Form is emptiness,
emptiness is form
form is not other than emptiness;
emptiness is not other than form.

~ Prajnaparamita (The Heart Sutra)

There are no essences, experiences or insights that capture what is: form is emptiness.

But emptiness is not nothing; for then it would be something other than what is, or its negation. And it is not: emptiness is no other than form.

Emptiness and form are flip sides of the same coin. They are what is, ever-present but never anywhere in particular. This cannot be grasped by the mind because being cannot be known as being. Only thoughts can be known.

This is the challenge of being awake: to be without knowing it.

One tries to negate thoughts by thinking not this, not that... as in MU! Or as in the Heart Sutra's“No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body mind: no color, sound, smell, taste, touch or what the mind takes hold of”. Still, thoughts keep splitting the mind off from itself, reproducing separation from being, constantly knowing. Practicing like this is a blood bath of cutting without the mind ever cutting into itself.

But practice can be as painless as surrender. The mantra of the perfection of wisdom goes: om gate gate paragate paramsamgate bodhi svaha. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone way beyond! One awakens, not via words or thoughts or even compassion, but by going through the gateless gate of one's heartmind opening to what is.