Eighteen types of emptiness
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Eighteen kinds of emptiness (Skt. aṣṭadaṡa ṡūnyatā; T. stong nyid bco brgyad སྟོང་ཉིད་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་) are differentiated in some sutras of the Sanskrit Mahayana tradition.
For example, the Kauśika prajñāpāramitā states:
- The so-called perfection of wisdom consists of eighteen kinds of emptiness.[1]
Although the essence of emptiness (sunyata) cannot be divided, different types of emptiness are taught in consideration of, for example, different subjects, i.e., bases, of emptiness.[2] These different types of emptiness are contemplated in order to gradually deepen one's realization of emptiness.
The eighteen types of emptiness are:[3][4][5]
- 1-16) sixteen types of emptiness according to the Madhyamakāvatāra
- 17) the emptiness of a thing (bhava śūnyatā; དངོས་པོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།)
- 18) the emptiness of the lack of a thing (abhāva śūnyatā; དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།)
There are other versions of this list of eighteen types. See, for example:
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika”, line 1.8
See also
Notes
- ↑ The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika”, line 1.8
- ↑ Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2007, "The Characteristics of Emptiness".
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Lists of Lists, "eighteen emptinesses"
- ↑ སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ 84000 Glossary of Terms, s.v. ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་
External links
Shunyata, mahayana, Wisdom Library