The Buddhist Concept of Emptiness

A central idea to Buddhism is the concept of emptiness. In understanding emptiness, which some traditions view as an ultimate or fundamental reality to which matter owes its existence, one begins to view their self and their world in an entirely different light. Realizing emptiness has a profound effect on what we value in life, what we identify as the Self, and ultimately, it is claimed, provides a remedy for suffering.

The Buddhist concept of emptiness and its relation to personal identity is best illustrated by the Bodhisattva ideal in the Mahayana tradition. It was in the idea of the Bodhisattva, that Buddhahood could be achieved by a human being, that all the schools of Buddhism were united (Govinda 40). The Bodhisattva is one who has broken down the walls of the “self-created prison”, losing the ego, allowing for a state of solidarity with all life (Govinda 43). In Tibetan mysticism, this universal acceptance and solidarity of all things is symbolized by the mantra syllable OM.

Emptiness is illustrated by the alchemical symbol of the philosopher’s stone, the prima materia, or “the original substance, the ultimate principle of the world” (Govinda 51). All things in existence, elements or phenomena, can be restored to this ultimate force or substance by “reducing and dissolving the manifold qualities which have imposed themselves upon it through differentiation and subsequent specialization” (Govinda 51). The Bodhisattva penetrates to the “undifferentiated primordial form,” gaining the ultimate creative power which is based on the “mutability of all elements and phenomena” (Govinda 51). This creative power has been called siddhi – “a power that is equally effective in the spiritual as well as material world” (Govinda 52).

Emptiness can be known as vinnanam anidassanam, “consciousness in its undivided purity, not yet or no more split into the duality of subject and object… ego and non-ego” (Govinda 58). The sage knows that all forms are not real forms at all, but rather an expression of “one material force” (Chan 351). Seng-Chao illustrates such universality: “…all things and I sprang from the same root, and right and wrong come out of the same breath” (Chan 351). This emptiness is the consciousness of the Bodhisattva, penetrating everything with light, radiating from all sides (Govinda 58). Seng-Chao, in quoting the scripture, claims “Matter is empty by virtue of its own nature.” Therefore, the sage does not need to “disintegrate it before he can penetrate it” (Chan 353). Matter is both existent and nonexistent – it is nonexistent because it has arisen from causation, but existent because it has arisen (Chan 355). The Buddha speaks of emptiness:

Verily, there is a realm, where there is neither the solid nor the fluid, neither heat nor motion, neither this world nor any other world, neither sun nor moon… There is, O monks, an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed, would not be possible (Govinda 59).

This state of enlightenment expressed by the mantric syllable MANI is symbolized by the Diamond Sceptre, the Vajra – the precious jewel (diamond), the prima materia or philosophers stone of the human mind (Govinda 59). It was the true goal of the great alchemists to bring about this internal transformation, to discover the jewel in one’s own heart, thus gaining both immortality and liberation – what the alchemists symbolically called the elixir of life (Govinda 61).

The diamond, which is able to produce all colors of the rainbow while itself being colorless, acts as the transcendental symbol of emptiness. It is this idea to which ‘Diamond Sutra’ owes its name (Govinda 64). The “fundamental unity of all substances and their inherent faculty of transformation” is illustrated in the analogy of diamond and coal; both are composed primarily of the same element, yet profoundly different (Govinda 64).

It is through directing the mind inward, away from sense-consciousness, that we begin to identify with the intuitive-mind (manas) which facilitates the “Universal Mind and Transcendental Intelligence” (Govinda 74). Thus, manas has a double character, an overlapping nature – it can be directed to the Universal but can also become a “source of error… if it is directed towards the individual [ego] or self-consciousness (Govinda 75). Therefore, man must sufficiently direct his mind inwards in order to free himself “of all object-perception and thus from the awareness of himself as well… [so] he is only conscious of the infinity of space or of emptiness” (Govinda 75). It is in this inner conversion of manas, this” turning-about”, which the Buddha identified as the only miracle – “which [in comparison] all other siddhis are mere playthings” (Govinda 75). It is through this process that the individual ends suffering.

