Emptiness

In this world of emptiness, the dimensions of space and time no longer exist, since all distinctions between here and there, now or never have been wiped out. Nothing comes into existence or passes into extinction, because terms such as being or nonbeing have no meaning here. Because of its underlying unity, all things in it interpenetrate with one another and share one another's identity, which leads the Mahayana proponents to assert that all beings partake of the Buddha nature and hence have the potential to attain Buddhahood. And the same reasoning leads them to proclaim that earthly desires are none other than Bodhi or the state of enlightenment, and that samsara, the ordinary world of suffering, is none other than nirvana.

---Burton Watson---