The Fullness of Emptiness

I had such an interesting experience this morning. I was gazing out my window and something very white caught my eye. It appeared quite small and distant. I had never noticed it before amidst the trees in the woods about our home.

After some attention to this "object", I realized it was indeed empty space between leaves of trees and that I was actually viewing "nothing".
And yet, in seeing this object as something, then realizing it was nothing real, only my perception of something; I felt I had stumbled unknowingly upon a great truth: the fullness of emptiness.

I felt I had experienced an awakening of sorts; something that mystics try to talk about but say words cannot describe. Words are only signs to point. And so they can't describe. Nor shall I be so presumptuous as to try.

All I can say is that a saying ascribed to Zen Buddhism now makes a little more sense to me. "At the beginning of your spiritual practice mountains are mountains and trees are trees. As you progress further on the Path mountains are no longer mountains and trees are no longer trees. But at the conclusion of your Buddhist career, on becoming Enlightened, mountains are once again mountains and trees again simply trees."

I certainly do not intend to imply I am Enlightened. I simply think this morning I caught a glimpse of the fullness that is emptiness. Or to express it another way, I caught a glimpse of the emptiness that is fullness. Yet another, the reality of emptiness.