All of us grow up being conditioned to duality; some of us hear about nonduality, and examine it. Some few of those recognize that everything that we have learned to view as a separate object or phenomenon is actually united by something that never appears to us. In the nonduality teachings, this is traditionally known as the Absolute.

All the things that we have assumed are real entities or occurrences, even things we merely think about, are impermanent forms; they all have a beginning, a duration and an ending. But that which gives this panorama its wholeness is empty of all characteristics, including form; it is empty of beginning, duration or ending.

Being without any characteristics—such as “beginning”—this empty condition has never taken form. In other words, no forms can actually originate or be created, in a condition which has never been anything other than empty. The forms that we perceive—including the forms which are perceiving, ourselves—are all empty of reality; they are illusionary. None have ever actually been created, or originated.

This means that the beginning, duration and ending of all objects and occurrences merely appears, to the unreal perceiver, to exist. Though we tend to acknowledge the impermanence of everything, the truth is that not any thing has ever even existed.

That the perceiver herself does not exist as a person—an individual, a self—is the principal discovery in nonduality. But that the unifying principle of the Absolute—to the degree that it is anything but emptiness—is equally nonexistent is difficult to recognize even for those who are Self-realized.

So, the teachings on emptiness begin with the point that form is emptiness, emptiness is form. At some stage it will be stated that “no origination” is a fundamental precept. In other words, the truth is that forms themselves (including humans) have never been originated as any thing real, or existing. There are, in truth, no actual forms to be empty; there are only (necessarily empty) illusions perceived by a perceiver who herself has no concrete reality. Forms are illusions, illusions are empty.

This can be summarized, as has been stated elsewhere. Not any thing has ever been created or originated; not anything has ever occurred or happened. What appears to be a universe, a world, a person and her life are merely that—appearances that originate to a perceiver who herself is not outside of these dream-like constructs.

As a means of making the point clear, it is said that all of these impermanent forms—universe, world, self, life, time, etc.—are empty of reality. However, there has not ever existed any thing which could be empty. This even includes any condition which could be characterized as emptiness. Not any thing has ever had an origination, or beginning.

The teachings of emptiness always lead someone to ask, “If all of this experience of life is a dream-like illusion, and the dreamer herself is not outside of it, where is this taking place? And how did it get started?” or, “Can you prove this?”

Questions cannot come from outside of the Dream (if there were anything outside of the Dream, it could only be emptiness). Questions and answers relate to what is a non-existent panorama. Even any discussion of the situation of the dream is within the Dream. Not any of this makes any difference in anything which has any reality, or is existent.

The purpose of the emptiness teachings is to show that it is possible to recognize that within the Dream not anything has any importance whatsoever. This recognition has the capacity to affect how life is lived within the Dream. But whether or not this recognition is present for anyone ultimately has no importance. Emptiness is totally empty of everything, important or not.