Emptiness: Robert Wolfe on the ultimate teaching of ajata/sunyata

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"Robert Wolfe condenses the teachings of ajata, sunyata or emptiness and describes the connection of these Vedanta and Buddhist teachings to the teachings of nonduality or Advaita. From the book: Ajata is a term associated with Advaita Vedanta. Sunyata is a term associated with Buddhism. Both Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism have their roots in India. Buddha's teachings on emptiness were the subject of a school of writers known largely as Madhyamaka (also spelled Madhyamika), who embraced the writings of the Indian monk Nagarjuna, from around 200 A.D. The ajata of the Indian nonduality teacher Guadapada and the sunyata of the Indian monk Chandrakirti (or Candrakirti), around 600 A.D., were evidently an influence on each other. The point of these teachings is that the basic condition, or "ultimate reality", is emptiness. Not any reality (or dharma) has ever had a beginning. Therefore, anything which is supposed to exist, or be real, is in truth without substance. While things may appear to be real, all appearances are empty, and therefore have no true existence beyond their appearance. In other words, life as we think we know it is purely an illusion. Not anything has ever been created, or born. To the person who supposes that his life and death and the turmoil of this world are real, the realization of the truth of emptiness has little appeal. But those to whom an enlightened realization is the climax of life, emptiness is the final end to which nonduality points. There is much written material on enlightenment, in both Vedanta and Buddhism, but-due likely to the difficulty of communicating such a difficult subject-the sources for material on emptiness are not abundant. Yet as the teachings of nonduality become more prominent in the West and the result is a greater number of the awakened, material on emptiness will be more widely sought"-- Provided by publisher