
Not attending to the experience of People or City, the monk focuses on the
single,
even & same experience of Forest...! His mind
is absorbed into that experience of Forest and he acquires assured confidence,
fixed imperturbability & determination.
There & then he understands: Whatever agitation there always was in the
experience
of city & people, all that is absent here...!!! Here only remains a minor
distraction
rooted in this silent, sweet, same, single & even experience of endless
Forest!
Thus he understands: This field of experience is indeed Void of experience of
the
buzz of people & city. There is present only this stilled sameness condensed on
the experience of
Forest. Thus he regards the present state as void of what actually is
absent, while what now still remains in presence, that he notes as still
present!
This, Ananda is the very first step in the gradual, genuine, undistorted,
ancient & pure descent
into Voidness... Again & then, Ananda, by now not
attending to the experience of forest, the monk shifts
and focuses until he reaches one-pointed absorption on the single, even & same
unified
Experience of the extensive solidity of Earth...
Experience of the cohesive fluidity of Water...
Experience of the vibrating radiation of Heat...
Experience of the energetic mobility of Motion...
Experience of the infinitude of Space...
Experience of the infinitude of Consciousness...
Experience of the empty void of Nothingness...
Experience of neither perception nor
non-perception...
Experience of the signless & objectless mental
absorption...
In this void state, he understands that all other phenomena are now quite
absent!
Only the non-voidness due to the subtle signless mental absorption is still
present...
This too, Ananda, is the gradual, genuine, undistorted &
pure descent into voidness...
Source: The Middle Length Discourses of the
Buddha.
Majjhima Nikāya 121 [iii 106] The minor speech on Voidness.
