Emptiness

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The word space comes from the Latin word spatium meaning an interval of time.  Its concept deals with interdisciplinary definitions from philosophy to science, from geometry to architecture etc. However, its various theories emerged and developed through the history of the ancient philosophy and science which raised a series of questions on the existence of void. That is why our first goal will be to discern what  the differences and similarities between the definitions of space and void are by studying the evolution of their concepts in philosophy and science. Thanks to this preliminary work, we will analyze the cinematic transcription of this dualistic duo space / void to find how their definitions can be understood in the framework of cinema. At the end of the day, we hope to identify the crossroads, but also the breaking points between their philosophical, scientific and cinematic notions. More generally, we aim at finding out how these many implications of space and void concepts can result in deepening and modifying their meaning in cinema.

This chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy, ed. Bret W. Davis (NYC: Oxford University Press, 2019) explicates the philosophy of the body of sixth-century Buddhist thinker Kūkai. Kūkai brings together what initially seem to be opposing concepts: body and emptiness. He does this in the context of formulating a system of cosmology inseparable from religious practice. We interact with the rest of the cosmos through our body. Kūkai characterizes the cosmos in turn as the body of the Buddha, who personifies the embodiment of the dharma. This cosmic body is comprised of myriad bodies through their interactivities, in which we ourselves partake. The interdependence obtains both horizontally (among microcosmic bodies) and vertically (between macrocosm and microcosm). But this interdependent nature of bodies also means emptiness. All bodies are empty of substantiality. Enlightenment is to realize this emptiness of all. An additional factor is language because Kūkai conceives the body as the linguistic medium for communicating that dharma of emptiness.

In this chapter, I investigate the meaning of profound feelings of emptiness following the bereavement of an intimate other. Contrary to a standard Freudian account, stating that such feelings of emptiness are exclusively emanating from an experience of a vacancy or absence in the world, I argue that they equally express a particular kind of emptiness of the embodied self.

The nothingness of the self, portrayed in Beckett’s late short prose pieces like ‘The Way’ and 'Stirrings Still' can be characterised as disintegrated, dependent and essenceless. This highlights a
positive aspect of nothingness, embedded in the expression of the self that flourishes beyond Western cultural boundaries. These characteristics of the presentation of the self in Beckett’s literary works in turn, owe much to the influence of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who, in turn, owes much to the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism and the Vedas. These intercultural exchanges make
Beckett an interesting case for world literature.

Critics have left the influence of old nihilism on T. S. Eliot’s poetry largely unexplored, an idea that necessitates further inspection because it provides a consistent pre-and-post-conversion current that accounts for his propensity to see empty spaces as fruitful. Dispensing with a framework that silos Christian conversion from philosophy, I interrogate images of empty space in Eliot’s poetry and show that he views nothingness as generative in The Hollow Men and extending to the Four Quartets, effectively spanning most of his literary career. To do this, I draw upon my archival research to reconstruct his reading of nihilism before Nietzsche—an “old” nihilism which views nothingness as generative instead of destructive—and argue that engagement with philosophy in this tradition shapes his empty spaces. This view of emptiness aligns with Eliot’s search for metaphysical answers in a broken world, a process that ultimately saw him simultaneously profess his faith passionately in front of the Pietà yet continue to exercise the values of old nihilism in his poetry.

Logical Criticism of Buddhist Doctrines. This 'thematic compilation' comprises expositions and empirical and logical critiques of many (though not all) Buddhist doctrines, such as impermanence, interdependence, emptiness, the denial of self or soul. It includes the author's most recent essay, regarding the five skandhas doctrine.

Статья посвящена сравнительному анализу раскрытия образа пустоты в западном и восточном кинематографе на примерах фильмов М. Антониони и Ким Ки Дука. Одним из главных художественных средств, используемым данными режиссерами для создания образа пустоты, является различная специфика подачи пространства и времени, в результате чего формируются разные образы пустоты: пустоте как опустошенности в фильмах Антониони противостоит пустота как открытость у Ки Дука.

