A major error which people make in attempting to understand emptiness is that they do not go far enough, or carry it to its logical conclusion.

Utilizing a talk by the Dalai Lama and quotations by Shantideva as his basis, B. Alan Wallace writes, “In short, every possible entity, with exception, lacks an intrinsic nature.”

An entity is anything which is substantial or insubstantial. And intrinsic nature means the same thing as inherent existence, or ultimate reality.

For a start–and this is a key to all else that follows—“every possible entity, without exception” must include you.

In other words, from the standpoint of ajata, your own reality—beyond the appearance—is not (and has not ever been) actually existent.

When you understand that you and your mind are false presumptions, it must be clear that any entities which you and your mind conceive, must likewise be false conceptions—from your assumption that a universe exists, as a reality, on down.

For example, where the confusion begins is not simply that you (or anything else) are “impermanent,” but that you as an entity do not exist, to even be permanent or impermanent. “Ultimately, the object itself does not exist, so it has no ‘properties’ such as impermanence.”

So the point is, we come to question not whether such and such an entity is lacking in inherent existence of such and such qualities, but is the entity itself totally lacking an inherent existence.

When we come to see that all things are empty of reality, and apply that recognition consistently, we cut through the confusions.

For example, in approaching the subject of emptiness it is said that there are two truths: the ‘truth’ to the unawakened (“The universe exists”), and the deeper truth (“The universe only appears to exist”)—the conventional truth, and the ultimate truth.

But both of these (insubstantial) entities—these truths—are empty of inherent reality, and that’s where our attention ought to go from the start.

So, is there “awakening” (or lack of it), or is that a concept or idea which is empty of meaning?

Is there a “mind” which is awakened, or is that an empty supposition?

Is “existence” itself an empty concept?