Up and Down on Our Planet

This planet is a basis of imputation. We can say that it has a top and a bottom,
and we apply various names to it. But these are mere conceptual imputations,
as they have no true relation to the planet. According to the Samādhirāja
Sutra:

In all of the worlds that there may be,
All of the water in the rivers flows down
And all of the water in the rivers flows up-
Know all phenomena are just like that.

Because we now know that the planet is round, we could say either that all
water flows down or it flows up . . . We think that wherever we happen to be
is up and everything below that is down. In fact, since we all think that
wherever we are is up, there is no down or below. Since there is no down or
below, there is also no up.

Through knowing that this planet has no up or down, that the directions up
and down are empty, we can understand emptiness very easily.

And if we understand the emptiness of one thing, it is easy to understand
other types of emptiness. Therefore, we can easily come to understand that
whatever is a conceptual imputation and whatever is dependently arisen are
emptiness.

From Entering the Middle Way and the Path of Secret Mantra, Karmê Chöling,
Summer 2002, p. 263. Translated by Birgit Scott.