Two main interests emerge within Edward Hopper’s representations of Paris. The artist frequently depicted the architecture of the urban landscape and the River Seine, usually in oil on various supports. He also made detailed watercolour and pencil drawings on paper of the denizens of Parisian life, seated at café tables or standing mid-step. Sketched against a blank background, these detailed, and sometimes caricatured, representations of a single figure or group of figures seem placeless. Peculiarly, these two approaches rarely overlap. 1 The oils depict architecture that is monumental in comparison with figures, which, if they are present at all, are relegated to miniscule dashes of pigment, while the sketches and watercolours evacuate any sense of a setting with a lack of ground line against the white paper.2

The Philosophy of the Kyoto School (2018) is translated into English by Robert Chapeskie and revised by John W. M. Krummel. It introduces the reader to the works of (some of) the members of the Kyoto School. The general structure of the book means that each member is represented by a primary text, which is supplemented by an introductory essay.

In this paper, I investigate the phenomenology of awakening in Chinese Zen Buddhism. In this tradition, to awaken is to ‘see your true nature’. In particular, the two aspects of awakening are: (1) seeing that the nature of one’s self or mind is empty or void and (2) an erasing of the usual (though merely apparent) boundary between subject and object. In the early Zen tradition, there are many references to awakening as chopping off your head, not having eyes, nose and tongue, and seeing your ‘Original Face’. These references bear a remarkable resemblance to an approach to awakening developed by Douglas Harding. I will guide the reader through a series of Harding’s first-person experiments which investigate the gap where you cannot see your own head. I will endeavour to show that these methods, although radically different from traditional meditation techniques, result in an experience with striking similarities to Zen accounts of awakening, in particular, as experiencing
oneself as empty or void and yet totally united with the given world. The repeatability and apparent reliability of these first-person methods opens up a class of awakening experience to empirical investigation and has the potential to provide new insights into nondual traditions.

An emptiness after one’s child death seems to be impossible to describe. In her novel Tom is dead, Marie Darrieussecq explores mother’s forbidden thoughts. She reconstructs her grieving process ten years after an accidental death of her four years old son. She starts to write a journal to finally deal with her trauma. Darrieussecq challenges the taboo or writing about things that words are almost impossible to express.
The significant thing is that the boy’s name “Tom”, is the anagram of “mot” which stands for “a word” in French. For that reason the death of Tom becomes the death of word. The analysis of the novel in the optic of psychoanalysis results in interesting conclusions, just likewise Marie Darrieussecq’s study in meta-literary context.

Longchenpa’s Precious Treasury of the Genuine Meaning (henceforth PTGM) will dodge and overspill any attempt to classify it in simple disciplinarian molds. Surely, it is possible to deem it a “religious” book, but that will not make any justice. The treatise’s soteriological goals are woven together with cosmogony accounts, embryology, anatomy, ethics, cosmology, psychology, pedagogy, practice orientation, and even thanatology. Studying it in a traditional academic setting, then, is a task that requires well-thought strategies – in face of the thematic abundance, moreover, the entry point to this book seems to be particularly important. One could take it, for instance, as a philological object of analysis, focusing on its linguistic singularities and unveiling a historical context through the text – that is, treating it more as archaeological evidence and less as something that can teach the researcher about anything other than its own history. Conversely, the text can be approached as a philosophical piece, enabling new insights to the reader about the world “outside” the text.

Taking a look at two contemporary TV series, The Walking Dead and Survivors, this article argues that the recent revival of post-apocalyptic fiction relies on the appropriation of empty and fragmented spaces, which function as subtle vehicles of ideologies such as discourses of security, bodily integrity and the neoliberal politics of late capitalism in Western societies. The visual representation of abandoned spaces and the rebuilding of a spatial order that has the characters following a nomad-like existence both historicise and renormalize the moral dilemmas of the post-apocalypse not only by offering a powerful social commentary of what it means to (re-)connect with a changed environment but also through seemingly rendering the catastrophe a familiar phenomenon.

Like in many other religions, musical instruments are essential and highly functional in Buddhist chanting, singing and rituals. Musical instruments do not only signal as time markers for the procedure of an event but also help the participants to keep a focus within a meditative approach.

In the teaching of Buddhist philosophy, the concept of kong (in Chinese) or śūnyatā (in Sanskrit), which is often emphasised in the practice of mind, speech and behaviours, means ‘emptiness’ but also often commonly understood by ‘nothingness’ as an underlying context in the Chinese character “空”. Instant questions are therefore raised: How do Buddhist practitioners treat any instrumental sound in a musical setting when ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’ is stressed in the religious practice? How do they find an agreement and see the meaning of an instrumental sound in the Buddhist settings?

