SAP and Buddhism

“Emptiness” is a central teaching of all Buddhism, but this is often misunderstood or it is really very difficult to grasp its true meaning. 

"Emptiness" is a "Perception" of "Our experience in this world", as there is nothing to add and therefore nothing to take away from. 

For example, you see a cup without water and you are thirsty, and you say the cup is empty. The reason of your perception of it as empty is because you are thirsty. And thus, the cup was created because of a reason. If there is no such thing as thirst, there will be no need for the creation of a cup. Therefore, that is "Emptiness". Look at it another way, if we are full and not thirsty, whether the cup is empty or full with water does not matter to us anymore as we do not see a need for it. Hence, that is also "Emptiness". 

I have come to see SAP the same way of being "Emptiness". 

In Buddhism, something is empty if it is:

1. Divisible. (A divisible thing has parts, All things are not of one thing, even a house is not one thing, it is made up of many parts. It is that concept of empty of a "self" (or a permanent things). In such, many things has to come together to create the perception of emptiness, not one thing! Even a perceived piece of paper which is empty until it is written with some words forming a paragraph of something are results of many things, our brain must have a desire to express something and therefore formulating words in our mind to convey the message via our hands using a physical pen and paper to express those thoughts in a language we desire to convey. And the reason we see a paper as empty is because our mind perceive of images, thoughts, desires of want to read and see something on the paper that we perceive it being "empty". This is why Emptiness is divisible as it is made of many parts that comes together and not just one thing.) 
2. Dependent. (All things exists depend on something else. Without these things are "support" or "need", there is then "no need" for anything. The mind exists in dependence on thoughts, feelings, images, reasoning (as all things are divisible and are ultimately empty!), If there are no thoughts, feelings, images, and reasoning and therefore there is no mind.)
3. Impermanent. (All things has a beginning, it changes, and then disappears or ended. It changes from time to time because it is not one thing but it is made of many successive things. As nothing is permanent.)
4. Identifiable. (If you cannot find it, it does not exist. If you can find it, it exist. Think of a candle, the reason for the candle to exist is because we want to see something in darkness, and therefore a job was created for people who make candles - hence dependency. The candle was created because of many things and not just one thing, is is because our thoughts, reasoning, feelings of wanted to see something from darkness that created a job for someone to make the candle, then someone who sells it so that we can purchase it for use to light up in darkness - hence divisible. When the candle lights up, it put itself into use - hence identifiable. But the candle is not permanent, it transform its energy into light and heat and will burn out soon - hence impermanence)

In SAP, those 4 elements of Emptiness prevails:

1. Divisible. (SAP is not one thing, it is always almost made of many things. Even the MM module, it is not only MM but of many components, when you need some stock items and the warehouse is "empty", you create a purchase order via ME21N for approval to the vendor, the vendors sends the goods and we perform MIGO-GR to store in in the warehouse and therefore we perceive the warehouse as "full", when we wish to use the stock item, we perform MIGO-GI to remove it and hence create another perceive "emptiness". To create the perceived "Emptiness" and "Full" it is because of many things and not one single thing)  
2. Dependent. (SAP processes is the same, there are all inter-dependent. If the Accounting department do not need a material to have any valuation, we create it as non-valuated material. If the Accounting department requires the material to be valuated, we have to create it as valuated material. All things are dependent because all things are made of many things which are divisible)
3. Impermanent. (SAP is the same, when internal production capacity is insufficient, we seek MM subcontracting processing to fulfill the gap. But at low production periods, when we have ample capacity, the MM subcontracting processing will not be required. But when in-house production cost increases and the permanent overhead costs does not match the fluctuation of demand requirement, we may reduce dependency on the high cost of in-house production and move the business for MM subcontracting. Hence nothing is permanent)
4. Identifiable. (If you cannot find it, it does not exist. If you can find it, it exist. Well, that is that purpose of IMG and ABAP Development. The concept of impermanence in the business world create identifiable needs for consultants to continue the re-touching of the IMG and if not possible via standard processes then via ABAP development. All these is because all things are divisible as there are made up of many interdependent parts; this is the reason why we need many SAP Consultants in a SAP environment.)