“‘Ānanda, I, who am the Tathāgata now…I also truly dwell in this emptiness…the unconditioned liberation of the mind.’
‘Ānanda, you should train yourself like this.’”
The Madhyama Āgama parallel to the Cūḷasuññata Sutta
What is the liberating power of emptiness? And when we speak of emptiness in Buddhism, what are we talking about?
In this twelve-hour course, we’ll explore some of the many meanings and practices of emptiness across Buddhist traditions. We’ll begin with early teachings from the Pāli suttas and Chinese Āgamas on the emptiness of self and the liberating practice of seeing all things as not-self. From there, we’ll turn to Nāgārjuna, widely regarded as the most influential Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, exploring both his philosophy and devotional poetry of emptiness. We’ll then consider Yogācāra thinkers, who, in response to Nāgārjuna’s view, saw emptiness as the lack of duality between the mentally constructed object and the subject. Together, we’ll explore how these approaches to emptiness have been interpreted and practiced in Buddhist traditions, including:
- Self-emptiness and other-emptiness
- Deconstructive and affirmative approaches to emptiness
- Meditative practices for realizing emptiness
- Emptiness in art and poetry
- Emptiness and the awakened perception of Buddha-nature in the more-than-human world
- Emptiness, moral imagination, and political possibilities
We’ll trace these understandings of emptiness through a range of classical and contemporary Buddhist texts. Along the way, we’ll consider how meditations on emptiness have been developed across traditions—and why they have long been regarded as pathways to liberation.
Program Format: Each two-hour meeting will include a presentation, opportunities for questions and reflection, small and large group discussions, and brief periods of meditation.