This paper examines how musical instruments are used in Theravāda Buddhism, what instrumental sounds means in the religious context and how the sounds fit into the teaching of the Buddhism philosophy in coherence.

Il Caso Ellen West, pubblicato da Ludwig Binswanger nel 1944, rende conto della storia clinica di una paziente ricoverata a Kreuzlingen dal gennaio al marzo 1921 e suicidatasi quello stesso anno. Il clinico svizzero stabilisce una diagnosi di schizophrenia simplex pur in assenza delle manifestazioni eclatanti di allucinazioni e deliri. La decisione è presa, su base fenomenologica, a partire dal riconoscimento nella paziente di una progressiva chiusura esistenziale che la porta a non essere più nel mondo ma a collocarsi irrimediabilmente fuori da esso (Binswanger, 1944/ 20112).
Il Caso è stato variamente interpretato, letto, studiato e criticato negli ormai settant’anni dalla sua pubblicazione, e tuttavia ha ancora molto da dire. Tra i suoi commentatori troviamo nomi illustri: Rogers (cit. da Mistura, pref. a Binswanger, 1944/2011) che ha fortemente criticato alcune scelte terapeutiche di Binswanger, così come Laing (1982); nel suo libro sull’anoressia mentale M. Selvini Palazzoli (1963) fa cenno al Caso in relazione al problema del suicidio tra le pazienti affette da anoressia mentale. Recentemente, Recalcati (2002) ha utilizzato il caso di E. West per mettere in luce i tratti psicotici e di “desiderio del vuoto” insiti in queste forme psicopatologiche. In area germanica (Hirschmüller, 2003; 2007) è stata da poco pubblicata una consistente parte del materiale lasciato dalla paziente: diari, lettere, un dattiloscritto con l’inizio di un’autobiografia. In area italiana, è da segnalare un recentissimo lavoro che apporta nuove interessanti riflessioni su alcune parti del materiale pubblicato (Bettoni Pojaghi, Capocaccia, Ciocca, Ferro e Rizzo, 2013).
L’intento del presente articolo è proporre una lettura del materiale clinico del Caso Ellen West a partire da una prospettiva psicoanalitica, con lo scopo di approfondire il discrimine tra processi di natura nevrotica o psicotica in pazienti in cui, come in questo caso, non siano evidenti manifestazioni deliranti o allucinatorie. Mediante l’analisi delle angosce della paziente, così come testimoniate dai diari e dal resoconto clinico, cercheremo di stabilire la presenza di angosce nevrotiche di castrazione (livello edipico) o psicotiche di annichilimento (livello pre-edipico) (McWilliams, 1994/1999; Bergeret, 1996/20022). Discuteremo se il disturbo di Ellen West possa essere fatto rientrare nella sfera delle psicosi non scatenate prendendo in esame cinque possibili indici proposti in letteratura (Recalcati, 2002). Proponiamo di leggere il sintomo anoressico di Ellen West come “manovra” per contrastare e organizzare un livello di angosce psicotiche e vuoto non significantizzato. Avanziamo l’ipotesi che le manifestazioni del sintomo svolgano una funzione compensativa rispetto allo scatenamento psicotico, e in questo senso prenderemo in esame funzioni analoghe di pratiche e sintomi nella letteratura psicoanalitica degli ultimi trent’anni (Cohen e Jay, 1996; Farber, 2008; Kilchenstein, 1998; Latzer e Gerzi, 2000; Nissen, 2012; Tustin, 1986/2012). Proponiamo in conclusione l’analisi di una parte specifica del materiale clinico (l’utilizzo di lassativi e tiroidina) per suffragare le nostre ipotesi.

