Emptiness / Shunyata

Buddhists have this funny way of saying "everything is empty!" But that's not a very clear statement. For example, Ananda could go up to a pitcher full of beer and say, quite correctly, "that pitcher is empty!"

But the pitcher is full of beer! So how can it be empty? If that pitcher is full of beer, but it is also empty, then it is empty of what exactly? Because it sure ain't empty of beer!

The answer is, the pitcher is empty of a permanent and independent identity.

• The pitcher does not exist by itself. It depends on other factors for its existence.
• The pitcher does not exist permanently. At one point it did not exist, and at some point it will cease to exist.

This can be very easily understood by Westerners; the pitcher is made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons. So is the beer. Therefore, the pitcher does not exist independently of the subatomic particles. And, when the configuration of subatomic particles changes, the pitcher of beer no longer exists; it is transformed into something else.

Easy to understand. But not easy to accept, because the implications are far-reaching.

Recall that Buddhists like saying "everything is empty!" Which means, not only is the pitcher of beer empty --- but everything is empty! Nothing has a permanent and independent identity!

Examples of things that don't have a permanent and independent identity

Here is a list of things that do not have a permanent and independent identity:

• The sun and the stars (cannot be said to be sun or stars without their internal fusion processes)
• The moon and the earth (cannot exist at all without their molecules)
• The universe or the multiverse (cannot be said to exist without their contents)
• Countries like the United States or India (cannot be said to exist without their populaces)
• The experience of the color red (cannot be said to exist without you, the experiencer)
• The wavelength of light that we call "red" (the wavelength needs light itself in order to exist)