Śūnyatā and Inclusion 1
A lot of misunderstandings of Śūnyatā are being transmitted and the most common one is ‘Śūnyatā is nothingness.’ According to it, all is void, and therefore there is no point seeking fame and fortune or clinging to anything.
Another beautiful misunderstanding is ‘Śūnyatā is a kind of emptiness which includes all.’
Nagarjuna advocated "Everything is based on Nidānas, that I said is Śūnyatā." Nidānas are conditions and dependencies (that needs to be satisfied for existence of something). For example, air, food and water are the main dependencies for existence of one’s life.
However, it is not appropriate to apply ‘Śūnyatā is emptiness including all’ to including soil, a dependency for food, in dependencies for life.
Soil is another dependency in our life. The satisfying of necessary dependencies stimulates assembling and then arouse a phenomenon. Śūnyatā serves as the assembling factor of concrete solids/dependencies.
Therefore, to break up solid hindrance and misunderstanding, like a rigid way of thinking, and thus to empirically understand Śūnyatā are what Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā's "Not unity, not plurality" trying to advocate. And they are also the true essence of Śūnyatā.
Ban Ji
Śūnyatā and Inclusion 2
Śūnyatā is transmitted as ‘giving all up’ in many occasions. But few doubt it. If it is true, how could Buddhist followers balance the pressures of nothingness and life?
I was told a folktale about travel that the Buddhist texts in Thailand were flooded when crossing a river and the print became blurry. Therefore they were interpreted variously with different individuals. After hearing this, I was nervous and enquired the taleteller right away if he was talking about novels like The Journey to The West or The legend and The hero? No one dare to say that true Buddhist texts can be interpreted at personal will. What if they are misinterpreted, how can they be practiced? Buddhist texts are the rigorous theories and practice methods from Buddha and his pupils. If they can be interpreted variously with different individuals, how can later Buddhist followers settle down and get on with their practice?
Besides, what is the value of Śūnyatā if it is void and giving up all?
Or if ‘Śūnyatā includes all’, what is it trying to convey? Nonobstruction among individual phenomena? It doesn’t seem to exist in the world. (It does in Utopia)
However, if Śūnyatā is about "No-unity, no differentiation", it makes a huge difference. I myself am not only one but also Śūnyatā. Because I am the assembly of all the conditions. Who is the self if any of the conditions being missed?
Those who have studied Chinese and Western philosophy will be marveled once they understand Mūlamadhyamakakārikā's "Not unity, not plurality".
Not merely theories, Buddhist teachings can be applied to practice. Therefore, theories and practical practice can advance simultaneously in reality. Those Buddhist teachings failing to be practiced are just absurd personal interpretations.
Ban Ji
Śūnyatā and Inclusion3
Buddhist theoreticians have done lots of specialized interpretations of Śūnyatā. I focus on the practical part of Śūnyatā and use it for self-practice. I find it interesting to disassemble myself with ‘concepts of conditions’.
I often consider conditions/elements of Yin (Cause) and Yuán (Conditions) when dealing with personnel matters and problems of things. When conditions are not complete, I strive to make up the deficiency. And while conditions disappear, I practice accepting it. Wandering back and forth between them, I demand myself to accept Śūnyatā of the gathering and disappearing of conditions. And the path progresses between gathering and disappearing of conditions.
Note: I have dedicated myself to reading ‘simple and dynamic’ koans from Chinese Zen recently. Swapping suddenly into writing such complex articles about Śūnyatā are virtually torturing myself. One should treat himself fine when he is old. (Laugh, laugh.)
Master Ban Ji
Translated by Grace Tsai
Proofread by Sophiea Kuo
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