Reading Highlight

The possibility of fear occurring at times during these meditations we will address later as the practices develop.4 Sometimes though, this fear arises even when simply hearing about the voidness of the self or of things. It is important then to point out right here that we are not trying to annihilate the self through these teachings or practices. Rather, we are seeking to understand something about the self and all phenomena – their emptiness, their fabricated and illusory nature. And this emptiness is true of the self and of all things anyway, even now, whether I’m aware of it or not. Nothing changes in the actual reality – the ontological status – of the self or of phenomena through practice. We are simply realizing a fact that has been true all along. And this realization frees.