Emptiness

Abstract

This chapter addresses Buddhism's view on emptiness. Some Buddhists say that everything is empty. To say that things are empty is not to say they do not exist at all. Rather, it is saying that they do not exist in the way that they seem to, as free-standing and independent entities. Moreover, saying that everything is empty is not like saying that everything is red or round. It is saying that everything lacks an independent self-nature. Such a nature just is not there. When we take seriously the idea that everything is empty, we will start to wonder if this also applies to emptiness itself. For some Buddhists, the answer is no; emptiness itself is the one and only thing that is what it is all the time, without relying on anything else. But for other Buddhists that accept emptiness, emptiness itself also lacks any independent self-essence. The truth that everything exists only relationally is itself only relational. Emptiness is itself empty.