{"id":68822,"date":"2026-06-17T18:59:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/middlepath.ca\/?post_type=custom_listing2&#038;p=68822"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:20:48","slug":"sunyata-as-a-metaphor-and-its-problems","status":"publish","type":"custom_listing2","link":"https:\/\/middlepath.ca\/en\/custom-listing2\/sunyata-as-a-metaphor-and-its-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"\u015a\u016bnyat\u0101 as a Metaphor and Its Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. -->\n\n<p>The term \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 (\u7a7a\/empty) has been used in different ways due to its homonymic characteristic since early Buddhism. When early Mahayana Buddhism arose, the teaching of \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 was intensely promoted by the Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101s\u016btra (\u822c\u82e5\u7d93 \/the text of perfect-wisdom) and eventually became the most important teaching in Mahayana Buddhism. N\u0101g\u0101rjuna (\u9f8d\u6a39) inherited the tradition of the Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101s\u016btra and used the term \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 to construct a Madhyamika (\u4e2d\u9053\/middle-path) understanding of the world. Due to the homonymic characteristic of \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101, however, the term was also used to refer to the development of a different philosophy. The vagueness of the term was used as an excuse by which the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101din school criticized N\u0101g\u0101rjuna\u2019s philosophy by claiming that his interpretation of \u008f\u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 violated the basic teaching of Buddhism. The purpose of this paper is to show that the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101din\u2019s (\u8aaa\u4e00\u5207\u6709\u8005) criticism of N\u0101g\u0101rjuna\u2019s teaching on \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 is invalid because its argument is based on a literal interpretation of \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 as opposed to N\u0101g\u0101rjuna\u2019s metaphorical use of the term.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u015b\u016bnyat\u0101 (\u7a7a\/empty) has been used in different w&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[81,86],"listing_property_feature":[],"listing_property_type":[82],"property_status":[87],"class_list":["post-68822","custom_listing2","type-custom_listing2","status-publish","hentry","category-masterarticle","category-masterthesis","listing_property_type-masterarticle","property_status-1-ruyuan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ 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