Whatever-ness 2

To move on to the real whateverness message.
Hm, how should i start....There are already similiar and related entries before, such as the one on the talk of our True Nature, or emptiness, or dependent origination.

Let's take laksa as an example. (This is the example that Venerable was using).
Do you find laksa tasty?
Depending on individuals, the answer could be yes, no, maybe, or depending. But it is the same (assume) bowl of laksa, so why the differing opinions?

Of course I understand that different people has different taste buds, different conditions when they were eating the laksa. If that is the case, why do pple make the general sweeping statement that laksa is tasty, or on another level, that there is tastiness in laksa.

How can there be tastiness in laksa if it is dependent? Dependent on who is eating it, on who cooked it, on the ingredients that were used in it, etc.

It is more correct to say that laksa is tasty, dependent on some conditions. If it is dependent on conditions, ie dependent arising, than laksa itself, lacks the intrinsic quality of being inherently tasty. (Following so far?) Hence, laksa does not have tastiness. Laksa is empty of tastiness, of taste.

This is the phenomenon of emptiness that the Buddha tried to teach. And it can be applied to all phenomenon, hence "whateverness".

Taste can be empty. Even the "form" of laksa is empty.
Take a bowl of laksa. It is labelled laksa due to convention or naming. What exactly is laksa? Does "laksa" come from the noodle, the clams, the gravy, or from the belacan, the fishcake?
If you take those components away, is that still laksa? Take everything away, and there is no laksa. Take one component away, there is no laksa. Take the bowl away, there is no laksa. So is there laksa?

The form of laksa is empty, because without each of its components, the sum of its parts cannot be called laksa. Laksa is also dependent on its components and on conditions, also empty.

Emptiness is a phenomenon that we should know and understand. So as not to be attached to the empty bowl of laksa.