[...]
dan dari yg gw liat..
Samsara bukan Nibbana..
Ini penglihatan Theravada, bukan Madhyamika.
Silakan berpegang pada apa yang "Anda lihat".
Salam,
Hudoyo
Wikipedia - ŚūnyatāŚūnyatā, (Sanskrit noun from the adj. sūnya - 'void' ), Suññatā (Pāli; adj. suñña), stong pa nyid (Tibetan), Kuu, 空 (Japanese) qoɣusun (Mongolian) meaning "Emptiness" or "Voidness", is a characteristic of empirical phenomena arising from the fact (as observed and taught by the Buddha) that
the impermanent nature of form means that nothing possesses essential, enduring identity (see anattā). In the Buddha's spiritual teaching, insight into the
emptiness of phenomena (Pali: suññatānupassanā) is an aspect of the
cultivation of insight (vipassanā-bhāvanā) that leads to wisdom and inner peace.
The importance of this insight is especially emphasised in Mahayana Buddhism.
Nomenclature and etymologyŚūnyatā (Sanskrit) holds the semantic field of "emptiness" and is the noun form of "Shunya" (Sanskrit) which holds the semantic field "zero", literally zero "ness".
In the Mūlamadhamaka kārikas[1] attributed to Nagarjuna, Śūnyatā is qualified as
"...void, unreal, and non-existent".[2] Eliot (1993: p.81) et. al. in commenting on the aforecited qualification of Śūnyatā from De la Valée Poussin, furthers that:
"None of these translations of śûnya is, however, quite satisfactory and there is much to be said for Stcherbatsky's [Stcherbatsky (1927).
The Conception of Nirvana.] rendering -
relative or
contingent. Phenomena are
śûnya or
unreal because
no phenomenon when taken by itself is thinkable: they are all
interdependent and
have no separate existence of their own."[3]
Origin and development of ŚūnyatāThe theme of
śūnyatā emerged from the Buddhist doctrines of
Anatta (Pali, Sanskrit:Anātman—the nonexistence of the self, or Ātman) and
Paticcasamuppada (Pali, Sanskrit: pratītyasamūtpāda, Interdependent Arising). The
Suñña Sutta,[5] part of the Pali Canon, relates that the monk Ananda, the attendant to Gautama Buddha asked, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?" The Buddha replied,
"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty."Over time, many different philosophical schools or tenet-systems (siddhānta in Sanskrit)[6] have developed within Buddhism in an effort to explain the exact philosophical meaning of emptiness.
After the Buddha, Śūnyatā was further developed by
Nāgārjuna and the
Madhyamaka school, which is usually counted as an early Mahayana school. Śūnyatā ("positively" interpreted - see Tathagatagarbha section below) is also an important element of the Tathagatagarbha literature, which played a formative role in the evolution of subsequent Mahayana doctrine and practice. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, detailed dialogs between the perspectives of the various schools are preserved in order to train students. For example, in the Tibetan tradition some of the main philosophical schools are listed as: Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Cittamatra, and several schools within Madhyamaka (such as Svatantrika-Madhyamika and Prasangika-Madhyamika).
It should be noted that the
exact definition and extent of shunyata varies within the different Buddhist schools of philosophy which can easily lead to confusion. These tenet-systems all explain in slightly different ways what phenomena 'are empty of', which phenomena exactly are 'empty' and what emptiness means.
For example, in the
Cittamatra school it is said that the mind itself ultimately exists, but other schools like the
Madhyamaka deny this.
In the Mahayana
Tathagatagarbha sutras, in contrast, only impermanent, changeful things and states (the realm of samsara) are said to be empty in a negative sense - but not the Buddha or Nirvana, which are stated to be real, eternal and filled with inconceivable, enduring virtues.
Further, the
Lotus Sutra states that seeing all phenomena as empty (sunya) is not the highest, final attainment: the bliss of total Buddha-Wisdom supersedes even the vision of complete emptiness.
Śūnyatā in presectarian Buddhism, in the NikayasSunnata (Sanskrit: Śūnyatā, "Emptiness", is the noun form of Shunya (zero) in Sanskrit, literally zero "ness") in Pali contexts is not the metaphysical Zero (non-being as a principle of being, infinite possibility as distinguished from indefinite actuality), but
a characteristic of this world.
In S IV.295-96, it is explained that the Alms-man experiences a deathlike contemplation in which consciousness and feeling have been arrested. When he returns he recounts "three touches" that touch him, "emptiness" (suññato), "formlessness"(animito) and "making no plans (appanihito phasso)," and he discriminates (viveka) accordingly. The meaning of the "emptiness" as contemplated here is explained at M 1.29 as the
"emancipation of the mind by Emptiness (sunnata ceto vimutti) being consequent upon the realization that
`this world is empty of spirit (atta) or anything spiritual (attaniya)' (suññam idam attena vā attaniyena vā)".
