The Blesses Buddha once
said: Not attending to the experience of
people, or of city, the monk focuses on the
single, even, and same experience of Forest...! His mind
is absorbed into that pure experience
of Forest and he acquires assured confidence,
fixed imperturbability, and determination. There and then he understands: Whatever agitation there always was in the
experience of city and people, all that is absent here.. Here only remains a minor
distraction rooted
in this silent, sweet, same, single and even experience of endless
Forest! Thus he understands: This field of
mental state is indeed void of the experience of
the
buzz and stress of people and city. There is present only this stilled sameness condensed on
the experience of Forest.
He regards the present state as void of what actually is absent,
while what now actually still remains in presence, that he notes as still
actually present.. This, Ananda is the very first step in the gradual, genuine,
undistorted, ancient and pure
descent
into Voidness... Again and 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,
and 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
kinetic 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
and 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 and
pure descent into voidness...
Source: The Middle Length Discourses of the
Buddha. 121 [iii 106] The minor speech on Voidness.
