Form is empty. It has a form, but no substance; it is neither matter nor energy. Form is consciousness - seeing something as something produces form. However, form is also functional: substance, matter and energy interact according to laws. As part of consciousness, they interact in form. Form is emptiness. Form is consciousness. Consciousness interacts with consciousness. Form gives rise to matter - not the other way around. Matter does not produce form.
The flow of energy and matter - from individual atoms to geological currents, biological growth and cosmic noise - flows through the cosmos. Sometimes this flow is concentrated, as on our blue planet. Life energy, chi, lives itself out here. Chi shapes.
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The Dao, Chi - they give being a consciousness. That being, however, is not what we understand as matter; it precedes everything. Being (Sat) eludes our understanding. When it takes on form, it begins to act, to form - it enters into the process of the universe. It begins to act. But action requires a guiding force - on a large and small scale, in the cosmos and in me and in everything that exists. Stones are less controlled than cats. People steer themselves - and others.
However, there is a primordial soul (Purusha).
I look up at the sunny mountains in Bodhi Zendo. The clouds touch the mountain tops, the birds migrate through the blue sky. Avocados hover over the horizon. A bamboo bends into the open space with inner emptiness.
