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Development of Sunyata (Emptiness)
in Buddhism
Buddhism and Hinduism
 sūnyatā/anattā of Buddhism appeared in the
context of attā/ātman of Hinduism.
 Buddhism and Hinduism share many ideas.
 They use some common terminology like
kamma, samadhi, moksa, samsara and so on.
 This has led some people think that
Buddhism is just a type of Hinduism, they are
the same or very similar.
Buddhism vs Hinduism
 But when we look beyond the superficial
similarities we will see that two religions are
distinctly different.
 Hindus believe in a supreme God while
Buddhists do not.
 Hindus accept the existence of individual self
(jīvātman) and universal self (Brahman) while
Buddhists do not accept.
Buddhism vs Hinduism
Hindus believe that an eternal
soul or atman passes from one
life to the next while Buddhists
believe that there is just a
constantly changing stream of
mental energy that is reborn.
What is Atta?
attā (Sanskrit- ātman) refers to an
eternal self or essence that reside
permanently in human beings.
 It is both owner and controller, the
essential recipients of experience
and agent of action.
Does Buddhism accept attā?
 According to Kumari Swami’s interpretation:
Buddhism does not reject the existence of attā. It
merely says, ‘that is not my attā’.
Both Buddhism and Brahmanism believe that
there is ‘attā’ in the transcendental state.
In Brahmanism this is Brahman. In Buddhism this
transcendental attā is mentioned negatively in
terms of: this is not my attā; that is not my attā,
either.”
When Buddhism denies each of the five
khandhas is not attā, it does not mean
that there really is no attā.
 It does not mean that there really is no
attā. It only means that each khandha is
not ‘my attā’. My real attā is in a higher
state.

Anatta in Buddhism
 Buddhism views everything as anattā, that is,
without attā.
 Everything here includes material objects and
the world of objects.
 Buddhism does not accept that there is
‘something’ that is the real essence of all things,
and subsists permanently without change.
Things arise because they are conditioned. They
change and cease because their conditions
change or cease.
Anatta in Buddhism
 The gist of teaching on anatta is the negation of
this fixed abiding self, both mundane and
transcendent.
 Buddhism asserts that this self is simply an idea
stemming from misunderstanding by an
unenlightened human beings, who do not
perceive the true nature of the world.
 People create a concept of self and superimpose
it on reality. This self then obstructs them from
seeing the truth.
Anatta as one of the Three
Characteristics
 Sabbe sankhara anicca:
All conditioned phenomena are impermanent
 Sabbe sankhara dukkha:
All conditioned phenomena are unsatisfactory
 Sabbe dhamma anatta:
All things are non-self
What is Śūnyatā?
Nothingness?
 Emptiness
 Voidness
Definition of Sunyata
"Śūnyatā“(Pali: suññatā) is
usually translated as "emptiness".
It is the noun form of the
adjective "śūnya" (Sanskrit) which
means "empty" or "void".
Is Sunyata Innovated by Nagarjuna?
 Because sunyata is a word popularly used in Mahayana
Buddhism, some scholars like Stcherbatsky and
T.R.V. Murti claimed sunyata to be an
innovation of Acarya Nagarjuna.
 Murti even went into the extent of comparing Acarya
Nagajuna’s teaching an Sunyata as a ‘Copernican
revolution’ in Buddhist thought.
Sunyata in Pali Canon
 The Suñña Sutta
 Ananda: “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: "Insofar as it is empty of a self
or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is
said, Ānanda, that the world is empty.”
Sunyata in Pali Canon
 In S IV., it is explained that a bhikkhu can
experience a deathlike contemplation in which
perception and feeling cease. When he
emerges from this state, he recounts three
types of "contact" (phasso):
 1."emptiness" (suññato),
 2."signless" (animitto),
 3."undirected" (appaṇihito).
Sunyata in Pali Canon
 The meaning of emptiness as contemplated
here is explained at M I. and S IV. 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 idaṃ
attena vā attaniyena vā).
Sunyata in Mahayana Buddhism
 The Prajna-paramita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutras taught that all
entities, including dharmas, are empty of self-nature/own-nature
(svabhava)
 Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, these
objects are "empty" of the identity imputed by their designated
labels.
 The Heart sutra, a text from the prajnaparamita-sutras, articulates
this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be
"empty":
"Oh, Sariputra, Form Does not Differ From the Void,
And the Void Does Not Differ From Form.
Form is Void and Void is Form;
The Same is True For Feelings,
Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness"
Madhyamika School
 Mādhyamaka is a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of philosophy.
In Madhyamaka, to say that an object is "empty" is
synonymous with saying that it is dependently originated.
 Madhyamaka states that impermanent collections of
causes and conditions are designated by mere conceptual
labels.
 This also applies to the principle of causality itself, since
everything is dependently originated. If unaware of this,
things may seem to arise as existents, remain for a time
and then subsequently perish.
 In actuality, dependently originated phenomena do not
arise as existents in the first place. Thus both existence and
nihilism are ruled out.
Madhyamika School
 Madhyamika is seen as being founded by the monk Nāgārjuna.
Nāgārjuna's goal was to refute the essentialism of sarvastivada
school. His best-known work is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, in
which he used the reductio ad absurdum to show the nonsubstantiality of the perceived world.
 Nāgārjuna equates emptiness with dependent origination:
On the basis of the Buddha's view that all experienced
phenomena (dharma) are "dependently arisen" (pratityasamutpanna), Nagarjuna insisted that such phenomena are empty
(sunya). This did not mean that they are not experienced and,
therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent
and eternal substance (svabhava).