Fourteen types of emptiness
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Fourteen types of emptiness (Skt. catur daśa śūnyatā; T. stong nyid bcu bzhi po སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅུ་བཞི་པོ་) are enumerated in the Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines (Aṣṭadaśasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā) and other texts.[1][2]
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.[3] These different types of emptiness are contemplated in order to gradually deepen one's realization of emptiness.
The fourteen types of emptiness (śūnyatā) are:[1][2]
- emptiness of the inner (adhyātma śūnyatā; ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the outer (bahirdhā śūnyatā; ཕྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the outer and inner (adhyātma bahirdhā śūnyatā; ཕྱི་ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of emptiness (ṡūnyatā śūnyatā; སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the vast (mahā śūnyatā; ཆེན་པོ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the ultimate (genuine reality) (paramārtha śūnyatā; དོན་དམ་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the conditioned (saṁskṛta śūnyatā; འདུས་བྱས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of the unconditioned (asaṁskṛta śūnyatā; འདུས་མ་བྱས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of that beyond extremes (atyanta śūnyatā; མཐའ་ལས་འདས་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of that without beginning or end (anavarāgra śūnyatā; ཐོག་མ་དང་ཐ་མ་མེད་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of that which is not to be abandoned (anavakāra śūnyatā; དོར་བ་མེད་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of true nature (prakṛti śūnyatā; རང་བཞིན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of all dharmas (sarva dharma ṡūnyatā; ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
- emptiness of defining characteristics (lakṣaṇa ṡūnyatā; མཚན་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་)
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བཅུ་བཞི་པོ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines, line 2.18
- ↑ Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2007, "The Characteristics of Emptiness".