Abstract

The _Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra_ (MPNMS) is arguably the earliest Buddhist scripture available to propound the doctrine of the _tathāgatagarbha_. However, the notion of “empty/emptiness” (_śūnya/śūnyatā_) in this important scripture has been underexplored. This paper identifies four distinct yet interrelated senses of the term “empty/emptiness” in the portion of the MPNMS shared between its two Chinese translations and the Tibetan translation. First, the term “empty” has the mundane sense of “desolate”, which describes how the world would appear to the Buddha’s disciples after his passing. Second, “empty/emptiness” pertains to the idea of lacking a self and is considered an expedient or preliminary teaching to the ultimate doctrines on the self and the _tathāgatagarbha_ in the MPNMS. Third, “empty/emptiness” signifies non-existent/non-existence, which is sometimes termed “nothing whatsoever” (_ākiṃcanya_) or “absolute emptiness” (_atyantaśūnyatā_). This notion is vehemently rejected by the MPNMS as a proper description of the actual state of the Buddha and the _tathāgatagarbha_. Fourth, “empty” refers to the relational property of being free from certain contents. In particular, the liberation of buddhas is declared to be empty in that it is free from the entire _saṃsāra_, which is the only sense of the term that receives full endorsement in the MPNMS.