SUÑÑATĀ – EXPER IENC E O F VO ID

IN BUDDH IST M IND TRA IN ING

Suññatā means the voidness of all phenomena. As such, it is an important part of the doctrine
of anattā or non-self which is central and also unique to the Buddhist teachings as conveyed by
all the various schools.
Buddhism is a practical teaching, basically a method of mind training and mind cultivation. Its
highest disciplines of mind training (adhicitta-sikkhā) have as the goal liberation from all
forms of oppression and suffering. This goal is usually characterized as enlightenment,
awakening, and emancipation through insight into the emptiness of all that is subject to
suffering and unsatisfactoriness. The final emancipation through the meditative realization of
suññatā is to be reached by each wise individual in his own experience (paccattaĥ veditabbo
viññūhi).
Such experiential verification of suññatā was practiced by the historical Buddha and his fully
accomplished contemporaries, Sāriputta, Moggallāna, Kassapa, Ānanda, and other theras
(elders) who used the Buddha's methods of mind training for this original purpose. With the
centuries, the experiential realization of suññatā has dwindled down to speculative
interpretations of this doctrinal term by later Buddhist philosophies. Nevertheless, some of the
ancient records of the practical methods leading to the experience of suññatā are available in
literature as well as in an unbroken tradition of mind training practice.
As a psychologist, I shall focus on suññatā as it is to be experienced (veditabbā) through the
practical methods of the highest mind training. Without involvement in philological
interpretations, these practical methods shall be analyzed from the psychological viewpoint.
In order to clarify the broader context of our topic, at least the following historical facts should
be briefly mentioned.
Both the practice and study of the Buddha's teaching were introduced from India to Sri Lanka
in the third century B.C. during the reign of King Asoka. Asoka's pillar inscriptions and the
books of the Theravādin Tipitaka Canon, written down in Sri Lanka during the first century
B.C., are the oldest available records; they are basically included in the teaching of all
Buddhist schools which developed later. The younger literary traditions of the Mahāyāna,
whose first records are rather poetical and devotional, in their later more philosophical
scriptures, also include the descriptions of practical methods which are essentially the same as
those in the Tipitaka Canon. Thus the highest disciplines of Tibetan Vajrayāna refer to the
methods of Abhidharma as the supreme, and the Japanese Zen has as its most reliable manual
of mind training the Chinese magnum opus Gedatsu Do Ron, which is identical with the
Vimuttimagga2 of the Theravāda. All the later commentarial literature of Theravāda, Zen and
Vajrayāna can be useful for didactic purposes but has little relevance for the analysis of the
canonical significance of suññatā which we are going to explore. Moreover, the validity of
whatever materials from the Tipitaka Canon – the Vinaya-Pitaka (Discipline), the Sutta-Pitaka
(Discourses), and the Abhidhamma-Pitaka (Systematization) – is not questioned by any school
of Buddhism as the differences among the schools are due solely to later developments. An
overview of the three divisions of the Tipitaka Canon shows that the experiential and practical
aspects are best conveyed by the Sutta-Pitaka.
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The sutta materials relevant for the understanding of suññatā are found in Majjhima Nikāya
(suttas 43, 121, 122, 151), Samyutta Nikāya (IV pages 54 ff.), and Khuddaka Nikāya (Cūla
Niddesa II, Patisambhidāmagga I, para. 45, 91; II. para. 36, 48, 177). These suttas refer to
suññatā as an experience; they treat suññatā neither as a concept nor as an issue of
philosophical speculation. The Sutta-Pitaka records many different approaches of mind
training leading to final emancipation; those which are specifically important for gaining an
understanding of suññatā shall be referred to. Through an explanation of the Cūla-Suññatā-
Sutta (Majjhima 127), it shall be shown how the Buddha employs both concentration
(samatha) and insight (vipassanā) as the means for liberation through the experience of
suññatā in meditation.
In the course of explaining this methodical progress, also two contemporary sources of
empirical data are utilized, namely, the meditation experience of the author and his
observations made during two decades of teaching Buddhist methods of mind training.
Drawing upon these sources, some misconceptions shall be exposed in order to demonstrate
how meditation can be distorted by speculative interpretations that are incommensurate with
the emancipated experience of reality.
Let us next examine some quite common misconceptions of the term suññatā which are caused
by various types of misunderstanding. One is the conception of suññatā as a blank state of
consciousness in which awareness of any phenomenon is absent. Such a blank state of
consciousness may arise in a beginner's meditation, but it may also be quite a common
experience in prolonged practice by a not very skilled meditator who manages to quieten his
mind by diminishing his attention and mindfulness. Another type of misconception is due to
what might be called the “petrification” of perceptual emptiness, e.g. a perception of the empty
space of a vessel, an empty window, a blank sheet of paper. Such an experience of emptiness
becomes solidified into an entity and through wrong understanding gets assigned the
ontological status of “the thing”. Then, instead of meditatively experiencing any reality, the
person thinks of that thing in a concentrated manner and believes he is meditating on suññatā.
Still another type of misunderstanding is to take suññatā for a mere idea or a concept which
has neither ontological reality nor any experiential anchorage. Such a concept is then treated as
a content of thinking, and as a pure thought is processed logically within a system of
philosophical or religious beliefs. Suññatā is then misconceived as an abstraction, even if it is
concretized through verbal signs, symbols or meditative visualizations (nimitta) which
subsequently become objects of consciousness on their own. Most of the misconceptions of
suññatā which appear quite frequently in modern literature on this subject are caused by the
above mentioned three types of misunderstanding.
However, some misunderstanding may also arise due to a failure to discern the various usages
of the terms suñña (adjective) and suññatā (noun) in the original texts. On the one hand, these
words are being used as exactly defined technical terms in a canonized absolute sense
(paramattha-sacca); on the other hand, they are sometimes used as conventional expressions
(sammuti-sacca; Skt. samvrti-satya) in similes, illustrative metaphors, conversational passages
and clarifying descriptions which are mediated in colloquial non-technical language.
Sometimes it is even the case that experiences and processes of meditation are depicted in
colloquial phrases, especially in later post-canonical literature. When colloquially used, suñña
applies most often to a change of situation or a change of perception, e.g. a room may be at one
time full of people and at the next moment void of any person; or there are now trees, rocks
and hills to be seen in the window, while after a change of the viewer's position, only the sky is
seen through the empty window. These are instances of void and emptying which are mind
changes in reference to the perceptual contents; they have nothing to do with the principle of
suññatā as an experience of the fundamental truth in the absolute canonical sense.