The term is also used in two suttas in the Majjhima Nikaya, where it is used in the context of a progression of mental states to refer to each state's emptiness of the one below.
The stance that nothing contingent has any inherent essence forms the basis of the more sweeping
'sunyavada' doctrine. In the Mahayana, this doctrine, without denying their value,
denies any essence to even the Buddha's appearance and to the promulgation of the Dhamma itself.
Later Theravada textsIn the Patisambhidamagga, many meanings are given, including nirvana.
Formations are said to be empty in/of/by own-nature, a similar expression to one used in Mahayana literature.
MahayanaThe
'Vajracchedika Sutra' states the following:
'Those who see me in the body (rupena) and think of me in sounds (ghosaih), their way of thinking is false, they do not see me at all. ... The Buddha cannot be rightly understood (rjuboddhum) by any means (upayena)."
Not that "means" are not dispositive to a right understanding, but that if regarded as ends, even the most adequate means are a hindrance. What is true of ethics is also true of the supports of contemplation on emptiness: as in the well known Parable of the Raft (Alagaddupama Sutra), the means of crossing a river are of no more use when the goal of the other shore has been reached.
Śunyata in the Heart SutraŚūnyatā is a key theme of the Heart Sutra (one of the Mahayana Perfection of Wisdom Sutras), which is commonly chanted by Mahayana Buddhists worldwide.
The Heart Sutra declares that the
skandhas, which constitute our mental and physical existence, are
empty in their nature or essence, i.e.,
empty of any such nature or essence. But it also declares that
this emptiness is the same as form (which connotes fullness)--i.e., that this is
an emptiness which is at the same time not different from the kind of reality which we normally ascribe to events; it is not a nihilistic emptiness that undermines our world, but a "positive" emptiness which defines it.
"The noble bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara, engaged in the depths of the practice of the perfection of wisdom, looked down from above upon
the five skandhas (aggregates), and saw that
they were empty in their essential nature."
"Hear, O Sariputra,
emptiness is form;
form is just emptiness.
Apart from form, emptiness is not;
apaart from emptiness, form is not.
Emptiness is that which is form,
form is that which is emptiness. Just thus are
perception, cognition, mental construction, and
consciousness."
"Hear, O Sariputra,
all phenomena of existence are marked by emptiness:
not arisen, not destroyed, not unclean, not clean not deficient nor fulfilled."
Śūnyatā in Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka schoolFor Nāgārjuna, who provided the
most important philosophical formulation of śūnyatā,
emptiness as the mark of all phenomena is a
natural consequence of dependent origination; indeed, he identifies the two. In his analysis,
any enduring essential nature (i.e., fullness) would
prevent the process of dependent origination, would prevent any kind of origination at all, for things would simply always have been and always continue to be.
This enables Nāgārjuna to put forth
a bold argument regarding the relation of nirvāna and samsāra. If all phenomenal events (i.e., the events that constitute samsāra) are empty, then they are empty of any compelling ability to cause suffering. For Nāgārjuna, nirvāna is neither something added to samsāra nor any process of taking away from it (i.e., removing the enlightened being from it). In other words,
nirvāna is simply samsāra rightly experienced in light of a proper understanding of the emptiness of all things.
Sunyata in the Tathagatagarbha SutrasThe class of Buddhist scriptures known as the Tathagatagarbha sutras presents a seemingly variant understanding of Emptiness. According to these scriptures, the Buddha and Nirvana, unlike compounded conditioned phenomena, are not empty of intrinsic existence, but merely empty of the impermanent, the defective and the Self-less.
In the "Srimala Sutra" the Buddha is seen as empty of all defilement and ignorance, not of intrinsic Reality. The "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" supports such a vision and views Ultimate Emptiness as the Buddhic cognition ("jnana") which perceives both Emptiness and non-Emptiness, wherein "the Empty is the totality of Samsara and the non-Empty is Great Nirvana". The Buddha in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, further, indicates that to view absolutely everything as empty is an unbalanced approach and constitutes a deviation from the middle path of Buddhism:
"The wise perceive Emptiness and non-Emptiness, the Eternal and the Impermanent, Suffering and Bliss, the Self and the non-Self. ... To perceive the Emptiness of everything and not to perceive non-Emptiness is not termed the Middle Way; to perceive the non-Self of everything and not to perceive the Self is not termed the Middle Way."
Moreover, this particular sutra contains a passage in which the Buddha castigates those who view the Tathagatagarbha (which is the indwelling, immortal Buddha-element) in each being as empty. The sutra states how the Buddha declares that they are effectively committing a form of painful spiritual suicide through their wrongheaded stance:
"By having cultivated non-Self in connection with the Tathagatagarbha and having continually cultivated Emptiness, suffering will not be eradicated but one will become like a moth in the flame of a lamp."
