Śūnyatā

Śūnyatā ( ; ; "emptiness", "voidness", "vacuity") is an Indian philosophical concept In Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and other Indian philosophical traditions. The concept has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context; an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience.

In Theravāda Buddhism, ' often refers to the non-self (Pāli: ', Sanskrit: ') nature of the five aggregates of experience and the six sense spheres. ' is also often used to refer to a meditative state or experience.

In Mahāyāna Buddhism, ' refers to the tenet that "all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature (svabhava)", but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen, Shentong, or Chan.

Etymology

Śūnyatā is usually translated as "devoidness", "emptiness", "hollow", "hollowness", "voidness". It is the noun form of the adjective ', plus ':

, in the context of Buddhadharma, primarily means "empty", or "void", but also means "zero", and "nothing".
' is a suffix denoting a quality or state of being, equivalent to English "-ness"

Development of the concept

The concept of śūnyatā as "emptiness" is related to the concept of anatta in early Buddhism. Over time, many different philosophical schools or tenet-systems (Sanskrit: siddhānta) have developed within Buddhism in an effort to explain the exact philosophical meaning of emptiness.

After the Buddha, emptiness was further developed by the Abhidharma schools, Nāgārjuna and the Mādhyamaka school, an early Mahāyāna school. Emptiness ("positively" interpreted) is also an important element of the Buddha-nature literature, which played a formative role in the evolution of subsequent Mahāyāna doctrine and practice.

Early Buddhism

Pāli Nikāyas

thumb|upright|A simile from the Pali scriptures (SN 22.95) compares [[Rūpa#Buddhism|form and feelings with foam and bubbles.]]

The Pāli Canon uses the term śūnyatā ("emptiness") in three ways: as a meditative dwelling; as an attribute of objects; and as a type of awareness-release.

According to Bhikkhu Analayo, in the Pāli Canon "the adjective suñña occurs with a much higher frequency than the corresponding noun suññatā" and emphasizes seeing phenomena as 'being empty' instead of an abstract idea of "emptiness".

One example of this usage is in the Pheṇapiṇḍūpama Sutta (SN 22:95), which states that on close inspection, each of the five aggregates are seen as being void (rittaka), hollow (tucchaka), coreless (asāraka). In the text a series of contemplations is given for each aggregate: form is like "a lump of foam" (pheṇapiṇḍa); sensation like "a water bubble" (bubbuḷa); perception like "a mirage" (marici); formations like "a plantain tree" (kadalik-khandha); and cognition like "a magical illusion" (māyā).

According to Shi Huifeng, the terms "void" (rittaka), "hollow" (tucchaka), and "coreless" (asāraka) are also used in the early texts to refer to words and things which are deceptive, false, vain, and worthless. part of the Pāli Canon, relates that the monk Ānanda, Buddha's attendant, asked,<blockquote>It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?" The Buddha replied, "In so far as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ānanda, that the world is empty."</blockquote>According to the American monastic Thanissaro Bhikku:

Meditative state

Emptiness as a meditative state is said to be reached when "not attending to any themes, he [the bhikkhu] enters & remains in internal emptiness" (MN 122). This meditative dwelling is developed through the "four formless states" of meditation or Arūpajhānas and then through "themeless concentration of awareness".

The meaning of emptiness as contemplated here is explained at M I.297 and S IV.296-97 as the "emancipation of the mind by emptiness" (suññatā cetovimutti) being consequent upon the realization that "this world is empty of self or anything pertaining to self" (suññam ida attena vā attaniyena vā).

The term "emptiness" (suññatā) is also used in two suttas in the Majjhima Nikāya, in the context of a progression of mental states. The texts refer to each state's emptiness of the one below.

Chinese Āgamas

The Chinese Āgamas contain various parallels to the Pheṇapiṇḍūpama Sutta. One partial parallel from the Ekottara Āgama describes the body with different metaphors: "a ball of snow", "a heap of dirt", "a mirage", "an illusion" (māyā), or "an empty fist used to fool a child". These sutras associate emptiness with dependent origination, which shows that this relation of the two terms was already established in pre-Nagarjuna sources. The sutra on great emptiness states:

The phrase "when this exists ..." is a common gloss on dependent origination. Sarvāstivādin Āgamas also speak of a certain "emptiness samadhi" (śūnyatāsamādhi) as well as stating that all dharmas are "classified as conventional".