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Nevertheless, intellectual grasping of perceptual changes. or in other words, understanding the
changes of consciousness which are based merely on emptying the contents of perception, can
also be employed didactically in instructions for meditation. Something like this was actually
done by the Buddha in his discourse, the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta, Majjhima 127. Let us try to
demonstrate also in this very situation here, how to go similarly through several steps of
changes of consciousness. can be: When I draw with white chalk these two curves on a black
background(see Picture 1), they can be seen as two heads facing each other.

Picture 1
The empty space between the two heads of the Picture 1, can be completely whitened.
That is, let us emphasize its emptiness by making it all white (see Picture 2 and 3).

Picture 2 Picture 3

If we make effort to white out all the originally empty space, then a white vase on the black
background can be seen, i.e. we can believe that “the thing” we have now is “the emptiness”
This game of figure and background is certainly recognizable as familiar to you for it appears
in countless psychology textbooks. However, we are not here concerned with the laws of
psychology of perception. Let us try to overcome the conditionings forced upon us in our
studies of psychology. Do not objectively scrutinize the pictures. Do not cling to the perceptual
contents out there while ignoring the subjective experiential shifts. Instead, try to be

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introspective: notice how the attention moves, how the consciousness alters, what are the
changes experienced within your mind.
Unlike the science of modern psychology, Buddhist methods analyze the changes of mind, of
its subjective side, and develop the skill of changing the mind at will. For this training and
analysis, there is a necessary precondition to be fulfilled: the discovery of hitherto unnoticed
inner phenomena by means of bare attention. This most fundamental method of Buddhist mind
training is best described in The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyānaponika Thera (1962).
This discovery works through mindful noticing which discerns the sense experience, the
feeling, the state of consciousness, and the contents of consciousness as these mental
phenomena come and go without any interventions.
As a starting point for the methodical practice of noticing, the mindfulness of natural inbreath
and outbreath is usually chosen, but you can try noticing the four aforementioned foundations
of mindfulness (satipatthāna) even now: What is being felt within the body? Is the present
experience pleasant or unpleasant? Is the mind peaceful, excited, bored, averse, curious or even
greedy? What are the mind's contents right now?
Instead of just reading, hearing, and thinking about Buddhist methods from second hand
sources, get first hand experiences of them and start to understand them technically. Even a
short trial of two minutes may be worthwhile. Can you feel your body’s position now? What
would you say about your state of mind now? Noticing and naming that, this is the basic
principle of Buddhist mindfulness meditation. You can know your mind and body by means of
direct experiencing.
There definitely have been some objectively detectable processes in your physiology as you
have been now going through various moves of mind. Indeed, there are significant measurable
changes during meditation. The events of meditation and the personality changes effected by
Buddhist mind training can certainly be scrutinized under the application of scientific methods.
Yet, while scientific research in the fields of transpersonal psychology, education, physiology,
etc., can be very interesting and also useful, it can never fully explain the phenomena of
Buddhist mind training, nor can it substitute for the traditional Buddhist teachings; it can just
complement them.
Scientific theories elicit their truth from the conspicuous phenomena, making thus the extremes
criterial for the outcomes; the Buddhist practice promotes the middle way aiming at equanimity
and peace. However, there are some extreme experiences encountered by long term meditators,
which may be very spectacular, intense, and unusual. Some very advanced meditators
experience supreme bliss, free from any emotional changes and void of conceptualizations and
images. Such states of mind are sometimes connected with an intense experience of clear light.
Those Buddhist traditions which are rather philosophically inclined tend to interpret this clear
light as the suññatā (remember the third of the above mentioned misconceptions), because they
are preoccupied with conceptual speculations and have lost the direct technical approach to the
processes of meditation. The philosophical writers and religious interpreters who lack the
experiential knowledge of the progressive stages of meditation are not able to diagnose the
