I’m currently looking into the topic of sunyata and have noticed that there are different perspectives and classifications from various Buddhist scholars. Does anyone know of any others besides the ones listed here?
How does this look like in Theravada and the Pali Canon? Are there also different views and opinions here?
14 kinds of emptiness by Aṣṭadaśasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā
16 kinds of emptiness by Asanga Madhyāntavibhāga,
16 kinds of emptiness by Chandrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara:
I did a deep dive into emptiness using teachings from a 30 day retreat and a book on Chandrakirti’s Seven Fold Reasoning. Here are my comments from another thread about that experience.
We had a little discussion about lists of emptinesses a couple years ago that made me dig a little into the subject: Paṭisambhidāmagga and Prajñāpāramitā . My basic conclusion is that it began in Abhidharma and then was developed further into really long lists.
It began by simply collating different sutra passages that employed emptiness, and so the list is essentially an attempt to capture every context or angle of emptiness as a teaching. Which is exactly the kind of project an Abhidharmist would engage in. They were trying to create order out of the chaos of the jumbled collections of early sutras.
The reason there are different lists is because various traditions and writers have extended the early lists in their own way, but there is a common core that probably started it.
There are many opinions, but emptiness which is taught in Suttas is actually the same for everyone who realized cessation of bhava.
“Ānanda, whatever recluses and brahmins in the past entered upon and abided in pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness, all entered upon and abided in this same pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness. Whatever recluses and brahmins in the future will enter upon and abide in pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness, all will enter upon and abide in this same pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness. Whatever recluses and brahmins in the present enter upon and abide in pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness, all enter upon and abide in this same pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness. Therefore, Ānanda, you should train thus: ‘We will enter upon and abide in pure, supreme, unsurpassed voidness.’”
MN 121
Perhaps variety of opinions depends on inability to descent into the voidness by these who created them.
