DESCRIPTION
This course is focused on the fundamental Buddhist concept Śūnyatā, translated most often as ’emptiness.’ This term has multiple meanings, depending on its particular doctrinal context. In the Pali-based traditions, for example, the term suññata is often synonymous with the concept of no-self (anatta, Skt. anatman), or it is described as a meditative state or experience devoid of sensory input. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit śūnyatā is more closely associated with the teaching of dependent co-origination (pratītyasamutpāda) and refers to the lack of inherent nature (svabhava) of any individuated phenomena, self or otherwise. This course will focus on Emptiness as it is understood and taught in the Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions.
The primary explicator of śūnyatā and its broader implications is no doubt Nāgārjuna. This course is a line-by-line reading of the Śūnyatāsaptatikārikā (’Seventy Verses on Emptiness’), a commentarial poem written sometime before the year 100 AD attributed to Nāgārjuna. This brief text has similarity with the seventh section of Nāgārjuna’s larger work, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (’Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way’), and the chapter on Examining Arising, Dwelling and Ceasing, and is therefore an good introduction to the work
Primary Reading
There are several English translations of the ’Seventy Verses on Emptiness.’ This course will rely primarily on the 1987 translation by David Ross Komito, however we will also be referring to the more recent translation by Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, both of which are translations from Tibetan.
Komito, David Ross. Nāgārjuna’s Seventy Stanzas: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness. Snow Lion Publications, 1987.
Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, Śūnyatāsaptati: The Seventy Kārikās on Voidness (According to the Svavṛtti) of Nāgārjuna (Fundación Bodhiyana, digitalization done in July 2019)
Suggested Reading
The Third Part of the Majjhima Nikāya ("Middle-length Discourses") includes a section (3) called the Suññatavagga (’Division on Voidness’). Sutta #121, Cūḷasuññata Sutta (‘The Shorter Discourse on Voidness’), presents the early Buddhist understanding of ‘emptiness.’