perversions of meditation at its higher stages. In the original tradition of practical insight
meditation, these extreme experiences are called “imperfections of insight” (vipassanā-
upakkilesā).
It is my hypothesis that the scientifically measurable physiological changes are most
pronounced in connection with these extreme experiences which are subjectively so impressive
and overwhelming. A properly instructed meditator does not cling to these experiences and is
eventually able to recognize for himself that even the most sublime effulgence of light
(obhāsa) connected with heightened awareness of peace and bliss is just an imperfection
(upakkilesa) which obstructs real progress to final emancipation (see Upakkilesa-Sutta,

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Majjhima 161). This experience is sometimes referred to as pseudo-nirvana. The clear light is
definitely suñña, it is void also in the absolute (paramattha) sense; nevertheless, it is not the
experience of suññatā.
Open-mindedness and soberness are the very characteristics of pristine Buddhism. The
Teaching instructs us to accept open-mindedly whatever reality is experienced and to
understand it for what it reality is, soberly, without being too impressed by even the most
spectacular occurrence. This Buddhist attitude can also be characterized as empirical realism in
so far as the experiential verification of any given phenomenon has a higher cognitive validity
than the results of reasoning and measurement of the hypothetically constructed variables
which are characteristic of science. The scientific approach is indirect and can grasp only the
outer aspects of the phenomena. Thus we should not be misled to believe that meditative
experiences can be understood through biological and psychological interpretations of the
phenomena produced within the organism. The biological `and psychological organism is
barely a vehicle of experiencing. The scientific reductionist attempts can be compared to the
naive. hope of understanding a poem by analyzing the chemical and physical properties of the
book, the recording tape, or the sound, which are only vehicles of the poem’s meaning. This
much must be said to illustrate the limits of psycho-physiological research on meditation. In a
similar way, the psychology of perception can be expected to bring only limited understanding
of the phenomena of the meditative process. Nevertheless, the research on meditation being
carried out here at the University of Rome3 is very interesting, and despite the limitations
inherent in the scientific approach, very useful. After all, no meditation progress and no
emancipation is possible unless we understand and use properly our biological and
psychological vehicle.
Let us now return to the experiences undergone while following the perceptual shifting
between the figure and background in the pictures. You are bodily present right now. You have
been seeing. There was a certain state of mind when your awareness was visual while
perceiving the two faces on picture 1. and there was another state of mind while perceiving this
interspace as a vase in picture 2. There was still another state of mind when you found the
perception change pleasant, and still another when you became greedy for the pleasant
perception. You may even have had insight knowledge of the dependent origination of these
states of mind, had found them all unsatisfactory, and had turned your mind away from it all.
Then, you may have experienced a moment of emancipation. You may now feel that all these
thoughts and objects of mind are not fulfilling at all, and suddenly you are voiding your
mind....
We are now getting closer to the canonical notion of suññatā., our minds are being tuned to
understand the Buddha's “Smaller Discourse on Voidness”, the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta.
Just now, without theoretical explanations or doctrinal descriptions as found in books on
Buddhism, we went through some important preparatory work which will help us to follow the
Buddha's discourse as practical instruction. What you have been exposed to during the guided
meditation on figure-background – all that preparatory work – has been an application of
skilful means (upāya-kosalla). Skilful means is a teaching technique which takes into account
the present state of mind of the meditators, their background, and the concrete here-and-now
situation. The Buddha uses similarly skilful means at the beginning of his discourse on
suññatā. The discourse takes place in the Palace of Migāra’s Mother. Inviting the Buddha to
speak on suññatā takes the form of this question (transl. Nānamoli Thera):
“... I heard and learned this from the Blessed One's own lips: 'Now I abide much in the void
abiding.' Venerable sir, was this well heard by me?”
This question refers to a past event which is acknowledged by the Buddha in his reply;
nevertheless, he then brings the mind of the questioner to the present situation:

