Saɱyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
35. Saḷāyatana Saɱyutta
§ II: Paññāsaka Dutiya
4. Channa Vagga
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
IV. The Book of the Six Sense Bases
35: Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases
The Second Fifty
4. Channa
Sutta 85
Suñña Loka Suttaɱ
Empty Is the World
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Copyright Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)
This selection from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saɱyutta Nikāya by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/connected-discourses-buddha.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available
at http://www.wisdompubs.org/terms-use.
[1][pts][than] Then the Venerable Ānanda approached the Blessed One ... and said to him:
"Venerable sir, it is said, 'Empty is the world, empty is the world.'
In what way, venerable sir, is it said, 'Empty is the world'?"
"It is, Ānanda, because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, 'Empty is the world.'
And what is empty of self and of what belongs to self?
The eye, Ānanda, is empty of self and of what belongs to self.
Forms are empty of self and of what belongs to self.
Eye-consciousness is empty of self and of what belongs to self.
Eye-contact is empty of self and of what belongs to self. ...
Whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition — whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant — that too is empty of self and of what belongs to self.
"It is, Ānanda, because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, 'Empty is the world."
