Shunyata

[jacobs.598]

I am very confused about the Mahayana concept of shunyata (emptiness
of all reality). If reality is 'empty', then this seems similar to
the Indian philosophical concept that maya is an illusion. However,
in Mahayana Buddhism, nirvana is the same as samsara. This means that
the world of appearances cannot be an illusion, because nothing would
exist at all. What does Mahayana mean by 'emptiness of all reality'?

[tanner]

>From what I can tell, shunyata means that nothing exists independently
from anything else. In other words, everything is comprised of
changes, but there is no THING that changes. Everything is empty
because there are no things. The world is made up of change
itself...maybe.

Also, it's probably a good idea to not link the Indian idea of Maya
with the Buddhist idea of a world of concepts. The two views may seem
very similar, but they are actually really different.

[Nicholaos Jones]

Tanner's reply is almost correct. Yes, everything is comprised of
changes. But this does not mean that there is no THING that changes.
It means that there is no INDEPENDENTLY-EXISTING THING. Everything is
empty, because there are no *independently existing* things (NOT
because there are no things).

There are things; but they don't exist separately from other things.

The point about Maya is very good.