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“Certainly, Ānanda, that was well heard by you... As formerly, so now too, I abide much in the
void abiding.”
In the palace there are no visual objects of pictures to be voided, but there would have been a
gathering of people and elephants ornamented with silver, etc. Before elaborating step by step
towards suññatā, the Buddha uses as skilful means a reference to this concrete situation in the
palace:
"Ānanda, just as the Palace of Migāra's Mother is void of elephants, void of gold and silver,
void of the foregathering of women and men, and there is only this... single state of non-
voidness dependent on the presence of the community of bhikkhus, so too, without giving
attention to perception ...."
Then the Buddha proceeds to give meditation instructions which are at the same time detailed
operational definitions of suññatā. He describes the operations of mind changes leading to the
experiential realization of the “Highest Suññatā.” This is obviously instruction for
concentrative meditation (samatha) starting with outer seclusion in the forest and proceeding to
the inner seclusion (viveka) which leads to the unification of mind (cittekaggatā). In samatha,
the mind is being. withdrawn to ever more sublime realms in which its analytical functions
used for vipassanā (insight meditation) cease to operate. The goal of samatha is to reach the
peaceful ecstasy of jhāna which is void of the disturbances caused by the proliferation of mind.
The Buddha describes in the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta very precisely – this particular passage will
be extensively analyzed later – the mechanism of voiding and unifying which brings the mind
to ever higher meditative attainments of jhāna. As each higher state of jhāna is void of some
aspects inherent in the lower one, the ever higher suññatā is thus used as the criterion for the
meditative progress in the concentration of samatha. Nevertheless, the Highest Voidness
(anuttara-suññatā) is to be reached only by averting the concentrated mind_ to the insight of
vipassanā which enables the meditator to realize experientially the conditioned nature of the
sense bases (āyatana) upon which depends all experiencing (vedanā, even that of the
meditation object (nimitta) in the highest concentration of samatha.
The Buddha’s discourse is addressed to listeners who are familiar with certain features of his
teaching, in particular, with the doctrine of anattā. Thus for the sake of better understanding,
we also have to grasp, at least roughly, the principle of anattā and some other technical terms,
before we turn to extensive quotations from the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta. As a doctrinal term in the
Theravāda Canon, suññatā refers exclusively to the anattā-doctrine. In meditation practice,
suññatā and anattā are inseparable: “Contemplation of not-self and contemplation of voidness
are one in meaning and only the letter is different”, states Buddhaghosa (Visuddhimagga,
Ch.XX, p.628)2. In enlightened experience of reality, anattā is the wise knowledge (vijjā) that
there is no self; vijjā is wisdom which is void of ignorance (avijjā) splitting reality into I and
not-I, mine and not-mine. Unenlightened persons identify various parts of reality with the self,
cling to them, and consequently, suffer due to the frustration of such delusional identifications.
The enlightened view of reality, which is characterized by anattā, pierces all things which may
be conventionally (sammuti) conceived as identities and sees them ultimately (paramattha) as
an interplay of conditions, as an interaction of different aspects, as a change of context, as a
dynamic evolution of arising and ceasing – all this as originating in profound interdependence
and void of any persisting core. The enlightened view of reality is void (suñña) of any identity
clingings triggered by conventional concepts. There are no longer delusional percepts of. stable
identities; whatever exists is clearly seen as void of self (suññam attena) and as dependently
arisen (paticcasamuppannam).
Anattā means that there is no self, no core, no unchangeable identity to be found in anything.
Such a self (attā is a purely mental construction which has a justification within the system of
language. However, such a mental construct is misleading, for as soon as it is taken for real, it

