[sessoorale]

My dear friends,

If you kindly give the right answer to my following question, I will appreciate it;

In Buddhism, what is the opposite of ''emptiness''

Thanks in advance,

With love and peace,

[Vcwdldva]

My dear friends,

If you kindly give the right answer to my following question, I will appreciate it;

In Buddhism, what is the opposite of ''emptiness''

Hi Bothi,

Firstly, please explain to us what your own understanding of "emptiness" is........because if you don't understand it yourself, then how can you know what the ''right'' answer is concerning "the opposite" ?


with kind regards

Aloka

[Emedgella]

Hi Bothi,

Firstly, please explain to us what your own understanding of "emptiness" is........because if you don't understand it yourself, then how can you know what the ''right'' answer is concerning "the opposite" ?


with kind regards

Aloka

Dear Aloka,

Nothing has an intrinsic existence even the dhamma is empty, but there is one truth in Buddhism which is not empty in this sense. İf you know it please kindly state it...

With love,

[Qvqnubpj]

but there is one truth in Buddhism which is not empty in this sense. İf you know it please kindly state it...

With love,

This isn't a quiz game, Bodhi, please just say yourself what you think this "one truth in Buddhism" is "which is not empty in this sense."... .. and which you think is 'the opposite'. Your opinions can then be discussed, thanks.

[ephennaCypota]

For there to be an opposite to emptiness, first emptiness must exist. It is merely a word created to describe a visual event. As nothing is empty, there is no opposite.

[gundas]

It is merely a word created to describe a visual event. As nothing is empty, there is no opposite.

Could you explain in more detail please ? I'm not sure I understand what you've said.


.

[eropiereetuekm]

If a person looks at a cup with nothing in, they say its empty. If you could not see it, you wouldn't know. To describe this observation, a person uses the word 'empty'. But nothing is empty. It saves us from saying "this cup is full of air"

[Kamendoriks]

Ok, here's how I understand emptiness....

If we take the example of a chair, we can, through analysis, come to the conclusion that there there is no permanently existant entity called 'chair'. It has been made up of wood and other materials which came from various places in a variety of ways themselves -and it will decay and fall to pieces in time. So we can say that a chair is empty of any independent, permanent existence....and that chair is not really 'mine' or 'yours'.

In human terms we can also, through analyis, see that we ourselves are empty of any permanently existing 'self'. The 'self' of last year or even yesterday may be different to the 'self' of today in our appearance and in our thoughts and actions. We can also understand emptiness (sunnata) through our meditation practice.

The Buddha taught that emptiness is 'empty of self and anything belonging to self'.



SN 35.85 - Suñña Sutta: Empty


Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self.

"The ear is empty...

"The nose is empty...

"The tongue is empty...

"The body is empty...

"The intellect is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Ideas... Intellect-consciousness... Intellect-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Thus it is said that the world is empty."


http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....085.than.html

[Pyuvjzwf]

This article from Buddhadasa is very helpful :

excerpt:

"If at any moment any person at all has a mind empty of grasping at and clinging to 'I' and 'mine', even if it is only for an instant, it means that the mind has realized emptiness. It is pure, radiant and at peace. It is one and the same thing as the heart of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. Thus at any moment that one has a mind empty in this way one has taken refuge, one has reached the Triple Gem."
and another excerpt relating to the experiential understanding of emptiness:


If we enquire which of the Buddha's utterances dealing with this matter can be taken as authoritative statements we fill find in many places the Buddha taught us to know how to look on the world as being empty, as in the phrase "Sunnato lokam avekkhassu mogharaja sada sato" which means "You should look on the world as being empty". If you can be always aware of the emptiness of the world, death will not find you.

These words of the Buddha enjoining us to see the world as being empty show that it is the highest thing. Anyone who wants to be without problems concerning Dukkha and death, should look on the world, i.e. on all things, as they truly are, namely as empty, neither "I" nor "mine".

