Emptiness and Zazen
In a recent publication of Shunryu Suzuki’s talks, Becoming Yourself (New York, 2025), Suzuki says about the Buddha, “We say, ‘he attained enlightenment,’ but it may be better to say, ‘he completely forgot everything!’ He had nothing in his mind at that moment.” Suzuki adds, “To be Buddha it is necessary to give up the various bits of rubbish in the mind.” He says that this mentally cleared condition is “emptiness of mind.” (p. 12)
Chogyam Trungpa’s conception of emptiness is much the same as Suzuki’s. In Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Boston and London, 2002), Trungpa says that emptiness means “space, the absence of all conceptualized attitudes.” (pp. 197-198)
Suzuki’s equating a mind empty of thought with enlightenment throws light on Dogen’s statement in Fukanzazengi that zazen is “the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment.” It also indicates that a zazen practitioner, when he or she clears his mind of thought, does indeed sit in enlightenment.