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produces false thoughts and wrong beliefs which are divorced from reality and sustained only
by concepts. Buddhist meditation principally uses three approaches as means for overcoming
the delusion of self: first and most important is the mindful analysis (satipatthāna) of
components of seemingly compact things and events; second is the clear view or insight
(vipassanā) that whatever exists arises dependent on impermanent conditions and has to
dissolve and pass away; third is the direct experience of one’s powerlessness to master
(avasavattana) the passing phenomena.
The insightful realization of suññatā and anattā is not only a remedy for the frustration of
wrong belief, it is also a prophylaxis and emancipation from any suffering which would arise
due to possible self-identification in the future. The delusion of self is apt to arise in any person
who is exposed to difficult life situations, unless the enlightened wisdom of anattā- has been
cultivated and firmly established. The emotional identification with whatever we perceive as
supporting essentials (upadhi) of our life is not necessarily at a conscious level so as to allow
an explicit formulation of the self-view (attānuditthi) as a rational belief. This self-delusion
causes us to identify with our body, our habits, our titles, our bank account, our preferences,
etc. in a pre-rational experience of the conceit “I am” (asmi-māna; māna is a product of
perception which tendentiously conceives: maññati) .
For ignorant beings enslaved by the delusion of self, the struggle to maintain a self-identity is
only all too real. Those wrongly believing in identities cannot perceive reality as it is; they can
react only to the concepts which purport to represent the identities of things and of the self.
They are victims of ignorance (avijjā) as they cannot see reality as it is. This has pathological
consequences on several psychological and social levels which grow from wrong views and
prejudices. When our self-habituated perceptual processes once assign to a person an identity
of, say, “the psychotic”, “the policeman”, “the thief”, “the teacher”, we continue to treat that
particular person just as a psychotic or a policeman, etc. We no more bother with his actual
behaviour on later occasions – whether the policeman acts psychotically, or the teacher steals –
because our perception and reaction are led by the belief in an identical self of that person. The
experience from clinical and corrective institutions illustrates what a great hindrance the self-
belief is for the progress of healing and betterment.
We can also misjudge our own person as an unchangeable self or as an assembly of identities
which we conceive of as components of our self. Thus we can deny all the living changes and
become alienated from the flow of feelings, the arising and passing away of perceptions, the
ongoing alterations of consciousness. Pathologically, we can proclaim conceptual thinking to
be the only reality and completely suppress the truth of anattā on the psychological and
physiological levels. While ignoring the direct experience of the ever-changing mind and body,
we can speculate about the cellular processes, neural synapses, and chemical movements at
molecular and atomic levels – and stay only within the realm of concepts. This would not be
wise experientially, for direct knowledge of anattā, as we already know, is empty of
conceptual identities.
The above excursion on anattā should not leave you with the impression that the original
Buddhist teachings do away with concepts altogether, or that they eschew theoretical analysis.
The theoretical, philosophical and conceptual analysis is, however, employed only as far as it is
conducive to progress in emancipatory mind culture. The Buddha himself accomplished an
exhaustive analysis of the wrong usages of concepts which lead to an addiction of views. As
the scrutiny of this theme would lead us too far away from our topic, I wish to refer here to the
detailed analysis of the theme in the book Anattā and Nibbāna2 by Nyānaponika Thera which
exemplifies the uses of theory and philosophy in a manner relevant to Buddhist emancipatory
practice.

