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05/18/2001 Entry: "Emptiness"

Much of today's teaching dealt with "emptiness" and what that means in Buddhism and the Heart Sutra in particular. Below is a summary from the Institute of Tibetan Classics.

Emptiness and dependent origination

The philosophical outlook of all four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism is the Mahayana doctrine of emptiness. On this view, all things and events are said to be devoid of any intrinsic and absolute existence. They come into being due to the aggregation of multiple causes and conditions. Not only is their material existence dependent upon other factors, even their very identity as they are is contingent upon other factors, such as language, thought and concepts that together make up worldly convention. This absence of intrinsic existence and intrinsic identity is what is referred to as "emptiness" and is considered to be the ultimate truth of all things and events. One of the most profound implications of this theory of emptiness is that it suggests that all things and events come into being only by means of a process of dependent origination. They are dependent upon other factors, and this fundamental truth about the nature of reality is understood best through a language of interdependence and interrelationship of things.

The Tibetan Buddhist thinkers see this theory of emptiness as an elaboration and refinement of the basic Buddhist theory of no-self, which lies at the heart of the Buddha's teaching of the Four Noble Truths. The theory of emptiness was systematically developed as a fundamental philosophical standpoint by the well-known Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna (circa 2nd century CE). His writings, especially the Fundamentals of the Middle Way led to the evolution of the highly influential Indian Buddhist school called the Middle Way (Madhyamaka). All four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism perceive themselves to be proponents of the Middle Way philosophy.