Mun-Keat Choong and Yin Shun have both published studies on the various uses of emptiness in the Early Buddhist texts (Pāli Canon and Chinese Āgamas). Choong has also published a collection of translations of Āgama sutras from the Chinese on the topic of emptiness.

Early Buddhist schools and Abhidharma

Many of the early Buddhist schools featured śūnyatā as an important part of their teachings.

The Sarvastivadin school's Abhidharma texts like the Dharmaskandhapāda Śāstra, and the later Mahāvibhāṣa, also take up the theme of emptiness vis-a-vis dependent origination as found in the Agamas.

Schools such as the Mahāsāṃghika Prajñaptivādins as well as many of the Sthavira schools (except the Pudgalavada) held that all dharmas were empty (dharma śūnyatā). The Theravada Kathavatthu also argues against the idea that emptiness is unconditioned. The Mahāvastu, an influential Mahāsāṃghika work, states that the Buddha<blockquote>"has shown that the aggregates are like a lightning flash, as a bubble, or as the white foam on a wave."

Theravāda

thumb|Sea [[froth at sunset]]

Theravāda Buddhists generally take the view that emptiness is merely the not-self nature of the five aggregates. Emptiness is an important door to liberation in the Theravāda tradition just as it is in Mahayana, according to Insight meditation teacher Gil Fronsdal. The classic Theravāda text known as the Patisambhidamagga (c. 3rd century BCE) describes the five aggregates as being empty (suññam) of essence or intrinsic nature (sabhava). The Patisambhidamagga also equates not-self with the emptiness liberation in a passage also cited by Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga (Vism XXI 70):<blockquote>"When one who has great wisdom brings [volitional formations] to mind as not-self, he acquires the emptiness liberation" -Patis. II 58.</blockquote>The Visuddhimagga (c. 5th century CE), the most influential classical Theravāda treatise, states that not-self does not become apparent because it is concealed by "compactness" when one does not give attention to the various elements which make up the person. The Paramatthamañjusa Visuddhimaggatika of Acariya Dhammapala, a 5th-century Theravāda commentary on the Visuddhimagga, comments on this passage by referring to the fact that we often assume unity and compactness regarding phenomena or functions which are instead made up of various elements, but when one sees that these are merely empty dhammas, one can understand the not-self characteristic:<blockquote>"when they are seen after resolving them by means of knowledge into these elements, they disintegrate like froth subjected to compression by the hand. They are mere states (dhamma) occurring due to conditions and void. In this way the characteristic of not-self becomes more evident." He also equated nibbana with emptiness, writing that "Nibbana, the remainderless extinction of Dukkha, means the same as supreme emptiness."<blockquote>Emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. It adds nothing to and takes nothing away from the raw data of physical and mental events. You look at events in the mind and the senses with no thought of whether there's anything lying behind them.

This mode is called emptiness because it's empty of the presuppositions we usually add to experience to make sense of it: the stories and world-views we fashion to explain who we are and the world we live in. Although these stories and views have their uses, the Buddha found that some of the more abstract questions they raise — of our true identity and the reality of the world outside — pull attention away from a direct experience of how events influence one another in the immediate present. Thus they get in the way when we try to understand and solve the problem of suffering.</blockquote>

thumb|The empty space where the Western [[Buddha of Bamiyan resided prior to being destroyed by the Taliban]]

Some Theravādins, such as David Kalupahana, see Nagarjuna's view of emptiness as compatible with the Pali Canon. In his analysis of the Mulamadhyamikakarika, Kalupahana sees Nagarjuna's argument as rooted in the Kaccānagotta Sutta (which Nagarjuna cites by name). Kalupahana states that Nagarjuna's major goal was to discredit heterodox views of Svabhava (own-nature) held by the Sarvastivadins and establish the non-substantiality of all dharmas.

