The Meaning of Emptiness for the Enlightened Ones

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The concept of emptiness, or Śūnyatā in Sanskrit, Suññatā in Pali, is mainly known as the fundamental teaching of Mahāyāna Buddhism. As is becoming known through recent interest in Theravāda Buddhism, however, there are sufficient discourses of the Buddha in the Pali Nikāya dealing with emptiness. This article investigates several Pali Suttas dealing with emptiness to find its exact meaning and see whether it has something in common with the concept of emptiness developed in the Mahāyāna scriptures like the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. The following are the results of the investigation of emptiness.
The concept of emptiness can be viewed in three different meanings. Firstly, emptiness means the final deliverance of mind from the finest meditative attainments. Secondly, it refers to the nature of persons or things which is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Finally, the last and the most important meaning of emptiness is related to the practice of abiding in emptiness through which all the Enlightened Ones avoid contamination from the defilements of the world while still abiding in the world. This last meaning of emptiness provides the basis for the concept of the Bodhisattva in Mahāyāna Buddhism. How the Bodhisattva remains in the secular world without being contaminated by its defilements is accomplished by abiding in emptiness concentration.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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