It’s the simple truth, everything that you take to have meaning or value is just a dream. Reality is empty of our judgments about it.
As for empathy it really only works if people don’t think too hard about it: Sex And The Illusion Of Physical Form | HuffPost Life
Thank you Mriana for that little moment that speaks volumes…
You’re welcome, Write4U. 
Empathy is quite realBut damned if the neo-Republicans and their oligarch masters aren't trying to destroy it.
it’s still just imaginationWell, yeah, if you want to play games, everything our Mindscape produced is "imagination" - your point is? Oh yeah - utter Nihilism. Got it.
Life is also a Passion Play, if you engage in living it. Or it can be complete emptiness, if you don’t want to engage. Guess both realities are real, and both stranded within our own individual mindscapes, while all the little molecular machines inside our bodies go on with the business of dealing with reality, physical reality.
I hope someday there would be some way one can make certain one has the powers or not.That reminds of a joke a back in those glorious 70s - After smoking some weed, if you gotta ask yourself, am I high?, you can be sure you ain't.
When people glimpse the void they do whatever they can to forget it.You might have a point, but I'm damned sure you never have seriously touched the 'void'. You come across as all head games with no serious work behind it.
I have “touched the void” and yes, it’s like, fuck that!!! and I was done with those games. I’ll take living life any day, and then I’ll let the void have me when I die. Seems like a decent arrangement. I know there’s a small community of people who sure like having me in their lives and that matters too, though I notice you avoid any acknowledgment of the other humans in your life, let alone your responsibility to them.
(nihilism is a different kind of empty void )
Well, yeah, if you want to play games, everything our Mindscape produced is “imagination” – your point is? Oh yeah – utter Nihilism. Got it.Life is also a Passion Play, if you engage in living it. Or it can be complete emptiness, if you don’t want to engage. Guess both realities are real, and both stranded within our own individual mindscapes, while all the little molecular machines inside our bodies go on with the business of dealing with reality, physical reality.
Also you are incorrect. Life is not a passion play whether you engage or not. It is complete emptiness but people can’t handle that so we share this falsehood that stuff matters and has meaning when it doesn’t. Once you cross that line there’s no unseeing it ever again. You can’t go back to pretending.
Life is what you make it. If you think it’s emptiness then that’s what it’s going to be, but if you think it’s more than that, then it will be.
1. The human body is made up of 55%-78% water depending on physical size: This very fact confronts us with a stark reality: we are more liquid than solid yet we perceive each other to be solid. Yes, much of this water is not visible, but this is precisely the point. Invisible water escapes our perceptual assessments. We do not see our lovers as bags of fluid even though they largely are. Babies are virtual lakes (80% water) yet we rarely look beyond the surface.and so on and so forth and the chemicals that make up your body can be purchased down at the drug store for about 13.00 dollars* - that proves it. That's all we're worth 13 buck.
Okay I read it, though not very closely since it’s playing it’s own game of illusion with you dear soul. Just like taking a line drawing to prove that the atom is nothing but empty space so go ahead and pound your head against that rock.
Nature has a way with dealing with your sort of disconnected thinking,
Okay, so my price estimate may be a little dated, inflation is a bitch.
Life is what you make it. If you think it’s emptiness then that’s what it’s going to be, but if you think it’s more than that, then it will be.Completely false. Life is emptiness, not what you make of it. People who say that are ignorant of reality or choose not to accept what’s right in front of them.
Like I said, Xian, you’re so negative. It is completely true that life is what you make it and if you make it empty, then that’s what it’s going to be. Have you ever thought about talking to your doctor? Such statements and negativity sound like one might be suffering from depression.
People who say that are ignorant of reality or choose not to accept what’s right in front of them.Do you realize how many people you just called ignorant? Across how many centuries? If this reality is so obvious, why aren't there more poems about, why isn't it used to help people who are confused or depressed? Why are we still debating what the Buddha said?
According to Xain, Buddhism is meaningless. Every debate or inquiry about anything is meaningless. Life itself is meaningless.
Oh my, it’s all meaningless… 
That’s not enlightening, it’s just depressing…
That’s why I think he maybe suffering from depression and needs to go see a doctor.
Mriana’s post 321480 shows the facepalm from the episode I coincidentally watched last night. None other than the omni-annoying Q could cause someone to react in this most human way.
As for the question posed in the title of this thread: if you have to ask, you aren’t.
That’s the episode and the facepalm fits this thread. lol
Xain said; As for empathy it really only works if people don’t think too hard about itBefore you make declarative statements why don't you first learn the definition and implication of the word "empathy".
Empathy is not experienced by thinking, but by observation. Empathy is a chemical reactive experience when observing the actions of another person or condition. It is a cognitive ability, evolved from the very earliest instinctual “fight or flight” reaction. It’s a fundamental survival mechanism.
In recent years neuroscientists have advanced the concept of "mirror neurons," which are believed to enhance the capacity to display, read, and mimic emotional signals through facial expressions and other forms of body language. Mirror neurons are sometimes said to help individuals share emotional experiences and become more empathic toward others.https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy
Mirror neurons
Mirror neuron, type of sensory-motor cell located in the brain that is activated when an individual performs an action or observes another individual performing the same action. Thus, the neurons “mirror” others’ actions. Mirror neurons are of interest in the study of certain social behaviours, such as empathy and imitation, and may provide a mechanistic explanation for social cognition.https://www.britannica.com/science/mirror-neuron
Do you realize how many people you just called ignorant? Across how many centuries? If this reality is so obvious, why aren’t there more poems about, why isn’t it used to help people who are confused or depressed? Why are we still debating what the Buddha said?It's not meant to help. Those who truly want to see pay the price for it. Buddha did warn those before he recited the heart sutra.
Empathy is not experienced by thinking, but by observation. Empathy is a chemical reactive experience when observing the actions of another person or condition. It is a cognitive ability, evolved from the very earliest instinctual “fight or flight” reaction. It’s a fundamental survival mechanism.The word "believed" undermines your entire point. Empathy is a cognitive activity that is essentially thinking. It's the use of our imagination since you don't actually feel the pain of another, you just imagine it. IT's a lie.
It’s not meant to help.Then why did he teach it? Why didn't he just go around saying, "hey, you, you don't get it. You there, you're blind. There is no self, can't you see that? What's wrong with you?"
