We’ve often heard the Dalai Lama talk about “emptiness,” by which he means the sense in which our “self’—and all seeming objects in our world—actually emerge from the combination of their components. Some Christian theologians use the term kenosis for the emptying of self, where our own wants and needs diminish while our openness to the needs of others grows into compassion. As a Sufi teacher put it, “When occupied with self, you are separated from God. The way to God is but one step; the step out of yourself.”
