When I had the daring idea to write about Śūnyatā, one of the most difficult and fundamental ideas to explain and understand in Buddhism, little did I know how the wiring of my mind would be altered as I tried to write about it. It is as if my mind is so engaged with the question of understanding that the firing neurons and their connections struggle and assemble in unusual ways to bring meaning to the concept.
The term
Śūnyatā (Sanskrit) is often translated as "emptiness," "vacuity," "voidness," or "nothingness." It is a pivotal concept in Indian philosophy, further developed by one of the most important teachers of Buddhism, Nāgārjuna, and the Mādhyamaka school.
The Pāli Canon, a key collection of scriptures in Theravada Buddhism, uses the term Śūnyatā in three ways: (1) as a meditative dwelling, (2) as an attribute of objects, and (3) as a type of awareness-release. One can dwell on each description for dozens of pages; however, I will mainly discuss Śūnyatā in the context of the true nature of objects in Buddhist philosophy. Śūnyatā in this context refers to the lack of “self” and essence in the observable universe. This feels to have the most practical implications and the most relevant connection in the scientific world.
In this context, it becomes undeniably clear as a biologist who has been curious about Buddhist philosophy: the similarity or alignment between Śūnyatā and our understanding of modern biology.
Linking to Biology
I want to start at the level of a Cell, the smallest biological unit that makes up an organism. Cells separate themselves from the external world through a membrane (which I remind you is very porous and filtrable). This membrane holds cellular organelles such as mitochondria (the energy center), the Golgi apparatus (processing and packaging of proteins and lipids), and the nucleus (the cell’s information center, coding all the relevant processes and components that make up the cell). Already here you can see that when we talk about a “unit,” we are talking about subunits working together to make up “the cell unit.”
Let’s do an experiment and strip this small unit of its membrane and cytoplasm, which contains organelles. This will clearly show there is no single unit but a complex of units. Each small organelle and DNA can certainly be split down into molecules, molecules into atoms, and atoms into quantum particles such as electrons, quarks, and photons. At that microlevel, you will not find anything that reminds you of a cell or an organelle. The only thing we will find is a pool of particles that are co-existing with other particles making up other “micro-units” such as the neighboring cell. At this level, there is no essence of objects; there is no particle that represents a “Cell.” This is exactly what Nāgārjuna investigated in his contemplations: the solid and singular quality of objects is merely an illusion. Such singularity and solidity are only concepts in our minds and do not reflect the real nature of things.
Understanding Śūnyatā (Emptiness)
In the context of Buddha Dharma, śūnya means "empty" or "void," but also "zero" and "nothing," deriving from the root śvi, meaning "hollow." The suffix -tā denotes a quality or state of being, equivalent to the English “-ness.”
The concept of Śūnyatā as "emptiness" is closely related to the concept of anatta (lack of self) in early Buddhism. Yes, lack of self: the fact that there is no singular, independent self that exists, including ourselves.
What did Nāgārjuna mean with this concept? I can hear you saying: do you mean we are empty? Isn’t this very close to Nihilism, that things do not have meaning and value? This is one of the main and dangerous confusions for people hearing the concept of Śūnyatā for the first time and also the reason the teachings are not more frequently communicated to popular culture. Building up relevant Buddhist teachings is extremely important to establish the concept of Śūnyatā. Furthermore, other confusion also comes directly from the fact that the English translations of Śūnyatā fail to explain the multimodal meaning of the word.
The concept of Śūnyatā has been established in connection with other fundamental understandings of Buddhism: Impermanence, Karma, and Anatta. These things are very much interrelated, and specifically, impermanence is one of the main topics in teachings. I think western cultures are more familiar with it now: the only constant thing is change itself.
Let’s contemplate these concepts for a moment: If we pause for a second and look around, we could easily realize that everything we interact with, including ourselves, is in a constant flux of motion and change in relation to each other. For those who love solid examples: Imagine you ordered an iced matcha; it arrived at your table nice and cold. You took a sip: matcha will be constantly changing its temperature and going through an isothermal reaction of energy exchange to equalize with its environment (this is impermanence). You took a sip of your instantly warming up matcha, and the liquid in your mouth warms up even more. As you swallow, going through your belly and intestines, milk and matcha are digested into small digestible parts that are possible for cellular uptake: at this point, we can still ask: where is the matcha latte now? As my cells have digested the casein micelles and lactoglobullin and broken it all the way down to produce ATP molecules, we realize the concept of matcha and myself becomes blurry lines (this is Anatta). This ATP is utilized in an energetic process, to allow me to leave the cafe and jump onto my bike, that state of matcha was through me, on my bike pedals and on the friction of the street (this is Karma everything happened and “existed” in interdependence”).
Nāgārjuna derives emptiness from these qualities of reality: Because everything is interdependent, impermanent, and self-less, there are no singular, solid concepts of existence; they are empty/void of such singular existence. Instead, they have the infinite potential to become and to exist. This potential of “fullness” is completely the opposite of singularity.
Hence, when we talk about emptiness, we do not talk about the Nihilistic approach of “things do not have meaning or self.” They are actually full of the potential of being, like a seed carrying the whole universe within: the water, the soil, the sun that fed it, and the potential of being an apple tree, to give fruits and feed living beings.
A single-cell zygote carries the full potential to become a human being with likes and dislikes, with the beauty and suffering they bring to the world. And the fact that this is only possible because everything is interdependent in a cause and effect relationship, in an ever-altering universe.
I will stop here and remind the audience that this notion between Śūnyatā and modern science has been explored within the field of particle physics already. Carlo Rovelli writes in his book There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness about his first discovery of Nāgārjuna, which leaves him in awe. As he is discovering the laws of quanta, a thinker who lived 3,000 years ago had already contemplated this notion.
As a biologist, I carry the same awe. After the theory of evolution, emptiness can explain modern biology simply based on interdependence, impermanence, and selflessness. When Darwin wrote the Origin of Species, he actually wrote about the fact that we can trace our origins back to a single living organism and simple cells formed 3.5 billion years ago, and evolved in relation to each other, adapting to the environment and existing as well as dissipating species, eventually bringing us to this moment of reality. This is Śūnyatā.
Sunyata, Consciousness, and the Self in study of Neuroscience - Body and Mind connection
Explore how modern neuroscience challenges the notion of a fixed, independent self, aligning with the concept of sunyata.
Discuss findings on brain plasticity and the fluid nature of identity and consciousness.
Philosophical and Ethical Implications and Reflections
Conclusion
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