The Buddhist concept of emptiness is one that is often misinterpreted by Westerners (much like karma, which has little to do with most people’s idea of a cosmic force of justice). Emptiness doesn’t mean that objects in the material world don’t exist, but rather that objects don’t contain inherent existence in and of themselves, independent of other phenomena. For example, a wooden table certainly exists, but it isn’t a table by its own virtue; it is made of four posts and a board, and even as these pieces are combined to create a table, it still is only a table because we have designated it so in our minds. Therefore, the table itself has emptiness, and lacks inherent existence.

This simplified version from a non-expert notwithstanding, the example serves to prove a very simple point about our lives. Things aren’t the way they are because they inherently exist as so, but because we assign our own thoughts, prejudices, biases and experiences to them. Materially, for example, the same object could be a table to me, but a bed to someone else. The same goes for things in our day to day lives that we assign as “good” or “bad.” One man’s trash, as they say, is another man’s treasure.

The upshot of all this is an empowering conclusion: by assigning our own mental biases to our surroundings on an everyday basis, we are literally creating our own world around us. Which means, with a little mental muscle flexing, we can also change anything in our lives simply by adjusting our mindset.

An enemy is not an enemy by virtue of his existence; he is an enemy because you have designated him so in your mind. A problem is only a problem if you choose for it to be one. We may not have a lot of control over what happens to us in life, but we have complete control of how we react, how we interpret, and how we create our mental state in any given situation.

With compassion, mindfulness, and positivity, we can turn our universe into something completely different without lifting a finger. That’s the power of emptiness.