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The experience of anattā and suññatā within the context of emancipatory mind training does
not exclude the use of concepts as designations for the ultimate realities (paramattha-dhammā)
seen during that very experience. Nevertheless, any concept carried by a verbal or a visual
symbol is nothing more than a sign (nimitta) which represents a mind-object: Signs as such are
not ultimate realities; while the ultimate realities are designated by a lakkhana (characteristic)
and not by a nimitta. Sign can be an object of samatha meditation, whereas vipassanā uses the
ultimate realities as its objects and is therefore characterized as animitta, signless (see e.g.
Papañca Sūdanī IV,153f).
As a part of the mind-training, one learns to structure the meditative experience in terms of
discerning the ultimate realities of sensory bases (āyatana) such as visual object and the visual
sense organ, sound and the acoustic sense base, odour and the olfactory sense, taste and the
gustatory sense, tactile object and the bodily sense of touch, and the two bases of ideation
which are represented by the mind organ and the mind object (percept, idea, etc.). All these
sense bases are directly, introspectively observable. Their existence is evident to any person
who has normal sensory equipment. Therefore no epistemological question regarding the
intersubjective validity of ultimate realities such as the sensory bases would be really
meaningful for any normal person. However, some training is needed to sustain concentration
upon any one of the āyatanas – we had a f:rst hand experience to support this statement as we
experimented with the figure and background within the field of “visual object”. Then it was
even more difficult for us to concentrate for some time upon its subjective counterpart, the
āyatana “visual sense”. Only a mind well-trained in satipatthāna meditation can sustain the
attention upon any of these twelve sense bases so as to experience directly that they are
impermanent and void of any self.
The meditative analysis of phenomena in Buddhism is counterbalanced by methods of
synthesis which reveal the relations between things and their general characteristics (lakkhana)
such as impermanence, conditionality, voidness, etc. Moreover, this synthetic approach unifies
the multitude of phenomena and opens up the coherence of the world to a holistic view. The
world can be transcended only by one who experiences its unity and wholeness (manasikaroti
ekattam) as the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta shows. It should be stressed here that all doctrinal concepts
of the Pali Canon – thus also the synthetic ones – are experientially anchored in the ultimate
realities; this means they always refer to some specific experiential ground (yathābhūta). In
contrast to western science, Buddhist thought employs no hypothetical variables, no
speculative constructs and no a priori assumptions. For Buddhism the wholeness of the world
is neither a product of theoretical thinking nor a belief deduced from some dogma. Such
experiential anchorage holds true for the voidness of the world as well, for the Buddha says:
“Void is the world because it is void of a self and anything belonging to a self.”
Similar statements are recorded at several places in the Samyutta Nikāya and the Khuddaka
Nikāya, followed by elaborations of analysis in regard to various sets of ultimate realities
designated by such concepts as dhātu (elements of experience), khandhā (groups of
materiality, perception, feeling,formation, and consciousness), āyatana and so on. In the Cūla-
Niddesa of the Khuddaka Nikāya, it is explained how the visual object and the sense base of
the eye meet and eye-consciousness arises. Sound and the sense base of the ear, etc., are also
analyzed. Thus attention is guided to the dependent arising of all phenomena. Similarly,
dependent on the sensory bases (āyatana) sensory contact (phassa) arises; dependent on
contact feeling (vedanā) arises; and so on. These observations are qualified by the statement:
“Empty is the eye-consciousness, etc.” in regard to all phenomena up to the highest meditation
experiences. Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppāda) becomes visible and suññatā is
experienced in regard to all these phenomena: “... they are void of a self, void of permanency,
they are coreless, without a core of permanency, core of happiness, or core of self.”

