The Notions of Absence, Emptiness and Nothingness from the Theravāda Buddhist Perspective

Abstract

This article discusses three important concepts of ancient Indian discourse, namely absence, nothingness and emptiness, and examines their representations in Theravāda Buddhism. Firstly, it overviews the early Indian records of the concept of absence and then focuses on the role of absence in Theravāda Buddhism. It shows how the ethical foundations of the Buddhist path to liberation from suffering are largely expressed through the absence of unethical behaviour, and how meditation practice involves the cultivation of mental states that are based on the absence of unwholesome mental factors. The article then discusses specific higher states of meditative absorption, as presented in the canonical and postcanonical Pāli sources, which include experiences of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness, the latter being articulated as the absence of anything at all. According to the Theravāda tradition, the experience of nothingness, which is perceived as complete absence, devoid of any phenomena, is not considered final liberation, because it still involves perception, feeling and other mental components and thus remains in the sphere of impermanence. Only in the state of ultimate emptiness of nibbāna (Sanskrit nirvāṇa) is complete liberation from suffering reached. The realization of nibbāna is presented as the very foundation of a deep transformation of consciousness, reflected in the partial or complete absence of fetters, defined as phenomena that bind living beings to suffering. In summary, the article shows how, in Theravāda Buddhism, absence plays the central role in the cultivation of moral virtue and meditation, including the experience of nothingness, and how the realization of the emptiness of nibbāna, regarded as the final liberation from suffering, is reflected in the concomitant ethical perfection.