Page 24 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

Conditioned existence is devoid of these characteristics of the

Unconditioned. It is, on the contrary, unsatisfactory,
impermanent, and not wholly real. For this reason the
conditioned is said to be empty of the Unconditioned, Samsara

empty Of Nirvana. What this means in practical terms is that we
should not expect to find in the flux of the relative existence

what only the Unconditioned, the Absolute can give us.

(ii) Asamskrta Sunyata, or Emptiness of the Unconditioned. Here

we see that the Unconditioned is devoid of the characteristics of
the conditioned. In the Unconditioned, in Nirvana, there is no

unhappiness or suffering, no impermanence, and no unreality,
which are characteristics of the conditioned, but only the
opposite characteristics in their fullness. This is the emptiness of

the Unconditioned, i.e. that it is empty of everything
conditioned. Just as in the conditioned one will not find the

Unconditioned, so in the Unconditioned one will not find the
conditioned.

These first two kinds of Sunyata are common to all forms of
Buddhism. Being mutually exclusive, they obviously represent a

comparatively dualistic approach. But this sort of approach is
necessary as the working basis of our spiritual life in its early
stages. We have to make this distinction, to think 'Here is the

conditioned and there is the Unconditioned; I want to get from
here to there.' We cannot help thinking in these terms in the

early stages.

According to the Hinayana tradition, Wisdom — seeing things as

they are in reality — consists in seeing objects and persons in the
external world, as well as all mental phenomena, in terms of

what are technically known as 'dharmas'. Dharma has got many
meanings. It usually

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