The concept of emptiness in the Prajnaparamite tradition

Abstract

The article deals with the central concept of Prajnaparamite philosophy – the concept of emptiness. The analysis of the understanding of this concept in the scientific literature is given, the difficulties of understanding it are indicated. Nagarjuna's explanations of the doctrine of emptiness are considered in the context of the Prajnaparamite theory of the middle. Much attention is paid to the difficulties of understanding emptiness in China during the formation of Buddhism in this country. The variants of understanding the concept of emptiness presented in the teachings of the "six schools and seven directions" (Liu jia qi zong) are considered. The interpretation of the understanding of emptiness in the writings of Seng Zhao and Kumarajiva is shown. The translation of the text of the Hridaya Sutra is presented, in which the definition of the concept of emptiness is given in a concise form. The object of the study is the philosophy of Prajnaparamita. The subject of the study is the interpretation of the concept of emptiness in the Prajnaparamite tradition. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that it presents different points of view on the understanding of the concept of emptiness, both in the scientific literature and in the Buddhist tradition of India, Tibet and China. The main conclusion of the article is that the reason for the different interpretation of emptiness lies in the semantic features of the term "emptiness" which implies absolute negation. Therefore, there was a need to justify the fact that the negation is followed by a statement, the emptiness hides the true being. The next difficulty was the question of what truly exists. The search for the true essence of this being is especially clearly traced to the Chinese tradition.