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In the Salāyatana Samyutta (S.IV, 54), the Buddha specifies this voidness for each of the outer
and inner six sense bases (āyatana) as well as for their contact (phassa) and whatever pleasant,
unpleasant, or neutral experiencing (vedanā) which arises dependent upon these conditions.
The Buddha says:
Eye, is void of self and anything belonging to self, form is void..., visual consciousness is void
..., mind is void ...,. mind-states are void ...., consciousness is void .:., contact is void ...,
whatsoever pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral experiencing which arises dependent upon them is
void of self and everything belonging to self. That is why, Ānanda, it is said: “Void is the
world.”
Cakkhum suññam attena vā attaniyena vā, rūpa suññā ......., cakkhuviññānam suññam....,
cakkhusamphasso suñño...... Yam pidam cakkhusamphassapaccayā uppajjati vedayitam
sukham vā dukkham vā adukkhamasukham vā tam pi suññam attena vā attaniyena vā.
Yasmā ca kho Ānanda suññam attena vā attaniyena vā tasmā suñño loko ti vuccati ti.
This is obviously the Buddha’s key instruction for highest insight (mahā vipassanā) without
previous advanced concentration (samatha) instructions. The Salāyatana Samyutta begins with
detailed vipassanā instructions for noticing the impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness
(dukkha), and ,non-self (anattā) of all phenomena. These instructions are systematically
applied to various sets of ultimate realities and elaborated so as to lead the meditator to the
highest goal. As the name of this Samyutta suggests, the mindfulnes directed to the sense bases
plays the central role. This instruction for mindfulness disclosing the emptiness (suññatā) and
Dependent Origination when directed to the sense bases is also the culmination of the Buddha's
instruction given in the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta.
There are specific techniques of insight meditation (vipassanā) – explained in the already
mentioned The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyānaponika Thera – for the scrutiny of the
phenomena labeled as ayātana, khandha, dhātu, etc. which are the ultimate realities
(paramatthā dhammā) directly perceptible to the mind voided of concepts and steadied through
samatha (concentrative meditation). The meditative analysis of the apparently solid identities
is an experiential scrutiny which resolves the compact (ghana-vinibbhoga) into its elements, in
order to make the absence of any self clearly visible. To realize this, the meditator has to go
through changes of perception such as experientially discerning the ultimate realities and their
mental representations (nāma-rūpa-pariccheda); getting their conditional structure (paccaya-
pariggaha) into view; then comprehending them as suffering in order to get free from desire
(appanihita) for them; getting tuned to the stream of everchanging reality (anicca) which
destroys their only apparent stability supported by signs and opens the experience for the
signless (animitta). These changes of, perception leading finally to the experience of suññatā
are treated in detail in the book Progress of Insight by Mahasi Sayadaw.
The analytical approach of vipassanā insight meditation resolves thus the seemingly compact
identities, and exposes them as void of self. Wrong views are absent, the mind is empty. And
this very emptiness makes possible the full experience of reality as it is. Even though it is not
necessary to attain jhāna by concentration on nimitta for all this, of course the mind has to be
well balanced in equipoise developed through methods of samatha. Then the purified and
nondistracted mind encompasses the dynamic wholeness of the reality and becomes filled with
intense joy (pīti). Only a joyful, pacified, and concentrated mind can reach complete liberation
and enlightenment. The path towards emancipation leads through three different "gateways to
liberation" (vimokkha-mukhā): the first is the realization of the desireless (appanihita); the
second is the realization of the signless (animitta); the third gate to liberation is the, realization
of voidness (suññatā) see Patisambhidāmagga II. 48.
There are many ways to describe the changes in experience which occur when ignorance
(avijjā) is dispelled and suffering (dukkha) is replaced by the happiness (sukha) of
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emancipation. In the Upanisā-Sutta of the Samyutta Nikāya, the Buddha expounds on how the
dependent origination of suffering becomes transformed into the dependent origination of joy
and emancipatory happiness. A translation of this sutta together with a lucid explanation of the
various sequences of Dependent Origination is in Bhikkhu Bodhi's book Transcendental
Dependent Arising2.
Buddhism gives much attention to happy states of mind, and joy is particularly important as an
indispensable factor of meditative absorption (jhānanga). Pīti, meditative joy, is instrumental
for all higher attainments. The significance of the various types of joy in meditation is well
summarized by L.S. Cousins in Buddhist Jhāna:Its Nature and Attainment According to Pa1i
Sources2. Here it should only be added that the word pīti is translated by some as “zest” or
“zeal”, which implies joyful interest in the meditation object, and consequently, intensification
of the meditation process bringing about a peaceful composure of mind. A similar increase of
interest and intensification caused by the joy of success may have been experienced while
experimenting with the gestalt picture of figure and background (see pictures 1 and 2).
However, the point of that playful experiment was the switching of interest and attention from
the changes in object of perception to the process of the mind changes.
Shifts of the experiential levels accompanied by higher degrees of joy and steadiness are
characteristic for the progress of suññatā meditation. In its climax, the experiential under-
standing of suññatā, anattā, and Paticca-Samuppāda (dependent arising of ultimate realities)
are closely interconnected. They are also motivationally highly rewarding through the
enhancement of joy, steadiness, and peace, as advanced meditators attest. In the Cūla-Suññatā-
Sutta, the Buddha describes the progress to higher levels through the technique of voiding the
mind through the following experiential shifts:
1. The meditator perceives all that belongs to his present context,
2. then, having withdrawn his attention from all that (tam sabbam amanasikaritvā),
3. he grounds his experience on a perception (saññam paticca) of the meditation object
only,
4. in order to experience its wholeness and unity (manasikaroti ekattam). This- is
possible because of having voided the mind of all contents belonging to the previous
level of experience.
5. Whatever belongs to the wholeness of the meditation object of the previous level is
then experienced as a disturbance (daratha) for the next higher level of meditation.
Its absence is thus noted with satisfaction.
Throughout the discourse, these five steps are repeatedly applied as the Buddha guides the
listener to ever higher experiences of suññatā based on the perception of the highest
attainments of samatha meditation. Nevertheless, the highest experience of suññatā pertains to
the vision of Dependent Arising of ultimate realities, which is in the domain of vipassanā
meditation. Obviously the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta is addressed to those familiar with the
techniques of concentration and insight.
Now, having become acquainted with the preconditions for realizing suññatā, let us conclude
with the description of the highest voidness (paramānuttaram suññatam) given by the Buddha
in the Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta (following translation by Nānamoli Thera):
Again, Ānanda, without giving attention to perception of the base consisting of infinite space,
without giving attention to perception of the base consisting of infinite consciousness, a
bhikkhu gives attention to the single state dependent on perception of the base consisting of
nothingness.

