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Formlessness — 12 years ago — permalink

"Religious" is a difficult word. I would say that meditation has given me insight into the nature of reality, because it has given me insight into the mind which I use to experience and live in reality. All our experiences are interpreted by our mind conceptually. We make connections and distinctions using conceptual structures, which are conditioned by language, behaviour patterns, brain wiring etc. So we see a car, rather than a collection of shapes and colours. Even shapes and colours are concepts; we never see "red" but shades which more or less approximate red. With different conceptual structures, we would experience the world differently. With no conceptual structures, we would experience nothing at all. Through meditation, you can change or even shut off your conceptual mind temporarily. Without a conceptual grounding, reality is "empty", which doesn't mean that reality doesn't exist. It means that no conceptual interpretation is what reality is, though some interpretations are more useful than others.

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