The statements of the Buddha that follow on from this show the benefits: 'Nibbana paranam sunnam' and 'Nibbanam paramam sukham', which translate as 'Nibbana is the supreme emptiness' and 'Nibbana is the supreme happiness'. You must understand that Nibbana, the remainderless extinction of Dukkha, means the same as supreme emptiness, and that it is possible to know and realize an emptiness that is not supreme, an emptiness that is in some way deficient or false. The truth-discerning awareness must be so impeccably clear that one has not the slightest feeling of "self" or "belonging to a self" for it to be called paramam sunnam, supreme emptiness.

Supreme emptiness is Nibbana because it completely extinguishes the things that are on fire, the stream or whirlpool of flowing and changing phenomena.
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha196.htm

[Haibundadam]

From
Shenpen Ösel.

As this is from a longer Teaching I posted the Link At the end.

Selected Verses From Nagarjuna’s
Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness

Entities do not exist
In their causes, in their conditions,
In aggregations of many things, or in individual things.

Therefore, all entities are empty. (3)Because it already exists, that which exists does not arise.
Because it does not exist, that which does not exist does not arise.
Because they contradict each other, existence and nonexistence do not
[arise] together

Since there is no arising, there is no remaining or cessation either. (4)
Without one there are not many, and
Without many there is not one.

Therefore, dependently arisen entities [like these]
Have no characteristics.
[In the true nature] there is neither permanence nor impermanence,
Neither self nor nonself, neither clean nor unclean
And neither happiness nor suffering.

Therefore, the [four] mistaken views do not exist.
Without a father there is no son, and without a son there is no father.
These two do not exist without depending on each other.
Neither do they exist simultaneously.

The twelve links are exactly the same.
Composite and uncomposite [phenomena]
Are not many, are not one,
Are not existent, are not nonexistent, [and] are not both existent and nonexistent.
These words apply to all phenomena [without exception].
[Defiled] actions have afflictions as their cause,
And the afflictions themselves arise due to [defiled] actions.
The body [also] has [defiled] actions as its cause,
So all three are empty of essence.

All formations are like unreal cities in the sky,
Illusions, mirages, falling hairs,
Foam, bubbles, phantoms,
Dreams and wheels of fire—
They have absolutely no core or substance to them. (66)

The unequaled Thus Gone One
Explicitly taught that
Since all entities are empty of any inherent nature,
All phenomena are dependently arisen.
When one understands that “this arose from those conditions,”
The net of wrong views is lifted.
One abandons desire, ignorance and aversion,
And attains the undefiled state of nirvana.

Under the guidance of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, adapted by Ari Goldfield from a translation in Nagarjuna: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nagarjuna, ChristianLindtner, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, New Delhi, 1990, pp. 31-69. May 17, 1997.

http://www.shenpen-osel.org/issue4.pdf

[Inettypofonee]

If a person looks at a cup with nothing in, they say its empty. If you could not see it, you wouldn't know. To describe this observation, a person uses the word 'empty'. But nothing is empty. It saves us from saying "this cup is full of air"

If this is the emptiness in Buddhism, it means nothing is empty. In other words, this explains that everything is full.
But fullness is not the opposite of emptiness in Buddhism. So please lets give the real meaning. If emptiness is merely a word then it must have an opposite for sure...

[mrPronmaker]

Yes, the opposite of the 'word' emptiness is fullness. But as emptiness cannot truly exist, it cannot have an opposite.

[egershna]

Yes, the opposite of the 'word' emptiness is fullness. But as emptiness cannot truly exist, it cannot have an opposite.

Emptiness if not exist in Buddhism, then why it is the main subject of Buddhism? I do not assume taht just for the fun of it. What is this word explain? In reality the matter is 99.999 percent empty...This is what physics tells us. But this is a different matter. It has nothing to do with Buddhism.

Here the main subject is Buddhism and the meaning of emptiness in it...Even we see that there are many types of emptiness in Buddhism...

With love,

[sEe]

In Buddhism, what is the opposite of ''emptiness''

'God' is the opposite of ''emptiness''

I am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Sovereign Lord, the Maker, Creator, Chief, Appointer and Ruler, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be. 'Atman' is the opposite of ''emptiness''

'Bhagavad-gītā' is the opposite of ''emptiness''

BG 2.13: As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

BG 2.16: Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

BG 2.17: That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul

BG 2.20: For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

BG 2.23: The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.

