The Empty World: Heart Sūtra and Nāgārjuna

rūpaṃ śūnyatā, śūnyataiva rūpam · svabhāva-śūnyatā · pratītyasamutpāda

Emptiness does not mean nothing exists. It means nothing exists by its own independent nature (svabhāva). For Nāgārjuna, dependent arising, emptiness, dependent designation and the Middle Way are one insight seen from four sides. He also warns that emptiness itself must not become a new view or a hidden substance. So none of the experiments below end in blackness. Each one attacks a different intuition about inherent existence, and in each one the appearance carries on.

Do not tell the visitor what emptiness is. Give them situations in which their assumptions about "things" stop working.

Nāgārjuna's Analogies

svapna · marīci · pratibimba · māyā

Nāgārjuna and the Prajñāpāramitā literature use a small set of images to show how something can appear, function and matter while lacking any core. Several are built into the experiments above.

Dream. Vivid while it lasts, without the solidity it seemed to have. See the Dream Machine.

Rope and snake. Fear is real, the snake is not, and the rope was never destroyed. See Rope and Snake.

Reflection and echo. They arise in dependence on conditions and do not exist apart from them. See Indra's Net and the Hall of Mirrors.

Illusion. A conjured elephant can be seen and fought, yet has no elephant-nature. See the Cup and Its Conditions.

In Nāgārjuna's own words, paraphrased: whatever arises dependently is what we call empty, this is a designation that depends on something else, and this is the middle path.