The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism

The main body of the book is structured around two major chapters. The first chapter, “The Meaning of ‘Emptiness’ in Early Buddhism,” examines emptiness as a place of meditative seclusion, as kong-sanmei / suññatā-vihāra, as the “empty world,” and as a concept linked to conditioned genesis, nirvana, impermanence, not-self, and the middle way. It clarifies that early Buddhist emptiness does not usually mean that phenomena are absolutely non-existent, but that they are empty of self and of anything belonging to self. The second chapter, “The Practice of ‘Emptiness’ in Early Buddhism,” analyzes the practical dimension of emptiness through samatha-vipassanā, concentration, wisdom, mind-liberation, the three concentrations, three kinds of contact, and the discourses on small and great emptiness. Across these chapters, the book presents emptiness as a path-oriented concept: it begins with meditative seclusion, matures through insight into not-self and conditioned arising, and culminates in liberation, where the mind is empty of craving and afflictive attachments.