( The Tibetan version of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra). The attainment of nirvanic Liberation ("moksha"), by contrast, is said to open up a realm of "utter bliss, joy, permanence, stability, [and] eternity" (ibid), in which the Buddha is "fully peaceful" (Dharmakshema "Southern" version).
Perhaps, the clearest statement of Tathagatagarbha Buddhism's understanding of Emptiness is found in the Angulimaliya Sutra, where we read the following clarifying explanation:
" ... by cultivating extreme emptiness and continually considering things to be empty, one will behold the utter destruction of all phenomena. Though Liberation is not empty, one will see and think it to be empty. Thus, for example, having thought hail-stones to be jewels, one comes to think that real gems are empty [śūnya]. Likewise, you too think of phenomena which are not empty [aśūnya] to be empty [śūnya], for viewing phenomena as empty, you dissolve into emptiness (śūnya) even those phenomena which are not empty. Some phenomena are empty [of existence] and some phenomena are not empty [of existence]. Just like the hail-stones, the billions of kleshas [mental and moral afflictions] are empty [of existence], like the hail-stones, those phenomena appertaining to ignorance are empty [of existence] and swiftly fade away. Like the real beryl gems, the Buddha is eternal. Liberation is like the real beryl gems."
Thus in the distinctive Tathagatagarbha sutras a balance is drawn between the empty, impermanent and coreless realm of samsara and the everlasting, liberative Reality of the Buddha and Nirvana. The Lotus Sutra (Chapter 4) likewise suggests that seeing all things as empty is not the ultimate Buddhic realisation, not the final "gain" or "advantage": Buddha-Wisdom is indicated there to transcend the perception of emptiness.
The Buddhist Concept of EmptinessThe Buddhist concept of Emptiness (shunyata) is a very subtle concept which is not understood by many buddhists themselves. In order to get a grasp on Emptiness it is necessary to know what Emptiness is an Emptiness of.
Emptiness refers to Emptiness of inherent existence.According the
Madhyamaka, or Middle Way philosophy which is central to Mahayana Buddhism,
ordinary beings misperceive all objects of perception in a fundamental way. The misperception is caused by the
psychological tendency to grasp at all objects of perception as if they really existed as independent entities. This is to say that ordinary beings believe that
such objects exist 'out there' as they appear to perception. Another way to frame this is to say that objects of perception are thought to have
svabhava or
'inherent existence' -
'own being' or
'own power' - which is to say that
they are perceived and thought to exist 'from their own side' exactly as they appear.
Sunyata - translated as
Emptiness - is the concept that
all objects are Empty of svabhava, they are
Empty of 'inherent existence'.
Note that it is completely incorrect to think as Emptiness as being the same as Nothingness, a mistake which is often made. Emptiness
does not negate the play of appearances which manifest to a multitude of sentient beings, it asserts that they are
insubstantial.
The Dalai Lama (2005: p.?) states that:
"One of the most important philosophical insights in Buddhism comes from what is known as the theory of emptiness. At its heart is the deep recognition that there is a
fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own experience in it, and the way things actually are. In our day-to-day experience, we tend to relate to the world and to ourselves
as if these entities possessed self-enclosed, definable, discrete and enduring reality. For instance, if we examine our own conception of
selfhood, we will find that we tend to believe in the presence of
an essential core to our being, which characterises our individuality and identity as a
discrete ego, independent of the physical and mental elements that constitute our existence. The philosophy of emptiness reveals that this is not only a
fundamental error but also the
basis for attachment, clinging and the development of our numerous prejudices. According to the theory of emptiness, any belief in an
objective reality grounded in the assumption of intrinsic, independent existence is simply untenable. All things and events, whether ‘material’, mental or even abstract concepts like time, are
devoid of objective, independent existence. To intrinsically possess such independent existence would imply that all things and events are somehow complete unto themselves and are therefore entirely self-contained. This would mean that nothing has the capacity to interact with or exert influence on any other phenomena. But we know that there is cause and effect – turn a key in a car, the starter motor turns the engine over, spark plugs ignite and fuel begins to burn… Yet in a universe of self-contained, inherently existing things, these events could never occur! So effectively, the notion of intrinsic existence is incompatible with causation; this is because causation implies contingency and dependence, while anything that inherently existed would be immutable and self-enclosed. In the theory of emptiness, everything is argued as merely being composed of dependently related events; of continuously interacting phenomena with no fixed, immutable essence, which are themselves in dynamic and constantly changing relations. Thus, things and events are 'empty' in that
they can never possess any immutable essence, intrinsic reality or absolute ‘being’ that affords independence."[10]
Topic: Ajaran Sunnata Dalam Theravada (Read 43933 times)