No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Śūnyatā: Objective Referent or Via Negativa?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Extract
I propose in this paper to examine and analyse the concept of śūnyatā as it is expressed in the Hrdaya sūtras of the Buddhist prajñā-pāramitā literature and in the Mū1amadhyamaka-kārikās of Nāgārjuna. I shall attempt to show some of the difficulties involved in seeking an objective referent or counter part for the concept and also in trying to preserve the tension implicit in the affirmation of the middle way. I hope to indicate that the via negativa approach has positive implications for the understanding of śūnyatā and that in the final analysis we may have to look for its meaning in the way it is used.
Information
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978
References
page 251 note 1 Cowell, E. B. (ed.), Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts (Dover Publications, New York, 1969)Google Scholar; Streng, F. J., Emptiness: a stuay in religious meaning (Abingdon Press, 1967), Appendix AGoogle Scholar; Conze, Edward, Buddhist Wisdom Books (London, 1970).Google Scholar
page 251 note 2 Buddhist Wisdom Books, p. 81.Google Scholar
page 251 note 3 ibid. p. 82.
page 252 note 1 Abe, Masao, ‘Zen and Western Thought’, International Philosophical Qusarterly (Fordham University Press, New York), x, 4, 513.Google Scholar
page 253 note 1 Mūlamadhyamakakārikās, xv, 10.Google Scholar
page 253 note 2 Op. cit. p. 83.Google Scholar
page 253 note 3 Hiriyanna, M., Outlines of Indian Philosophy (London, 1973), pp. 220, 222.Google Scholar
page 253 note 4 Mūlamadhyamakakārikās, xxv, 20.Google Scholar
page 254 note 1 Suzuki, D. T., Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism (Schocken, 1970).Google Scholar
page 254 note 2 Op.cit. p. 98.Google Scholar
page 254 note 3 Murti, T. R. V., The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (London, 1968).Google Scholar
page 254 note 4 Cf. Smart, Ninian, Doctrine and Argument in indian Philosophy (London, 1969), pp. 54, 223.Google Scholar
page 254 note 5 Emptiness, p. 149.Google Scholar
page 255 note 1 Mūlamadhyamakakārikās, XXVII.
page 255 note 2 Wittgenstein, L., Philosophical Investigations (Oxford, 1963), pp. 133, 255.Google Scholar
page 255 note 3 ibid. pp. 109, 128; cf. Murti, , pp. 163–4.Google Scholar
page 256 note 1 Mūlamadhyamakakārikās XIII. 8; Vigrahavyāvartani, 21–9; 57–9;Google Scholar
page 256 note 2 Cf. Emptiness, p. 148.Google Scholar
page 256 note 3 Cf. Smart, Ninian, op. cit. p. 55Google Scholar; Abe, Masao, op. cit. p. 512Google Scholar; Conze, Edward, op. cit. p. 78Google Scholar; Murti, , op.cit. p. 226.Google Scholar
page 256 note 4 Op. cit. p. 151.Google Scholar
page 256 note 5 Cheng, Hsueh-Li, ‘Nagarjuna's approach to the problem of the existence of God’, Religious Studies, XII, 2 (June 1976), 215.Google Scholar
page 257 note 1 Mūlamadhyamakakārikās, 1.
page 258 note 1 ibid. xxiv. 19.
page 258 note 2 ibid. XXII. II; XV. 10.
page 258 note 3 ibid. XXIV. 1–5, 10, 14, 18, 20, 40.
page 258 note 4 ibid. XXIV. 6.
page 258 note 5 ibid. xxv. 6, 13, 18.
page 259 note 1 ibid. XXV. 20; XI. 1.
page 259 note 2 ibid. XXII 7, 13–15.
page 259 note 3 Ramanan, K. V., Nāgārjuna's Philosophy (Delhi, 1975), p. 16.Google Scholar
page 259 note 4 See note on śūnyatā, ibid. pp. 338–9.
page 259 note 5 Mōlamadhyamakakārikās, xxv.24, 25; XIII. 8.Google Scholar
page 260 note 1 op. cit. pp. 39, 41.Google Scholar
page 260 note 2 Op. cit., p. 44.Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by