By ceasing all thought-activity, the inner dialog of the ego mind, one can begin to direct manas towards the “primordial cause of its being, upon the universal source of all consciousness, [in which] the illusion of the ego-concept becomes apparent… and a direct vision of reality arises; an intuitive experience of infinity and the all-embracing oneness of all that is” (Govinda 77). Ultimately, the habit of looking outward towards the world of external objects must cease. This allows for one to “view things in a bigger context… [by] realizing truth or ultimate consciousness within the intuitive consciousness , by becoming one with reality” (Govinda 79-80). It is this process of awakening that one realizes his “ever-existing, indivisible and undivided completeness… [where] the sea slips into the drop” (Govinda 81). Realization of completeness allows for the transcendence of the dualistic notions of ‘I’ and ‘not-I’, of ‘Selfhood’ and ‘Universe’, of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. It has all the “characteristics of universality, without presuming an external cosmos, and has likewise all the characteristics of individual experience without presuming an ego-entity” (Govinda 81). What we value in life shifts from selfish desire and ego gains to the internal, the eternal.

Such paradoxes are to be transcended by quieting the rational ego, empirical mind. Govinda warns us of the conventions of language, stating “no words, with which we may try to describe the nature of the mind, can be adequate, for in mind essence there is nothing to be grasped or named” (79). Similarly, Seng-Chao remarks that “such things can only be understood by the spirit and cannot be discovered in ordinary facts” (Chan 347) and “therefore the actuality of things cannot be equated with their names, and names in their true meanings cannot be matched by things” (Chan 352). He goes on to state, “All dharmas (elements of existence) are merely temporary names (dependent entities), as they come into existence through causes and conditions and not through any nature of their own. Being temporary names, they are unreal, they are empty.” (Chan 344) However, “we use words to get free from words until we reach the pure wordless Essence” (Govinda 79).

In supplying evidence for the idea of emptiness Seng-Chao speaks of the inseparable nature between rest and motion – they are “never separated” and “from the beginning not different” (Chan 345). Seng-Chao discusses the nature of time, in which present things exist solely in the present, whereas past things exist solely in the past (Chan 346). The present does not go, nor does the past come – all exist in a state of resting tranquility (Chan 347). Seng-Chao seeks “the present in the past” because he knows “that it does not go anywhere” (Chan 349). Seng-Chao is pointed out the illusory nature of time; the present cannot be simultaneously in the past and present.

The Hua-yen school uses the analogy of a golden lion to illustrate the idea of emptiness. Fa-Tsang separates matter and emptiness, claiming that “emptiness has no character of its own… [but] shows itself by means of matter” (Chan 409). Therefore, emptiness is phenomena being dependent on causation. The Hua-yen school illustrates the interpenetration of all things: “Only when the one is completely the many may be called the one, and only when the many is completely the one can be called the many” (Chan 423). Here arises another paradox – The All is One, and the One is All. Parts are only a construction, a creation of human perception. The Universe requires all of its parts to be the Universe, just as a building requires all of its rafters. This interdependence has its foundation in emptiness.

It is quite apparent understanding emptiness effects our interaction with the world and all we hold dear. In understanding the universality of all things, one shifts from an ego-centric state to a state of selflessness. This is epitomized in the Bodhisattva vow to put off liberation until all beings are enlightened. What is there to desire, to suffer from or for, when you have infinity within yourself, when you are infinity? It is not through gain that we end suffering, but rather through a turning inward of the mind – a dissolution of ego illusion, our self-created prisons. All external desires, all sense gratification, can no longer compete with the infinite bliss which is realizing the Self, our true nature – emptiness.

Works Cited:

Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1963. Print.

Govinda, Lama Anagarika. Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism: According to the Esoteric Teachings of the Great Mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. Weiser, 1969. Print.