Emptiness. Or nothing?

Emptiness (shunyata, or tongpa in Tibetan) is an utterly core theme in Buddhist teaching. When we first hear about it, we usually don’t have much idea what it’s about at all. We may mistake it for some kind of void, or a teaching that nothing matters because “everything is empty”. Can we get a handle on it without years of study?

Words or phrases you might want to look up:

• Perfection of Wisdom
• Shunyata (spellings in English vary)
• Prajnaparamita (spellings in English vary)
• Skandhas
• William Dalrymple - “From the Holy Mountain”
• Tetralemma
• Vajra slivers
• Prajñaparamita (sutras)
• Tathagata
• Edward Conze
• Manjushri

I noticed that the language of Conze's translations that I quoted is gendered in a way we would probably not be comfortable with these days. Do remember that he was working on these materials in the middle of the last century.

#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Emptiness #Shunyata #Prajnaparamita

 

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Nagarjuna