I am delighted to present a new article by Dharmacari Satyadhana for Western Buddhist Review. It is a translation and commentary on a discourse from the Middle-length sayings of the Buddha, 'The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness', in which the Buddha teaches Ananda about how to dwell in the realization of ´sūnyatā or emptiness, by dwelling successively in each of a series of increasingly refined realizations called 'the formless realms'. But the article is more than this - it is a commentary on how we ourselves can understand and practice with these formless realms, based on Satyadhana's own experience.

I believe that this article represents an exciting development in our understanding of early Buddhism, as it opens up the meaning of some practices taught by the Buddha that have remained obscure. This article also represents an exciting development for Western Buddhist Review, as it is a valuable piece of scholarly translation, but concerned with practice and realisation. Most importantly, Satyadhana's work puts some abstruse meditative teachings into contemporary language and experience - I imagine quite a few of us will be printing out the article and taking it on retreat!

Click here to find other articles from Vol.6, or click on the 'resources' tab above.