In Theravāda, emptiness as an approach to meditation is also seen as a state in which one is "empty of disturbance." This form of meditation is one in which meditators become concentrated and focus on the absence or presence of disturbances in their minds; if they find a disturbance they notice it and allow it to drop away; this leads to deeper states of calmness.

Mahayana Buddhism

There are two main sources of Indian Buddhist discussions of emptiness: the Mahayana sutra literature, which is traditionally believed to be the word of the Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism, and the shastra literature, which was composed by Buddhist scholars and philosophers.

Prajñāpāramitā sūtras

thumb|In the Prajñaparamita sutras, the emptiness of phenomena is often illustrated by metaphors like drops of [[dew.]]

The Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutras taught that all entities, including dharmas, are empty of self, essential core, or intrinsic nature (svabhava), being only conceptual existents or constructs. The notion of prajña (wisdom, knowledge) presented in these sutras is a deep non-conceptual understanding of emptiness. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras also use various metaphors to explain the nature of things as emptiness, stating that things are like "illusions" (māyā) and "dreams" (svapna). The Astasahasrika Prajñaparamita, possibly the earliest of these sutras, states:

<blockquote>If he knows the five aggregates as like an illusion, But makes not illusion one thing, and the aggregates another; If, freed from the notion of multiple things, he courses in peace— Then that is his practice of wisdom, the highest perfection. The Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra adds the following similes to describe how all conditioned things are to be contemplated: like a bubble, a shadow, like dew or a flash of lightning. In the worldview of these sutras, though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, these objects are "empty" of the identity imputed by their designated labels. In that sense, they are deceptive and like an illusion. The Perfection of Wisdom texts constantly repeat that nothing can be found to ultimately exist in some fundamental way. This applies even to the highest Buddhist concepts (bodhisattvas, bodhicitta, and even prajña itself). Even nirvana itself is said to be empty and like a dream or magical illusion.

In a famous passage, the Heart sutra, a later but influential Prajñāpāramitā text, directly states that the five skandhas (along with the five senses, the mind, and the four noble truths) are said to be "empty" (sunya):In the Prajñāpāramitā sutras the knowledge of emptiness, i.e. prajñāpāramitā is said to be the fundamental virtue of the bodhisattva, who is said to stand on emptiness by not standing (-stha) on any other dharma (phenomena). Bodhisattvas who practice this perfection of wisdom are said to have several qualities such as the "not taking up" (aparigṛhīta) and non-apprehension (anupalabdhi) of anything, non-attainment (aprapti), not-settling down (anabhinivesa) and not relying on any signs (nimitta, mental impressions). Bodhisattvas are also said to be free of fear in the face of the ontological groundlessness of the emptiness doctrine which can easily shock others.

Mādhyamaka school

thumb|upright|[[Nagarjuna|Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva, two classic Indian philosophers of the Buddhist emptiness doctrine]]

Mādhyamaka is a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of philosophy which focuses on the analysis of emptiness, and was thus also known as śūnyatavāda. The school is traditionally seen as being founded by the Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna.

Nāgārjuna's goal was to refute the essentialism of certain Abhidharma schools and the Hindu Nyaya school. His best-known work is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK), in which he used reductio arguments (Skt: prasanga) to show the non-substantiality of everything. Nāgārjuna equated the emptiness of dharmas with their dependent origination, and thus with their being devoid any permanent substance or primary, substantial existence (svabhava). Nāgārjuna writes in the MMK:

<blockquote>We state that conditioned origination is emptiness. It is mere designation depending on something, and it is the middle path. (24.18) </blockquote>

<blockquote>Since nothing has arisen without depending on something, there is nothing that is not empty. (24.19)</blockquote>

Nāgārjuna's Mādhyamaka states that since things have the nature of lacking true existence or own being (niḥsvabhāva), all things are mere conceptual constructs (prajñaptimatra) because they are just impermanent collections of causes and conditions. Because of this, Mādhyamaka is also known as Niḥsvabhāvavāda. This also applies to the principle of causality itself, since everything is dependently originated. If one is unaware of this, things may seem to arise as existents, remain for a time and then subsequently perish. In reality, dependently originated phenomena do not arise or remain as inherently existent phenomena and yet they still appear as a flow of conceptual constructs.