BG 2.24: This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. 'Pure consciousness' is the opposite of ''emptiness''

Buddha said:

Now suppose that a magician or magician's apprentice were to display a magic trick at a major intersection, and a man with good eyesight were to see it, observe it & appropriately examine it. To him — seeing it, observing it & appropriately examining it — it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in a magic trick? In the same way, a monk sees, observes & appropriately examines any consciousness that is past, future or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near. To him — seeing it, observing it & appropriately examining it — it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance would there be in consciousness?

Phena Sutta: Foam Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every consciousness is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'

Khajjaniya Sutta: Chewed Up

[RokgroofeTeme]

In Buddhism, what is the opposite of ''emptiness''

hi Bothi

one answer to your question is "non-emptiness" is the opposite of emptiness. the Buddha, on one occassion, taught as follows:

This mode of perception is empty of the effluent of sensuality, empty of the effluent of becoming, empty of the effluent of ignorance. And there is just this non-emptiness: that connected with the six sensory spheres, dependent on this very body with life as its condition.

Thus he regards it as empty of whatever is not there. Whatever remains, he discerns as present: 'There is this'.

And so this, his entry into emptiness, accords with actuality, is undistorted in meaning, pure — superior & unsurpassed.

Cula-suññata Sutta: The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness kind regards

[sandracuk]

Nothing has an intrinsic existence even the dhamma is empty...

hello Bothi

the Buddha used the word emptiness (sunnata) and empty (sunno) in many ways

predominantly, it means empty of 'self' (SN 35.85)

othertimes, it means empty of literal existence; empty of arising (eg. MN 121)

other times, it means empty of inherent existence, substance & permanence (eg. SN 22.95)

the Dhamma is certainly empty of self but the Dhamma is certainly not empty of inherent existence, substance & permanence

only conditioned things (sankhata dhamma) are empty of inherent existence

about the Dhamma (Truth; Law of Nature), the Buddha said:

So they say, no permanence, no self...

if the dhamma of impermanence had no inherent existence then the realisation of not-self could not occur

thus the dhamma of impermanence has inherent existence

as the Buddha taught, the dhamma of impermanence is 'steadfast' and 'orderly'

all the best

[soSldI4i]

My dear Element,

If you kindly note that you have given many different opposites for emptiness. So which one is the real answer is not clear.

Could you kindly define what is ''self''? By this means may be we can reach the truth.

What does ''self '' mean in Buddhism? This is the question? If you kindly explain this then we all might be closer to the real solution...

With love and peace,

[indartwm]

What does ''self '' mean in Buddhism?

Hi Bothi

"Self" means who we think we are - in other words "I", "me", the personality, the conventional way we think of ourselves.

However, your post was for Element, so I'll leave it to him to respond to it.

kind regards,

Aloka



.

[Adeniinteme]

Hi Bothi

"Self" means who we think we are - in other words "I", "me", the personality, the conventional way we think of ourselves.

However, your post was for Element, so I'll leave it to him to respond to it.

kind regards,

Aloka



.

Dear Aloka,

I would like to state here the following explanation of Barbara O'Brien. This explanation of ''self'' in Buddhism is my favored one:

''The Self Is No-Self

What's most important to understand about the skandhas is that they are empty. They are not qualities that an individual possesses, because there is no-self possessing them. This doctrine of no-self is called anatman or anatta.

Very basically, the Buddha taught that "you" are not an integral, autonomous entity. The individual self, or what we might call the ego, is more correctly thought of as a by-product of the skandhas.

On the surface, this appears to be a nihilistic teaching. But the Buddha taught that if we can see through the delusion of the small, individual self, we experience that which is not subject to birth and death.''

Best regards,

[gennickhif]

Element already gave a detailed explanation of the 5 aggregates(khandas/skhandas) in relation to anatta in #8 of a thread in which you also posted yourself ... ''No self - something I never understood" in our General Buddhist Discussions Forum.

The Buddha also speaks of them as being empty in Phena Sutta, linked in #14 of this thread.