This essay offers an existential approach to those aspects of Nishitani's philosophy that are motivated by a profound sense of the utter mean-inglessness of existence, and by the desire to confront that situation honestly. It examines his idea of the three fields of awareness: consciousness , (beneath it) nihility, and (at bottom) emptiness. Existence on the field of consciousness is too superficial to make for a fulfilling life. Drawing from Nietzsche and Heidegger as well as the Zen tradition , Nishitani outlines the field of nihility as a place of death rather than life, and argues that if we can endure facing our finitude there will come a turn to the deeper field, of emptiness. On this field we are able to encounter things " on their home ground " for the first time, and also our selves as participants in the network of relations that constitute the world as " a field of force. " Published in Bret W. Davis, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), online:

Heidegger's early philosophical project was identified with a nihilistic philosophy of nothingness after the 1927 publication of Being and Time-with its depiction of the radical existential anxiety of being-towards-death-and his 1929 lecture "What is Metaphysics?"-with its analysis of the loss of all orientation and comportment in the face of an impersonal self-nihilating nothingness. Heidegger's philosophy of nothingness would be contrasted in both Germany and Japan in the 1930s and 1940s with "Oriental nothingness" by authors such as Kitayama Junyū, a neglected Japanese philosopher active in Germany and an early interpreter of Heidegger and Nishida. In this contribution, I trace how Heidegger's reflections on nothingness and emptiness (which are distinct yet intertwined expressions) become interculturally entangled with East Asian discourses in the early reception of his thought, particularly in Kitayama and the introduction of Nishida's philosophy into Germany, and their significance in Heidegger's "A Dialogue on Language".

It is claimed that one of the innovative contributions of Nāgārjuna in his Madhyamaka thought was establishing the equivalence of emptiness (P: suññatā, Skt: śūnyatā; kōng 空, kōngxìng 空性) and dependent origination (P: paṭicca-samuppāda, Skt: pratītyasamutpāda; Ch: yīnyüán 因緣, yüánqĭ 緣起).  This present study pre-Nāgārjunian Buddhist textual sources what relationship or equivalence between emptiness and dependent origination was already established. 

In Part 1, we broadly outline the near paradigmatic modern Buddhist studies discourse on the teachings of emptiness.  We then focus on the role of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka within this discourse.  Lastly, this study rounds off with a literature review of studies on emptiness and dependent origination before Nāgārjuna. 

Part 2 covers the early teachings found in the Pāli Nikāyas and (Chinese translations of) the Āgamas.  It finds that the term emptiness was sometimes used independently to refer to the process of dependent arising as saṃsāric dissatisfaction and cause, and also as dependent cessation into nirvāṇa.  Emptiness as the profound also described these two complementary processes as a whole. 

Part 3 continues with the broad range of mainstream sectarian sūtra and śāstra literature.  Here, the previous relationships are made more firm and explicit.  There is greater association with the two doctrines as rejection of extreme views based on a “self”.  The two are also brought within the Abhidharma methodology of analysis into conventional or ultimate truths, and classification as conditioned or unconditioned phenomena. 

Part 4 concludes, that while already nascent in the early literature, the relation or equation of emptiness with dependent origination, along with related terms, was quite well developed in pre-Nāgārjunian sectarian literature, and is strongest in the Sarvāstivādin literature.  We recommend that aspects of the academic discourse on emptiness should be rectified as a result or these findings.

Born in a land where the feeling of nothingness was unavoidable, Cioran has
long been tempted by the demon of the nihilistic spirit. At first he was morbidly
seduced by the desire of extinction, later, in the wake of Pyrrho wandering
through the streets of Eastern wisdom, he has pursued the extinction of desire.
The drama of his existence stems from the impossibility of combining “the
conscience of nothingness and love of life”, not being able, due to his inner
constitution, to surrender completely to one or to the other. However, this latest
setback, seems to open the doors to an unprecedented liberation, beyond all the
predetermined salvations.

Research into the clinical utility of Buddhist-derived interventions (BDIs) has increased greatly over the last decade. Although clinical interest has predominantly focused on mindfulness meditation, there also has been an increase in the scientific investigation of interventions that integrate other Buddhist principles such as compassion, loving kindness, and " non-self. " However, due to the rapidity at which Buddhism has been assimilated into the mental health setting, issues relating to the misapplication of Buddhist terms and practices have sometimes arisen. Indeed, hitherto, there has been no unified system for the effective clinical operationalization of Buddhist principles. Therefore, this paper aims to establish robust foundations for the ongoing clinical implementation of Buddhist principles by providing: (i) succinct and accurate interpretations of Buddhist terms and principles that have become embedded into the clinical practice literature, (ii) an overview of current directions in the clinical operationalization of BDIs, and (iii) an assessment of BDI clinical integration issues. It is concluded that BDIs may be effective treatments for a variety of psychopathologies including mood-spectrum disorders, substance-use disorders, and schizophrenia. However, further research and clinical evaluation is required to strengthen the evidence-base for existent interventions and for establishing new treatment applications. More important, there is a need for greater dialogue between Buddhist teachers and mental health clinicians and researchers to safeguard the ethical values, efficacy, and credibility of BDIs.

