空

Readings

Pinyin: kōng

Wade-Giles: k'ung

Hangul: 공

Korean MC: gong

Korean MR: kong

Katakana: クウ

Hepburn: kū

không

emptiness

• Voidness, hollowness, vacuity, insubstantiality. In its most common usage, it is the distinctive Mahāyāna Buddhist view of the character of all existence, wherein all phenomena are understood to arise in dependence upon each other, and thus there is no phenomenon that has independent, determinable, or permanent existence; nor do any phenomena possess any sort of unchanging inner nature 自性. This means that the everyday conceptions that we have of the existence of ourselves and the objects around us as concrete entities are inaccurate, as the determinations we make of ourselves and objects are arbitrary conceptual reifications (Skt. śūnyatā, śūnya, śunyatva; Tib. stong pa nyid, svabhāva-śunya).

  In early Abhidharmic texts and scriptures this term is seen used in connection to methods of contemplations to eradicate attachment, such as 空觀 in Shelifu apitanlun 舍利弗阿毘曇論 (T 1548.28.633a8-b4) or ten kinds of emptiness in the Apidamo da piposha lun 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論 (T 1545.27.37a12-15) to counter attachment to the view of the existence of the body 薩迦耶見. In the Agamas, the term is also seen connected to methods of practice. See suttas such as the Cūḷasuññata-sutta in the Majjihima-nikāya (MN 121 at MN I 104.1 to 109.17 or in T 26.1.736c27-738a1) and the Mahāsuññata-sutta in the Majjihima-nikāya (MN 122 at MN 1, 109.19 - 115.9 or T 26.1.738a5- 739b21).

  As the concept takes form in the Mahāyāna prajñāpāramitā literature, there is a shift from a method to a truth claim. This type of emptiness is first articulated as a central theme in such texts as the Heart Sutra 般若心經, and the Diamond Sutra 金剛經, where it is used as a means of breaking the practitioner's attachment to concepts—especially concepts regarding one's own spiritual attainment. In this sense, the use of the teaching of emptiness is directed against the tendency to attach to language itself.

  An important dimension of the notion of emptiness is that it is to be distinguished from simplistic or one-sided concepts of nonexistence or nothingness 虛無. This line of argumentation was especially important in the Madhyamaka school, which taught emptiness to be the "middle path" 中道 between existence 有 and nonexistence 無 (see 自空). In "mind-only" doctrinal systems such as Yogâcāra and Tathāgatagarbha this basic Buddhist teaching of emptiness is the negation of the two mistaken views of the acceptance of the real existence of a self 我, and the understanding of an eternal nature of the compositional elements—dharmas 法 that make up the world or the self. Among the various understandings of emptiness are "analytical emptiness" and "essential emptiness," as well as only emptiness and not-only-emptiness and so forth. The teaching of emptiness is originally for the destruction of the attachment to false views, and therefore in East Asian meditative traditions (Chan/Seon/Zen) there is also the subjective sense of "becoming empty"—to break attachment. Śūnyatā is transliterated as 舜若多. In Mochizuki and the Fo Guang Dictionary, the various lists of 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., types of emptiness are listed under this head word.

  .[resp. Charles Muller, Jimmy Yu; source(s): Nakamura, Yokoi, Soothill, YBh-Ind, JEBD, Iwanami]
• Sky, space. (Skt. ākāśa; Tib. nam mkha') [resp. Stephen Hodge, Charles Muller]
• Fruitless, sterile. (Skt. vandhya; Tib. 'bras bu med pa) [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Stephen Hodge]
• (Skt. rikta, vaiyarthya; nabha; antar-ikṣa, antar-īkṣa, abhāva, ambara, asadbhūta, kevala, kha, khaga-patha, gagaṇa, gagana, cayika, tuccha, tucchaka, nagna, nabhas, babhas-tala, pārśva, vivikta, *vihāyas, vaihāyasa, vyoma-dhātu, vyomanm, śuṣira, śuṣiratva, śunyaka, śunyatā-samādhi, śunya-dharma, śunya-bhūta, suṣira; Tib. stong pa'i rnam pa) [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Hirakawa, YBh-Ind]
• vacuité [resp. Paul Swanson]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 213

Bulgyo sajeon, 50a

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) , 240c

Iwanami bukkyō jiten , 196

A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki) , 345

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) , 184a/204

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) , 427

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) , 278d

Fo Guang Dictionary , 3467

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) , 908

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) , (v.1-6)636a,2356b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) , 277-2

Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

Lokakṣema's Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Karashima), 290

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2014-01-04