Saying there is neither an inside nor an outside can be misleading. A practitioner may mistake nihilism for freedom from obstructions. He might think that having no obstructions gives him the freedom to do anything he wants, with no constraint or self-discipline. He may drink alcohol and say, "It's only water." He may eat meat and say, "The animal's dead anyway. Besides, in eating its flesh I'm establishing karmic affinity with this sentient being." He may sleep with many women and say, "At least I'm not killing anyone. No harm done. We mutually agreed to it, and besides, it feels like liberation." This is not enlightenment. A person who tries to back up such actions with Buddhadharma is deluding himself.

An improper understanding of emptiness can lead to two dangerous attitudes. One attitude is apathy. An apathetic person feels that since everything is empty, he may as well do nothing. The second attitude may be called amorality, and is even more dangerous. A person with this attitude feels he is not bound by any moral ethic, and thinks he can do anything. Such a person can seriously harm himself and others.