There is similarity of the theme of becoming self liberated through the manifestation of appearance in both dzogchen and Heideggarian phenomenology. There is this similarity between the dzogchen meditative awareness tradition as articulated by the 14 th century Tibetan master Longchenpa and the phenomenologist of 20th century philosophy Martin Heidegger.

This dissertation examines the introduction, critique, and re-framing of other-emptiness (gzhan-stong) by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361), Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa (1357–1419), and Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) respectively. Each author's writings on emptiness were deeply informed by his own contemplative and visionary experiences. Such peak
religious moments—along with historical, social, and textual context—must be considered seriously to provide the richest possible history of other-emptiness.

It has become popular to portray the Buddhist Nāgārjuna as an ontological nihilist, i.e., that he denies the reality of entities and does not postulate any further reality. A reading of his works does show that he rejects the self-existent reality of entities, but it also shows that he accepts a "that-ness" (tattva) to phenomenal reality that survives the denial of any distinct, self-contained entities. Thus, he is not a nihilist concerning what is real in the final analysis of things. How Nāgārjuna's positions impact contemporary discussions of ontological nihilism and deflationism in Western philosophy is also discussed.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. v Introduction: Esotericism?

Eine Lektüre und Interpretation der Struktur und Bedeutung von »La carte postale« (1980) – insbesondere der 52 Leerzeichen, die die postalischen Sendungen prägen – im Kontext von Derridas Gesamtwerk. Mit einer Rekonstruktion der Entstehung und der Konsequenzen von Derridas Rede von einer différance (mit a), sowie einer Interpretation seiner Bezugnahmen auf das jüdische Denken und die Beschneidung.

Concerning Antonin Artaud it has been question of some lack of work but in the article we propose to the reading we are talking about another kind of absence. Indeed, in his correspondence and in the writings of his youth, the poet was complaining to be absent to himself. He was saying that words could not convey what he felt, that he had the impression to be a spectator of himself. Over time, he will say that he was feeling some emptiness in him. Is it to fill this emptiness that he spent his time writing on notebooks and that he had replaced speaking by screaming? As a conclusion to this article, we spend some time thinking about the concepts of absence and emptiness, following some writings of Pierre Fédida.

Western music reached a rapid development since the revolution of Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) and Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in twentieth century. Beside the innovation of composing technique the composers of “new music” pursued also the different understandings into music. John Cage (1912-1992), one of the most important avant-garde composers in U.S.A., made several experiments in his compositions to try to find out the new margin of music. Well educated with western tradition, he was also greatly influenced by Eastern culture, especially by Zen Buddhism, for example in his notorious work 4’33’’ (1952), a landmark of the new music of the twentieth century. This essay will try to analyze the Zen Buddhist Spirit in this Cage’s well-known work.

