[Buddha-l] Emptiness

[Jackhat1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/1/2008 2:03:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
jehms at xs4all.nl writes:

At the  time the emptiness was considered as a new invention. My 
understanding of  anatta in the Palicanon is that events are caused, but 
that there are  ultimate causes, dhamma's. Shit just happens, so let it 
go. If you're not  attached to the shit it's no big deal. The 
prajñaapaaramitaasuutra's are  basically about the idea that there's 
nothing ultimate at all, so shit  just seems to happen in a way, but from 
an other point of view nothing  happens. 
====
Here is my understanding. Emptiness in the Pali Canon is emptiness of an  
unchanging, independent reality. Take a cart apart and you can't find anything  
unchanging and independent that is the essence of that cart. But, the cart is  
still real. That's one teaching. Another teaching is that the cart is real in 
a  conventional sense but can be reduced to ultimate's which is the real real. 
 Examples of ultimate's in this case could be hardness, smell, and color of 
the  cart's wood. There are others.
 
I guess the Mahayana view is that the cart doesn't exist.
 
Jack



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