The Doctrine of Emptiness in Buddhism

Seeing the World as Appearance in Mahayana Buddhism

Jul 7, 2009

Central to Mahayana Buddhist thought is the concept of emptiness. It stands for a way of perceiving the world leading to freedom, clarity, and ultimately, nirvana.

The word “emptiness” is a translation of the Sanskrit term shunyata. The term shunya, “empty, void” has resonances with terms for a cave or a hollow. It can also mean something like the modern equivalent sense of depression or despair.

Seeing the world as empty is seeing it as devoid of meaning. Finally, the term shunya also stand for the number “zero,” and it is from its meaning as a hollow that one arrives at the modern numeral zero (0).

But this is only the origin of the word. It is not how the word came to be used as a specific philosophical concept in Buddhism. The “emptiness” in shunyata refers to the idea that there is no essence to anything. Nothing exists in its own right. Nothing is permanent and unchanging.

Emptiness and Appearances in Buddhism

Does this mean that nothing at all exists? No; the fact that one perceives a world of objects means that at least perceptions exist. So without an enduring essence, all objects exist provisionally. They exist as appearances.

More specifically, all objects exist in relation to each other. A wall is an appearance, no more or less real than the eyes that see it. Music exists only insofar as instruments produce it and ears hear it. The keyboard exists as long as fingers feel it. And ideas exist insofar as there is the means to communicate them and minds to think on them.

The same analysis applies to all objects. In some sense, a car both is and is not a car. It is “really” a collection of seats, a steering wheel, an engine, a body, wheels, etc. But it is called a car for sake of convenience.

The school of thought that advanced this idea was the Madhyamaka and its founder, Nagarjuna, flourished in the second or third century CE. He taught that to understand this philosophy one must employ the idea of two truths: The conventional truth is the acceptance of the appearances the world offers. The ultimate truth is the truth that all things are empty. For Nagarjuna, awakening meant knowing this ultimate truth while living in a world of conventional appearances. Even nirvana is of the nature of emptiness. Therefore, according to Nagarjuna, there is no distinction between nirvana and samsara.

Buddhism's Emptiness in Practice

How does this philosophy translate into practical terms? In Buddhist practice, the goal is to reach nirvana by overcoming attachments. If one realizes that that everything is an appearance, one can learn not to desire or grasp at fleeting pleasures. The Diamond Sutra teaches that everything should be viewed "…like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like the dew, or like lightning. You should discern them like this."

Mahayana Buddhism teaches that awakening to nirvana is like waking and seeing that all one’s attachments are just as ephemeral as dream. That everything one experiences, grasps at, loves, hates, and obsesses over — all these things — are as fleeting and unreal as a dream.

The copyright of the article The Doctrine of Emptiness in Buddhism in Buddhist Beliefs is owned by Matthew Bingley. Permission to republish The Doctrine of Emptiness in Buddhism in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.