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GCSE Religious Studies · key term
Emptiness: the absence of a separate, independent essence. The Sanskrit spelling is sunyata; Mahayana Buddhism emphasises that all phenomena are empty of independent existence.
Used by Edexcel
Specification 1.7 · Paper 2
Revise: Human Nature: Aggregates, Emptiness and Buddha-natureSunnata, also written sunyata, means emptiness. The crucial question is: empty of what? It means empty of a separate, independent essence, not empty in the sense of being completely nonexistent.
Specification 1.7 · Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3
‘Emptiness’: the absence of an independent, permanent or fixed essence in things. Also written sunyata.
Do not describe sunnata as meaning that nothing exists. It means that things lack an independent, permanent essence.
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Sunnata, often written sunyata, means ‘emptiness’. In Mahayana Buddhism, it means that things have no independent, permanent essence. The aggregates themselves are empty in this sense: none exists as a fixed self, separate from the conditions on which it depends.
