སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། | Glossary of Terms

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independently from the complex network of factors that gives rise to their origination, nor are phenomena independent of the cognitive processes and mental constructs that make up the conventional framework within which their identity and existence are posited. When all levels of conceptualization dissolve and when all forms of dichotomizing tendencies are quelled through deliberate meditative deconstruction of conceptual elaborations, the ultimate nature of reality will finally become manifest. It is the first of the three gateways to liberation.

In the Mahāyāna, this refers to the lack of any intrinsic nature in all phenomena that would allow them to be regarded as ultimately real, independently existing entities.

The absence of independent, singular, and permanent existence; one of the three gateways of liberation.

One of the three doors of liberation.

A term used to describe how phenomena are devoid of any nature of their own. One of the three doors of liberation.

Meditative concentration which realizes the non-self of persons and phenomena; the first of the three doors of liberation.

The absence of independent, singular, and permanent existence. One of the three gateways to liberation, the other two being signlessness and wishlessness.

In the Mahāyāna this is the term for how phenomena are devoid of any nature of their own. One of the three doorways to liberation along with the absence of aspiration and the absence of attributes.

One of the three gateways to liberation along with absence of characteristics and absence of wishes.

In this text, refers to one of the three gates of liberation.

In the Great Vehicle this is the term for how phenomena are devoid of any nature of their own. Also, one of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation.

The absence of independent, singular, and permanent existence; one of the three gateways to liberation.

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independently from the complex network of factors that gives rise to its origination, nor are phenomena independent of the cognitive processes and mental constructs that make up the conventional framework within which their identity and existence are posited. In this sūtra, monks on the vehicle of the śrāvakas and the Great Vehicle both are to apprehend dharmas as empty. The Abhidharma position that dharmas exist as ontological simples appears by and large to be rejected here.

This Skt. term is usually translated by “voidness” because that English word is more rarely used in other contexts than “emptiness” and does not refer to any sort of ultimate nothingness, as a thing-in-itself, or even as the thing-in-itself to end all things-in-themselves. It is a pure negation of the ultimate existence of anything or, in Buddhist terminology, the “emptiness with respect to personal and phenomenal selves,” or “with respect to identity,” or “with respect to intrinsic nature,” or “with respect to essential substance,” or “with respect to self-existence established by intrinsic identity,” or “with respect to ultimate truth-status,” etc. Thus emptiness is a concept descriptive of the ultimate reality through its pure negation of whatever may be supposed to be ultimately real. It is an absence, hence not existent in itself. It is synonymous therefore with “infinity,” “absolute,” etc.‍—themselves all negative terms, i.e., formed etymologically from a positive concept by adding a negative prefix (in + finite = not finite; ab + solute = not compounded, etc.). But, since our verbally conditioned mental functions are habituated to the connection of word and thing, we tend to hypostatize a “void,” analogous to “outer space,” a “vacuum,” etc., which we either shrink from as a nihilistic nothingness or become attached to as a liberative nothingness; this great mistake can be cured only by realizing the meaning of the “emptiness of emptiness,” which brings us to the tolerance of inconceivability.

One of the three gateways of liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness.

One of the three gateways to liberation; the empty nature of phenomena.

The absence of independent, singular, and permanent existence; one of the three gateways to liberation; the other two are signlessness and wishlessness.

In the Mahāyāna, it refers to the lack of any intrinsic nature in all phenomena that would allow them to be regarded as real, independently existing entities.

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independently from the complex network of factors that gives rise to their origination, nor are phenomena independent of the cognitive processes and mental constructs that make up the conventional framework within which their identity and existence are posited. When all levels of conceptualization dissolve and when all forms of dichotomizing tendencies are quelled through deliberate meditative deconstruction of conceptual elaborations, the ultimate nature of reality will finally become manifest.

In the Mahāyāna this is the term for how phenomena are devoid of any nature of their own. One of the three gateways of liberation along with the absence of wishes and the absence of marks.

One of the three terms associated with the nature of reality in the context of the three gateways to liberation.

This could refer to any of a number of enumerations of emptinesses. “Seven emptinesses,” “fourteen emptinesses,” and “eighteen emptinesses” are listed in this sūtra.

Voidness, emptiness; specifically, the emptiness of absolute substance, truth, identity, intrinsic reality, or self of all persons and things in the relative world, being quite opposed to any sort of absolute nothingness (see glossary, under “emptiness”).

See “emptiness.”