Q23. Why is everything, this world and every world, considered to be empty?

~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~

People unfamiliar with Buddhism may ask you questions such as, ‘Why did the Buddha say the world is empty when it contains all these things? There is matter. There is mind. Isn’t the world just full up with things? What about all these creations?’

The meaning is that all of the world is empty of self or of anything belonging to self. There’s nothing that can be taken as being self or belonging to self. Self – a separate abiding essence – can’t be found in anything: not in mind, nor in matter, nor in the various products and creations that arise out of mind and matter. That Buddhism asserts the emptiness of all things refers to nothing other than the awareness that all things are empty of selfhood.

(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)

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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966 to students at Thammasat University, Bangkok. It was translated from the Thai by Rod Bucknell, and revised in 2018 by Santikaro Upasaka. To read/download as free ebook (pdf).

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For all English retreat talks, visit Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu.

For more information and free ebooks, visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation.

Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives E-24