Music related to Buddhism, or Buddhist music in general, gains attention only in the recent decades. Mahāyāna Buddhism substantially registers the importance of music, despite a restriction on the monastic involvement in music performance. While Vajrayāna Buddhism and ‘engaged Buddhism’ have emerged as a global trend that increasingly applies a musical context in many religious movements, Buddhist music is rather deemed problematic to Theravādins. To gaze this music with a philosophical perspective, phenomenality is employed as one of the typical Buddhist emphasises that promotes a detachment from the delusion of worldly existence. In this context, music is merely reflected as a perceived phenomenon. The virtual perspective is another access point to the concept of phenomenality since the internet has created a new dimension that transcends the boundaries across time and space. Subsequently, music enthusiasts, knowledge seekers, and Buddhist practitioners in 21st-century Malaysia, who no longer need to overcome the problems of distance and unscheduled absence at a specific location, are allowed to access relevant data conveniently according to various needs.
Malaysians embrace an innovatory ‘tech’ life that drastically transforms urban lifestyle with a newly developed ‘mobile-only’ culture in the 21st century, a time widely regarded as the digital era. However, the adaptation of a ‘tech’ lifestyle brings about a question of existence in virtuality, which is also connected to the online experience of Buddhist music. Spreading fast through a virtual platform, Buddhist music somehow appears in diverse styles but it also perpetuates a possibility for its musical attributes to remain questionable.
This qualitative research explores possible connections of music related to Buddhism with parallel ideas of phenomenality and virtuality, and investigates the emphasis of the contexts of ‘Buddhism’ and ‘music’ as well as aspects that makes music ‘Buddhist’ by considering music seen from multiple perspectives. Employing a contemporary view of virtual ethnography by Hine, this musicology on Buddhist music in 21st-century Malaysia undertakes a combination of qualitative analytical methods in which discourse analysis, hermeneutic phenomenology, metaphorical analysis, ethnostatistics and music analysis significantly operate on data sources as a way of knowing.
This study consciously regards all music related to Buddhism as an all-inclusive genre called ‘Buddhism-related music’, while the term ‘Buddhist music’, which is  adopted to classify or describe this typical music, is employed interchangeably though both terms are not entirely the same in contexts. As the outcomes, it is found out that Buddhism-related music hardly constitutes significant typological criteria based on its sonic and stylistic attributes. Though variously defined, this music can be identified simply through a conceptualised content that interpretatively represents an idea related to Buddhism. With the understanding of ‘emptiness’, a more universal view can be projected in the ethics of the making of Buddhist music. Virtuality as an integral part of reality affects the making of the object in parallel with the causation of phenomenality. Buddhist music can be considered as both a phenomenal and virtual being, therefore suggesting an insight to consider separable contexts of ‘Buddhism’ and ‘music’, as music is deemed secondary to the goal of Buddhist practice. The notion of ‘emptiness’ advocates an undertaking of the ‘middle path’ for composers, musicians and audiences to access Buddhist music. Finally, this leads the study to formulate an idea of the ‘Buddhist being’ in music.

The charge of nihilism in relation to emptiness is a charge that is all too familiar to the Mādhyamika.  This paper attempts to explain and extrapolate Burton’s nihilist objection to Madhyamaka Buddhist thought and dispel it with primary recourse to original writings by Nāgārjuna and subsequent commentators such as Candrakīrti.  I examine how the Mādhyamika can avoid the trappings of nihilism whilst simultaneously arguing that conventional phenomena (persons and entities) are empty of intrinsic existence or essence, thus illustrating how Madhyamaka philosophy works as a cogent Middle Way between nihilism and eternalism.

To this end, I have split the paper into four distinct but interrelated sections, with each one laying the groundwork for the next and building upon the last.  The four topic areas subsumed under our main endeavour to refute Burton’s claim of nihilism are; I: Emptiness and its Foundations, II: Emptiness and Nihilism, III: The Mādhyamika Method and IV: Emptiness, the Noble Truths and the Two-Truth Position.  Each section attempts to deal with the subtleties of both Madhyamaka thought and Burton’s criticisms with the eventual goal being vindication of Nāgārjuna’s school of Buddhism in virtue of the no-view goal that characterises enlightenment: the Mādhyamika aims to relinquish all views, not engage in metaphysical jostling to score points.  I conclude by arguing that Burton’s criticisms are incorrect because he has misunderstood or misconstrued the conventional Mādhyamika position by attacking a metaphysic that is of no great importance to the wider Madhyamaka project and by misunderstanding precisely what emptiness is by reifying it as some sort of obscure substratum.

Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism offers a solution to a problem that some have called the holy grail of Buddhist studies: the problem of the " origins " of Mahāyāna Buddhism. In a work that contributes both to a general theory of religion and power for religious studies as well as to the problem of the origin of a Buddhist movement, Walser argues that that it is the neglect of political and social power in the scholarly imagination of the history of Buddhism that has made the origins of Mahāyāna an intractable problem. Walser challenges commonly-held assumptions about Mahāyāna Buddhism, offering a fascinating new take on its genealogy that traces its doctrines of emptiness and mind-only from the present day back to the time before Mahāyāna was " Mahāyāna. " In situating such concepts in their political and social contexts across diverse regimes of power in Tibet, China and India, the book shows that what was at stake in the Mahāyāna championing of the doctrine of emptiness was the articulation and dissemination of court authority across the rural landscapes of Asia. This text will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars of Buddhism, religious studies, history and philosophy.

