Namaste. The series before last was about Dependent Arising, the process of becoming. And the process of becoming is the trap that causes us to be stuck in duality. But it’s also the process of enlightenment; because we have to turn that process on its head and use it to become free. We showed how the descent into duality, when it’s uprooted, and when the process of becoming ceases, then automatically the Eightfold Path and the four Path Fruits manifest automatically.

Then in the last series we showed how there is a very deep, high-level ontological alignment between the four paths and the Śaṅkarāchārya’s four darśanam, catur-darśanam, the four views. Starting from duality, that’s dvaita-vāda; then conditioned duality, viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda; then there’s the appearance of the world, vivartha-vāda; and finally the unborn, ajata-vāda. So these four stages exactly mirror the process of enlightenment given by the Buddha. And what is the goal, or what is the object of that process? Emptiness.

Now, I know, Westerners are terrified of emptiness, and not only Westerners! [laughs] One of the reasons why emptiness is not better known is within the Buddha’s followers themselves. Let me read this prediction by the Buddha:

“In times to come, monks will lose interest

—Samyutta Nikāya, Nidānavagga, Āni Sutta [SN 20.7]