In contrast to Renard's view, Karmarkar states the Ajativada of Gaudapada has nothing in common with the Śūnyatā concept in Buddhism. While the language of Gaudapada is undeniably similar to those found in Mahayana Buddhism, states Comans, their perspective is different because unlike Buddhism, Gaudapada is relying on the premise of "Brahman, Atman or Turiya" exist and are the nature of absolute reality.

In Shaivism

Sunya and sunyatisunya are concepts which appear in some Shaiva texts, such as the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, which contains several verses mentioning voidness as a feature of ultimate reality - Shiva:

<blockquote>The Absolute void is Bhairava who is beyond the senses and the mind, beyond all the categories of these instruments. From the point of view of the human mind, He is most void. from the point of view of Reality, He is most full, for He is the source of all manifestation.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The yogi should concentrate intensely on the idea (and also feel) that this universe is totally void. In that void, his mind would become absorbed. Then he becomes highly qualified for absorption i.e. his mind is absorbed in the absolute void (sunyatisunya).</blockquote>

In a series of Kannada language texts of Lingayatism, a Shaivism tradition, shunya is equated to the concept of the supreme. In particular, the Shunya Sampadane texts present the ideas of Allama Prabhu in a form of dialogue, where shunya is that void and distinctions which a spiritual journey seeks to fill and eliminate. It is the described as a state of union of one's soul with the infinite Shiva, the state of blissful moksha.

In Vaishnavism

Shunya Brahma is a concept found in certain texts of Vaishnavism, particularly in Odiya, such as the poetic Panchasakhas. It explains the Nirguna Brahman idea of Vedanta, that is the eternal unchanging metaphysical reality as "personified void". Alternative names for this concept of Hinduism, include shunya purusha and Jagannatha (Vishnu) in certain text. However, both in Lingayatism and various flavors of Vaishnavism such as Mahima Dharma, the idea of Shunya is closer to the Hindu concept of metaphysical Brahman, rather than to the Śūnyatā concept of Buddhism.

In the Vaishnavism of Orissa, the idea of shunya brahman or shunya purusha is found in the poetry of the Orissan Panchasakhas (Five Friends), such as in the compositions of 16th-century Acyutananda. Acyutananda's Shunya Samhita extols the nature of shunya brahman:

nāhi tāhāra rūpa varṇa, adṛsha avarṇa tā cinha.<br />

tāhāku brahmā boli kahi, śūnya brahmhati se bolāi.

It has no shape, no colour, <br />

It is invisible and without a name<br />

This Brahman is called Shunya Brahman.

</blockquote>

The Panchasakhas practiced a form of Bhakti called Jnana-mishrita Bhakti-marga, which saw the necessity of knowledge (Jnana) and devotion - Bhakti.

In Shaktism

Mahāśūnya (महाशून्य) refers to the “great void”, according to Arṇasiṃha's Mahānayaprakāśa verse 134.—Accordingly, “The Śāmbhava (state) is the one in which the power of consciousness (citi) suddenly (sahasā) dissolves away into the Great Void [i.e., mahāśūnya] called the Inactive (niḥspanda) that is profound and has no abode. Cognitive awareness (jñāna) arises here in the form of a subtle wave of consciousness out of that ocean of emptiness, which is the perfectly peaceful condition of the dissolving away of destruction. [...] Again, that same (principle) free of the cognitive process (saṃvittikalanā) is the supreme absolute (niruttara) said to be the Śāmbhava state of emptiness (vyomaśāmbhava)”.

Etymology

Development of the concept

Early Buddhism

Pāli Nikāyas

Meditative state

Chinese Āgamas

Early Buddhist schools and Abhidharma

Theravāda

Mahayana Buddhism

Prajñāpāramitā sūtras

Mādhyamaka school

In Shaivism

In Vaishnavism

In Shaktism

Alternative translations

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Works cited

Further reading