The Radiance of Emtpiness: Empty, Emptying and Emptiness in the Pali Suttas

by Gil Fronsdal

When it was evening, the venerable Sariputta rose from meditation and went to the Blessed One. After paying homage to him, he sat down at one side.

The Blessed One then said to him:“Sariputta, your faculties are clear. The color of your skin is pure and radiant. What abiding do you often dwell in now, Sariputta?”

“Now, venerable sir, I often abide in emptiness.”

“Good, good, Sariputta! Now, indeed, you often abide in the abiding of a great person. For this is the abiding of a great person, namely, emptiness.

MN 151.21

From the time of the Buddha to modern times, the concept of “emptiness” has had an important and inspiring role in the lives of many Buddhist practitioners. In the teachings of the Buddha, as preserved in the Pali scriptures, “emptiness” (suññatā) is a word used to convey some of the most important insights, practices and realizations. The Buddha himself said that some of his teachings were “profound, deep in meaning, transcendental, and connected with emptiness.”2

In the Pali scriptures, emptiness is not an entry-level teaching for beginners to Buddhism and its practices. Rather, it represents insight and states of mind attained by mature practitioners. This probably accounts for why there are not many suttas discussing emptiness. If it is a teaching that is most suitable for those who are most developed in their spiritual practice, then it was probably not a teaching widely disseminated.

The teachings on emptiness center around two words: the adjective “empty” (suñña), and the noun “emptiness” (suññatā). To these two concepts we can add a third, the practice of “emptying.” To have direct insight into how things are empty of inherent existence and to realize emptiness, the mind needs to be emptied of the projections and concepts that prevent these insights.

Empty
The adjective suñña (and the related adjective suññata) is used to characterize something that is vacant or hollow. Some of the things described in the suttas as empty are huts and houses,3 mansions,4 and woods.5 The standard instruction for beginning meditation includes the statement “Here, a monastic, gone to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty hut, sits down…”6

The importance of meditating in empty places is also stressed in the Buddha’s instruction for monastics to “fulfill the precepts, be devoted to internal serenity of mind, not neglect meditation, be possessed of insight, and dwell in empty huts.”7 The frequent references to meditating in a forest or an empty hut gains greater significance when the forest and empty hut are used for insight into the emptiness of self. This can be done when one first perceives the forest or empty hut as not containing or possessing anything that could be identified with one’s self. This perception of absence is then taken as the focus of one’s meditative concentration in order to enter deep states of concentration.8

It is the insight into how things are empty of self that is one of the most profound understandings associated with emptiness. In one significant teaching, the Buddha gives the following instruction to the brahmin Mogharāja:

View the world, Mogharāja, as empty
— always mindful to remove any view about self.
This way one is above and beyond death.
This is how one views the world so as not to be seen by Death’s king

Sutta nipāta v. 1,119

It is probably not a coincidence that Mogharāja’s name means “Hollow King” and Māra is here called “The King of Death” (Maccurāja). Someone who has a view of self is hollow and subject to death. However, by seeing the world as empty and removing all views of self, one will become invisible to death, i.e., one will not be frightened or pre-occupied with thoughts of death. Most likely, viewing the world as empty in this context means to see the world as empty of self. In another early teaching the Buddha states this explicitly: “Because the world is empty of self, Ananda, and what belongs to self,…. it is said ‘The world is empty.’”9

If the world is empty then it follows that what is found in the world must also be empty. Therefore, it is not surprising that important Buddhist concepts are described as being empty. One of these is the teaching of the “five aggregates”, i.e., the five areas in which the Buddha grouped subjective human experience: physical form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. The following poem presents a set of similes for depicting the empty nature of these five:

The physical experience is like a lump of foam,

Feelings like water bubbles;
Perceptions are like a mirage,
Formations like a plantain trunk,

And consciousness like a magic show…

Reflecting like this, investigating wisely, It appears but hollow and void10….

SN 22:95

Emptying

Buddhist practice can be seen as a process of emptying ourselves of the concepts, projections, and attachments that we overlay on our experience. Concepts related to self are prominently mentioned as something from which to become free. One discourse, the Shorter Discourse on Emptiness, gives instruction for a sequential process of letting go of progressively more subtle concepts and perceptions until one has emptied oneself of lust, identity, and ignorance.11 This is an emptying synonymous with the attainment of full enlightenment. Another discourse, the Ānāpānasati Sutta,12 describes meditation practices that lead to progressive emptying which leads to liberation. In addition, a number of discourses describe a natural process, empty of a “self” that acts as an agent, that flows from gladness to concentration creating the conditions for liberation to subsequently take place.

Emptiness

The Buddhist concept of emptiness is closely connected to the most inspiring goal of Buddhist practice; i.e., liberation. This is suggested by the quote above describing those teachings connected to emptiness as profound and transcendental. In another passage emptiness is a type of concentration that leads to the “unconditioned,” a word synonymous with Nibbāna.

Often the word ‘emptiness’ is used to refer to one of several states of mind into which one can “enter and abide.” Sometimes this is a state of concentration known as the “samādhi of emptiness.” Sometimes it refers to a state where one is liberated from the taints, in which case it is called the “pure, supreme, unsurpassed emptiness.”13

The description of Sariputta’s physical radiance resulting from his dwelling in a state of emptiness quoted at the beginning of this article suggests that the emptiness samādhi can be physically transformative for those who enter it. Sariputta’s radiance represents the direct connection that emptiness has for those who experience it.

Empty, emptying, and emptiness are thus three important aspects of the Buddha’s message. These three concepts provide a coherent perspective for studying early Buddhist teachings and spirituality. And because they are teachings directly related to a personal path of understanding and spiritual growth, these three concepts are a useful way to explore one’s live and the path of spiritual growth. In this semester’s class we will be exploring both.

1 Abbreviations: AN: Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical discourses); DN: Dīgha Nikāya (Long Discourses); MN: Majjhima Nikāya (Middle Length Discourses); SN: Samyutta Nikāya (Connected discourses)
2 gambhīrā gambhīratthā lokuttarā suññatappaṭisaṃyuttā (SN 20:7, 55:23; AN 2:43-52, 5:79

3 SN 4:6, MN 76.2, MN 106.7 4 DN 1.2.3,