Question: How do things exist if they are empty of inherent existence?
His Holiness: The doctrines of emptiness and selflessness do not imply the non-
existence of things. Things do exist. When we say that all phenomena are void
of self-existence, it does not mean that we are advocating non-existence, that
we are repudiating that things exist. Then what is it we are negating? We are
negating, or denying, that anything exists from its own side without depending
on other things. Hence, it is because things depend for their existence upon
other causes and conditions that they are said to lack independent self-
existence.
-- H.H. the Dalai Lama, in "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists",
Snow Lion Publications
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