Christofer and writer Jake Orthwein speak about the buddhist concept of Emptiness in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss dependent co-arising, lack of inherent existence and no-self, Rob Burbea's 'ways of looking', the baysian brain and meditation, why emptiness is liberative, 'fear of emptiness' and DPDR, and other related topics.
Jake Orthwein is a writer and filmmaker based in Santa Monica, CA. He studied film and cognitive science at the University of Southern California and currently works as Director of Media for the Psychology of Technology Institute, an academic non-profit focused on improving research on the human-technology relationship. He is also a long term meditator.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeOrthwein
Timestamps:
(0:00) - Introduction and preamble
(5:47) - What the hell is emptiness?
(13:46) - Why care about emptiness?
(21:20) - How is this different from monism or nihilism?
(30:26) - "The Bayesian Brain and Meditation"
(40:50) - Why no-self does not mean no concepts
(52:50) - Duality and reactivity
(59:03) - Holdups with emptiness in practice
(1:08:21) - Ways of practicing
(1:17:14) - Concerning awareness
(1:21:36) - Intermittent patterns of selfing
(1:32:14) - How deep this runs
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