Discerning the Buddhist Voidness (Śũnyatā) —a Procedure of «Remaking of Man»

Abstract

The Buddhist idea of non-self (nairātmya) and voidness (śũnyatā) are two terms that have infl uenced a lot of critiques on Buddhist philosophy for centuries. Despite those criticisms, the Buddhist philosophy and religion survived for several centuries, because it has shown a prudent way for human beings to deal with the phenomenal world of existence. Here I att empt to reveal the conception of śũnyatā and nairātmya as a conceptual framework for ‘remaking of man’ because a human being confront innumerable instances of confusions leading to suff erings in his life world and he must be vigilant against such instances rather than fearing or avoiding them. Normally human mind is of the habit that it falls into the trap of
various conceptual formulations and theories and consequently a person would force to become a creation of such theoretical positions or beliefs. But here by carefully looking at the nature of the world of phenomena that is a part of experience with the life in the world; one can understand that the phenomenal world is essenceless or not supported by any real and certain foundations but are dependent on several unsubstantiated conditions and causes. This awareness and vigil can redeem one from the clutches of theoretical formulations and ideologies. In this regard, I wish to introduce these two conceptions as tools of analysis that is off ered in the Buddha’s discourses and later in the philosophical works of Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna for ‘remaking of man’ to confront worldly life successfully.