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His mind enters into the perception of the base consisting of nothingness and he acquires
confidence, steadiness, and decision. He understands thus: “Disturbances that would be present
dependent on perception of the base of infinite space (and)... the base of infinite consciousness
are not present here...”
He understands: “This field of perception is void of perception of the base of infinite space
(and) .., the base of infinite consciousness. There is only this non-voidness, that is to say, the
single state dependent on perception of the base consisting of nothingness.”
Now this too has been for him an alighting upon voidness that accords with what is, without
perversion of meaning, and is pure.
Again, Ānanda, without giving attention to perception of the base consisting of nothingness,
without giving attention to the base consisting of neither perception nor non-perception, a
bhikkhu gives attention to the single state dependent on the signless concentration of mind.
His mind enters into the signless concentration of mind and acquires confidence, . steadiness,
and decision. He understands thus: “Disturbances that would be present dependent on
perception of the base consisting of nothingness (and) ... the base of neither perception nor
non-perception are not present here, and only this measure of disturbance is present, that is to
say, that which has life as its condition dependent on this body with its six bases.”
So he sees it as void of what is not there, but of what remains there he understands: “That
being, this is.”
Now this too has been for him an alighting upon voidness that accords with what is, without
perversion of meaning, and is pure.
Again, Ānanda, without giving attention to perception of the base consisting of nothingness,'
without giving attention to the base consisting of neither perception nor non-perception a
bhikkhu gives attention to the single state dependent on the signless concentration of mind.
His mind enters into the signless concentration of mind and acquires confidence, steadiness,
and decision. He understands thus: “This signless concentration of mind is conditioned and
mentally produced
He understands: “Whatever is conditioned and mentally produced is impermanent and liable to
cessation.” When he knows and sees thus, his mind is liberated from the taint of sensual desire,
from the taint of becoming, from the taint of ignorance. When liberated there comes the
knowledge: “It is liberated.”
He understands thus: “Disturbances that would be present dependent on the taint of sensual
desire, ... the taint of becoming ... the taint of ignorance are not present here, and only this
measure of disturbance is present, that is to say, that with life as its condition dependent on this
body with its six bases.”
He understands: “This field of perception is void of the taint of sensual desire, ... void of the
taint of becoming, ... void of the taint of ignorance. There is present only this non-voidness,
that is to say, that with life as its condition dependent on this body with its six bases.”
So he sees it as void of what is not there, but of what remains there he understands: “That
being, this is.”
Now this has been for him an alighting upon voidness that accords with what actually is,
without perversion of meaning, is pure and is unsurpassed by any other.

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NOTES

1
The lecture was invited by the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” and delivered
on 17th November 1984 for general public in Rome. As there were among the listeners also the
participants of a previously conducted one week seminar on “Meditation Experience and
Paradigms of Buddhist Psychology”, the extensive quotations from the Pali Canon as well as
the technical Pali terms are included in this text, originally recorded for the author’s students in
Rome. The text of the lecture on Suññatā was then published in a slightly edited version in the
Sri Lanka Journal of Buddhist Studies, Volume II, 1988 (pages 1 – 19).
2
See the bibliography references at the end of this article.
3
This research project is conducted by R. Venturini, Head of the Department of Psychology,
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” with consultation by A. Solé-Leris.

REFERENCES

Bodhi, B.: Transcendental Dependent Arising, WHEEL 227, Buddhist Publication Society,
Kandy, Sri Lanka 1981.
Cousins, L.S.: “Buddhist Jhana: Its Nature and Attainment According to the Pali Sources”,
Religion III (Part Two, Autumn 1973, pp. 115-131).
Ehara, N.R.M., Soma & Kheminda: The Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga), English translation
of Gedatsu Do Ron ,Colombo, Sri Lanka 1961.
Mahasi Sayadaw, Progress of Insight, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka 1973.
Nānamoli Thera: Cūla-Suññatā-Sutta,Translated in A Treasury of the Buddha's Words:
Discourses from the Middle Collection, Vol. 2, Mahamakut Press, Bangkok undated.
Nānamoli Thera: The Path of Purification. English translation of Buddhaghosa Thera’s
Visuddhi-Magga. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka 1975.
Nyanaponika Thera: Anattā and Nibbāna, WHEEL 11, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy,
Sri Lanka 1959.
Nyanaponika Thera: The Heart of Buddhist Mleditation, London: Rider & Co. 1973.
Nyanatiloka: Buddhist Dictionary, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka 1980.
Solé-Leris. A., Tranquility and Insight - An Introduction to the Oldest Form of' Buddhist
Meditation, London: Century Hutchinson, 1986."

Author’s contact:
Dr. Mirko Frýba, Switzerland
web: www.ayurama.eu
e-mail: [email protected]

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