..續本文上一頁ness, where they cannot be found at all. This logical analysis is mentioned directly or indirectly in the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, the Maharatnakuta Sutra, Shurangama Sutra, and Avatamsaka Sutra. Our body, daily life, romance, emotions, and the material world that we usually grasp as real are, in fact, only a false perception of the deluded mind. If subjected to a critical investigation and analyzed using our wisdom, then these various things and events certainly do not exist. The state of mind, as explained above, is very profound and subtle. As Lama Tsongkhapa explained in In Praise of Dependent Arising, only Shakyamuni Buddha could realize and expound the meaning of emptiness through dependent origination correctly. Elsewhere, this teaching cannot be found. Although non-Buddhists are also able to explain a little bit about emptiness, they are only explaining mere emptiness, not the true meaning of emptiness through dependent origination, so their teachings are not ultimate.
Therefore, when we study emptiness, we should not see emptiness as equal to an “utter non-existence,” otherwise we will be falling into the extreme of nihilism or non-existence. We should know that, whether existent or non-existent, these are all still extreme views of true intrinsic nature. These kinds of extreme views result in suffering, and liberation cannot be achieved. As it says in Sixty Verses on Reasoning, “If one has the thesis of real entities, Awful and vicious views arise, which give birth to attachment and aversion; from this contentions ensue.” Even if you grasp on one single thing as real, afflictions such as desires and hatred will arise from it, creation of negative karma will follow, and then revolving in the cycle of existence. In contrast, if you want liberation and want to pacify all the sufferings of self and others, then you must long for the concepts of emptiness to open your gateway to the wisdom of selflessness, so that all attachments can be cut off, like it says in A Guide to the Bodhisattva”s Way of Life (Bodhicharyavatara): “Therefore, with the desire to ward off suffering, one should develop the wisdom of emptiness.”
III. In Search of Emptiness in Modern Science
Emptiness has different interpretations in the Mahayana and Hinayana. The Hinayana believes that it is impossible for the material world to exist without something as its basis, so they posit that a smallest unit of matter must exist—the tiniest atom. For them, this is some kind of form that truly exists. From their perspective, the whole material world is empty other than this tiniest atom. This tiniest atom itself cannot be empty. This kind of emptiness is not ultimate; the emptiness that the Hinayana realizes is only part of the emptiness of phenomena.
The philosophy of modern physics is quite similar to the Hinayana view. It holds that matter must be constructed with a smallest unit as the basis. In the 19th century, people believed that the smallest unit of matter was a molecule, then in the 20th century scientists found that a molecule can be further pided into an atom. With the invention of high-tech equipment, the nucleus, electron, neutron, proton, and other concepts emerged, and in recent years, the quark and sub quark, etc., have also been theorized. Does the tiniest inpisible particle exist
For this question, contemporary physicists have two different views. One group holds the view that matter can be infinitely pided, the quark can be pided into sub quarks, and the sub quark can be further pided into the sub-sub quark, and so on. The other group believes that the pision of particles must have a limit. When this limit is reached, there will not be any smaller particle.
People are now researching the “field,” which includes the electron fi…
《Buddhist View on Emptiness》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…