|
The purposes of this thesis are to study (1) the concept of Nāgārajuna’s Suññatā, (2) the concept of Buddhadāsabhikkhu’s Suññatā, and (3) to compare the concept of Nāgārajuna’s Suññatā and Buddhadāsabhikkhu’s Suññatā.
From the results of this research it was found that Nāgārajuna’s Suññatā dealt with his ideas: “a state of perceiving”, “It was not existence”, “It was not non-existence”, and “That was not non-existence was not”. All of four extreme states were not Suññatā but it was a state of perceiving in a space of those extreme states. Similarly, it was meant that in the conventional world the perception of a state of all things as an illusion was Suññatā but in the world of absolute truth found by the Buddha, all things associating with each other were called Suññatā. Moreover, Nāgārajuna believed that all things were really formless because all of them were Suññatā. The conditioned things were known as things in dreaming, and illusory. All people should leave both wholesome and unwholesome actions. In the world of absolute truth, there was no real essence because nothing itself did exist. Even Dhamma was not in the realm of attachment. It was known only as a vehicle—a raft to cross Samsāra and reach Nibbāna. Even the existence did not really exist.
Buddhadāsabhikkhu produced different ideas to mention Suññatā as the essence of Buddhism. The Buddha taught all Buddhists about it to know and understand the reality of life that five aggregates were in Three Universal Characteristics. All Buddhists should not be attached to those aggregates until a concept of an ‘ego’—selfishness appeared to destroy the world, societies, and environment. This egoism encouraged a person to learn the fact that this was ‘self’; this was my own thing all the time.
From the comparative study of Nāgārajuna’s Suññatā and Buddhadāsabhikkhu’s Suññatā, it was found that there were both similarities and differences.
The similarities in the concept of Buddhadāsabhikkhu’s Suññatā and Nāgārajuna’s Suññatā were found in meaning, characteristic, the five aggregates, and the principle of Dependent Origination.
However, both of them were different in the approach or way to reach Suññatā. According to Nāgārajuna, the way to reach Suññatā was to make the fulfillment of perfection in the form of Bodhisattva. On the contrary, the way to achieve Suññatā shown by Buddhadāsabhikkhu was to consider carefully about Nibbāna. Nāgārajuna considered Nibbāna in a way that it was a state of wisdom or clear understanding; that is to understand the nature of all things in the world. On the other hand, Buddhadāsabhikkhu recognized Nibbāna as emptiness from all suffering and defilements that became a main cause of suffering — egoism. |