While the *Mahāprajñāparamitā Upadeśa ( Dàzhìdù lùn), the extensive commentary of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā sūtra and traditionally attributed to Nāgārjuna, is encyclopedic in its scope, it is perhaps the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā) that have been most commonly seen as its philosophical focal point. The accurate presentation of this core doctrine is fraught with the perils of the audience falling to the two extremes of eternalism and annihilism, as has been the case since the formation of the Buddha’s own teachings on not self (anātman). The author of the *Upadeśa, following the tra itself, thus chooses the rhetorical strategy of exegesis through metaphor, arguing that: “Although all dharmas are empty, there are distinctions between emptiness which is difficult to comprehend and emptiness which is easy to comprehend. We now use easily comprehended emptiness metaphors [to comprehend] difficultly comprehended emptiness.” The sūtra and *Upadeśa give ten metaphors for emptiness: illusion, mi...

after the transmission of Buddhism to China from India, which is based on Dependent Arising, in the spiritual thought aspect, it encountered with the interpretation of "essence and function" in Sinicized style. Master Dao'an, and Master Sengzhao

This paper will compare two fourteenth century philosophical systems that describe Buddhist theories on creation: the graded path of the Middle Way and aspects of its subsequent system of Highest Yoga Tantra according to Je Tsongkhapa, and the Great Perfection tradition according to Longchenpa.  For the Middle Way philosophy I will mostly rely upon teachings on perception by a modern monk-scholar, Gen Lamrimpa, who refers to a system elaborated on by a 19th century Sera Mey textbook author Purbuchok Jampa Tsultrim, which stands as a quintessential representative of the philosophy of Gelug (dge lugs) tradition of Je Tsongkhapa.  In addition, to support my presentation of Middle Way philosophy I will also refer to the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim chen mo).  For the philosophy of the Great Perfection I will rely on the modern scholars David Germano and Herbert Guenther, and on Longchenpa’s text Words and Meanings.
In doing so, I will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the philosophy of each of these systems?  How does the map of the mind presented in these traditions relate to both the source of the mind, and to the external world?  What mechanisms are in place that make these systems work?  Is the philosophy reflected in the contemplative systems? And finally, how does each system deal with solipsism?
The key distinction of these systems lies in their fundamental views of emptiness, the foundation from which each system’s creation story emerges.  We will see that the emptiness of the Great Perfection tradition is divine and luminous in nature, while the Middle Way emphasizes a reductionist view of emptiness without any qualities.  Beyond their foundations however, which are important, the two systems contain many of the same elements but differ greatly in emphasis.  Having the same components is a likely necessity needed to justify their foundations, and yet those differences in emphasis have a profound effect on their systems of praxis.

The word Emptiness has many various meanings. The experience of awareness becoming aware of its own self opens the experience of emptiness in a most direct manner. Experientially emptiness has many faces. Sometimes the face of emptiness is a void or abyss like experience. This abyss can open the unhappy experience of falling and falling and falling. This void experience can at times open the experience of disappearing and dissolving into a terrifying nothingness. And sometimes emptiness is experienced as no thingness. Sometimes emptiness is experience like endless and infinite space. Sometimes emptiness is experienced as unbound openness. Sometimes emptiness is experienced as deep unmoving stillness, stillness of movement and stillness of sound. Sometimes emptiness is experienced as bliss, vast bliss. All these variations of experience unfold over time as one becomes aware of their own awareness. Sometimes emptiness is experienced as freedom of pure potentiality. Often the word sunyata implies the experience and nature of emptiness. The personal experience of emptiness is a vast range experience often beyond words and language. The human range of experiencing emptiness is vast and ineffable. The experience of emptiness can range from nihilistic experience that can not be thought to the positive experience that is unbound bliss as gnosis. This wide range of meaning of emptiness is not only personally experiential but there is vast range of the historical cultural unfolding of the appearance of emptiness and articulation of emptiness by the various spiritual traditions. Over time the phenomena of emptiness has been articulated in various ways, and at times in ways that are in opposition to each other.

This paper is an attempt to discuss the implication of the Buddhist teachings of emptiness in our contemporary life by looking into a disciple of psychotherapy, namely the person-centered therapy, with a special focus on the use of language.  It is the purpose of this paper to investigate how emptiness can be a guiding principle in psychotherapy and how with it as a foundation ground makes therapeutic skills with the use of language effective in helping achieve the goal of healing.