The empty piggy bank: lessons in emptiness

In early Buddhism, emptiness is a qualification, not a special state.  In other words, to say something is ‘empty’ simply means that it is devoid of x.  Let me give an example.  To say the piggy bank is empty means it is devoid of coins, not that there is no piggy bank.  We could say that nirvana is empty (suññta nibbana)  empty in the sense of being without impediments (palibodhia), not that it, itself, is empty.  The same goes for the psychophysical body. We might say that it is empty.  But this emptiness is qualified.  The psychophysical body is devoid of own-nature (P., sabhâva) or the self.  It is illusory and vacant, in other words.

If we turn to discuss “the unshakable freedom of mind” we find in the Mahâvedalla Sutta that such a mind is empty of the three poisons, namely, attachment, hatred, and delusion (moha).  We might also say of this same mind that it is empty of measure; empty of thingness; empty of emptiness (emptiness being what is not the self or anattâ); and empty of signs.

From suññato and suñño, which are adjectives, to the later more abstract form, suññatta, which in Sanskrit is shûnyatâ, the notion of emptiness changes somewhat.  Shûnyatâ carries with it some potential problems one of which it can suggest nihilism although it is really meant to suggest tathatâ/suchness this being the very substance of all.  As we look at shûnyatâ in the Mahayana canon it is not without a range of nuances.  For example, in the Lankavatara Sutra there are seven kinds of shûnyatâ!  The sixth emptiness is said to be the “emptiness in its highest sense of ultimate reality” which means that ultimate reality is totally empty of determination.

The all too familiar Heart Sutra is not without different kinds of emptiness.  In the first part we learn the Five Aggregates are all empty.  Then we learn in another subsequent section that in emptiness there are no aggregates!  We can only surmise that the first part is emptiness which is like the voidness of an illusion or a dream while the emptiness that is empty of the Five Aggregates, etc., is like tathatâ or suchness.

I hope this helps the struggling beginner.

 

Comments

[Jure]

It does help, thank you.