"Forms" of Emptiness

   In the Multifaith Center tonight, the third floor Quiet Room is being used by Tibetan Buddhist monastics to create a sand mandala, which will be later destroyed on Friday evening. The event itself  is a reminder that things don't last forever, even when a person devotes their whole body and mind to a process. I would imagine that it would take depth of practice and courage for the monastics to focus on something that they know will be destroyed in a matter of a week. And I admire their ability to stay with the principle of dedicating themselves to building such an intricate work of art, even when the work will leave little or no trace after the week's end.
      We were discussing in our group sharing tonight the various ways that we contemplate emptiness. One such way is simply to contemplate the skeleton that is underneath or underlying all human beings. Another way that was suggested by one of the practitioners is to see people as animals of sorts, or even to compare human beings to other beings to see their commonalities. I suppose this kind of practice does indeed help people to realize that they are to be treated with compassion, knowing that they suffer the same impulses or desires of all sentient beings. And it goes beyond particularizing  a person according to their class or appearance. I even recall a book by zoologist Desmond Morris, The Human Zoo, which dealt with the theme of humans being advanced primates who do things on a scale similar to other related sentient beings. Of course, the practice has limits, but the point is to show one's interconnection with other beings, and to emphasize commonality over difference. It is also to broaden one's perspective and take it out of the narrow view that humans are somehow dominant or specially chosen beings.
    The two examples I suggest above are also examples of everyday experiences of emptiness. Contemplating the skeleton is an example, which can get beyond the idea that there are these static, unchanging appearances in bodies. The skeleton reminds people that their bodies age, get sick, and die, after which they re-enter a material universe, to be recycled into new life forms. I recall being in Kensington Market last week, discovering this special line of clothing and paraphernalia which deals with 'images of death'. Here you have sweaters and scarves with skulls on them. They even have a 'mint' called 'zombie mint' which presumably emulates the taste and smell of death! (The ingredients read "raw meat flavor", if that gives you any idea). I am wondering if fashion has perhaps gone too far in subverting itself. While traditional fashion focuses on the clean, sanitized and eternally young body, 'death' fashion subverts this view by calling attention to what lies underneath the skin itself. Does such a fashion get to the bottom of who people are? Does it help lessen people's attachment to their bodies, or is it just another fashion fad?
      There are many ways that discourses and images can transform a static image into something that challenges permanence. I think the important thing is not even to attach to the images themselves, but simply to contemplate them as reminders. Certain kinds of fashion emphasize death symbolism (such as Goth style) but it seems that this only commodifies symbols of death into new packages, making the concept of emptiness and change seem safe and innocuous. There is potential there for insight into constant change, but there is also the possibility of fetishizing death, or simply denying it by making its meaning into something static. The same can be said about the Buddhist concept of emptiness, especially if people take it to mean that life has 'no meaning' whatsoever. The human mind naturally wants to make impermanence into a static concept, so that its scarier potentials are hidden or even denied.