Emptiness
Many critics of Buddhism see emptiness as a form of nihilism, contradiction, or plain absurdity. But these accusations are based on shallow understanding. In fact, throughout its history, Buddhist philosophy has developed at least 5 distinct meanings of śūnyatā. Each of these is profound enough to change one’s entire perception of reality. In any case, I have to warn you. The great Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna wrote that ‘when it is wrongly seen, emptiness destroys the dull-witted, like a snake wrongly grasped’. 1 NO SUBJECT: In the Suñña Sutta, Buddha talks about emptiness like this: ‘It is … because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, ‘Empty is the world.’’ The first meaning of emptiness is that in the world of our experience a self (or anything belonging to a self) is nowhere to be found. Anatta. For the Buddha, as music arises is when the mus...