emptiness
is a cupless cup
without shape
formless and lucid
luminous with light
precisely positioned
between
heaven and earth
where the space within
is completely transparent
unspoken, without words
where
a single raindrop
fragile and compliant
essential in form
falling quickly or gently
may be caught
and collected
to be seen
as a reflection
unstated in its purity
as a thought
arising out of
of our beingness
coming into being
faintly glowing at first
as the vividness
of daybreak
becomes brighter
and brighter
as we awaken
to each dayeach thought, understood
explicitly expressed
guided by wisdom
in the mystery, which is God
which is creationwhich is infinite
which is reality
which we create
from ourselves
where we hold
with breathlessness,
many new beginnings
being and becoming
where we hold
each new creation
in the holiness
of the heart
arising out of
each sacred moment
of the day,
in the smallest of things
in kindness freely given
and unasked for
accepted with graciousness
in compassion found
in the strangest of places
almost alien in encounter
in grace given
out of our desire
to heal and repair
each human heartwhere all people
are one
where we empty
ourselvesto become
as one
Ron Starbuck
Copyright 2009
The Kenosis Hymn - Philippians 2:5-8
Kenosis is the Greek word for emptiness.
5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
In Buddhist philosophy, Śūnyatā (shoon-yuh-tah) is the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality. Śūnyatā is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise. Its full implications were developed by the 2nd-century Indian philosopher Nagarjuna and the school of philosophy founded by him, the Madhyamika (Middle Way), is sometimes called the Sunyavada, or Doctrine That All Is Void.
Genesis 1 (21st Century King James Version) - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.