Śūnyatā (shoon-yə-TAH, Sanskrit शून्यता, Pali suññatā, lit. "emptiness," "voidness" [1, 2, 3], "vacuity"[4, 5], "no-thingness" or "spaciousness") is an Indian philosophical concept in Dharmic traditions like Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and other Indian philosophical traditions.
The concept has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context: an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience.
In Theravāda Buddhism, suññatā refers to the impersonal characteristic of all states of existence, not-self (Pāli anattā, Sanskrit anātman) [Note 1] -- the true nature of the Five Aggregates clung to as "self" and the six sense spheres.
Pali suññatā may also be used to refer to an experience or meditative state.
- Possibly the meditative state (absorption, jhana) referred to here is the "sphere of nothingness"? For it is said: Through the total overcoming of the [previous meditative absorption called the] "sphere of boundless consciousness," with the idea "Nothing is there," a meditator can reach the "sphere of nothingness" (ākiñcaññāyatana) and abide therein. Through the total overcoming of the "sphere of nothingness," one can reach the "sphere [meditative absorption] of neither-perception-nor-non-perception" (nevasaññā-n'asaññāyatana) and abide therein. This "sphere or base of nothingness" is the seventh of the four immaterial absorptions (jhanas of the immaterial sphere). It still belongs, properly speaking, to the fourth fine-material absorption because it possesses the same two constituents. This fourth fine-material absorption is the base or starting point (pādaka-jhāna) for the attaining of the higher (special, psychic) spiritual powers (abhiññā). Source
- These meditative attainments are heavy karma and can lead to rebirth in exalted celestial, heavenly, superhuman states that last a very long time.
- However one may use the term, these two "nothings" are not the same. They are very different. I spent years believing that this base or sphere of "nothingness" was just the understanding that all things are impersonal and not-self, seeing through the illusion of "thingness." Then I was corrected by a powerful meditator able to enter this and all the other absorptions at will. Asking, "Isn't that knowing of nothingness just knowing that everything is anatta?"
- "No," I was told, "that sphere is a real place." "What's it like?" "It's like a construction zone with nothing built there, desolate, empty, unformed yet." I was blown away, asking the obvious question: "Well, that can't be 'nothing' because you're describing something, right?" I was surprised by the answer: "It may be something, but when you're there, it's eerie. There's nothing there." This meant not nothing-nothing, not literally, but in a sense of speaking, as when one leaves the city and goes out to the desolate desert.
- What can we say about it when we get back to the cluttered city? We can say, "there was nothing there." One day there may be, but now it's just nothing built up, formed, fabricated, constructed. There's sand but not bricks, sky and air but not smog and obstructions, no objects in the sky or on the ground, and so on. It's figurative.
- This bore a striking similarity to a non-Buddhist description a guest once gave on Coast to Coast AM, which oddly echoes a very Buddhist story. Where is the end of the universe? This guest, wishing to see that place, willed it, and ended up in just that sort of unbuilt up construction zone like place, a real "place" (sphere) but a desolation, not so much a nothing-nothing but rather a no-thing yet. It was not yet a thing, like an empty expanse where a mall to be built, empty real estate.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, Sanskrit śūnyatā refers to the tenet that "all things are empty [devoid] of intrinsic existence [essence] and [self-] nature (svabhava)" [7, 8], but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen, Shentong, or Chan (Chinese chan'na, Pali jhan', Sanskrit dhyan', Japanese zen). More
The Heart Sutra (if Eckhart translated it?)
Channeled by Dhr. Seven for Wisdom Quarterly, November 2026
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| Nothing is more powerful than right now. |
Here, O Wise One, this bodily form is spacious, and the very spaciousness is form. Spaciousness does not differ from form, form does not differ from spaciousness. Whatever is spaciousness, that is form [the first group clung to as self]. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, [mental] fabrications, and consciousness.
Therefore, O Wise One, in spaciousness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor fabrication, nor consciousness. There is no [ayatana of] eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no [visible] forms, sounds, fragrances, tastes, tangibles, nor objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: no mind-consciousness element.
There is no ignorance, no eradication of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: There is no decay and death, no eradication of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment.
Therefore, O Wise One, it is because of this spacious non-attainmentness that a being bent on awakening, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings.
In the absence of thought-coverings one no longer trembles. One has overcome everything that can upset, and in the end one realizes nirvana.
All fully awakened ones of the past, present, and future fully awake to the ultimate, to right and perfect awakening because they have relied on this Perfection of Wisdom.
Therefore, one should know this Perfection of Wisdom as a great mantra, a mantra of great knowledge, the ultimate mantra, the unequalled mantra, the allayer of all suffering for, in truth, what could go wrong? [For nothing could touch that part of us.]
By the Perfection of Wisdom has this mantra come to us. It runs something like this as the Buddhists would say: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. ("Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, so it is!)
This completes the Heart of Perfect Wisdom. More
