Is emptiness the same as nothing?

Answer 1

not in buddhism.

there are all kinds of complex spiritual principles in buddhism that are hard to translate, and english words were chosen, but they don't mean what they usually mean in english. this often causes much confusion.

perhaps the best example is the word 'emptiness'.
in buddhism it means a very specific thing:
it means the idea that all things are related to, and interconnected with, all other things. nothing exists by itself, in a vacuum, apart from its interaction with and relation with other things.
they say that things are empty of inherent existence.
nothing exists on its own, separately. at the very least, humans give meanings and uses and names to things, without humans those things would be so different as to be unrecognizable. no person exists without parents, someone to feed them, someone to grow the cotton to make their clothes, someone to mine the coal that makes the heat that warms them in winter, etc, etc.
the illusion that we are separate is one of the fundamental causes of suffering in buddhism.

so buddhist emptiness does not mean nothing, it means this very specific concept that all things are interrelated.

it's like a web of jewels. imagine one of those hanging door curtains make of beads, but each bead is a diamond. each diamond, in its facets, reflects every other diamond.
we are those diamonds.

Answer 2

Physically, emptiness and nothing are the same. Emotionally and spiritually, nothing is the complete void of anything. Emptiness is absence, the sensation of being the vessel containing a void. Truly though, if it is a void can it be contained? And what is there to contain?

Answer 3

emptiness and nothing is impossible. There is no such thing. We are eternally variegated spirit souls. We just happen to be embodied in material vehicles which we call the human body. But even spiritually we all have our own flavor (individuality) Oneness means one in purpose. No such thing is nothing or void or not thinking.Proof you never experienced it for even a moment. Though you may have been asleep or unconscious. That is not nothing it is unaware.

Answer 4

I do not think so. You can have nothing material wise, money allot of clothes or a big house.....etc` But if you have love and peace in your heart than you are not empty. Consequently you can have everything and still be empty or hollow inside.

Answer 5

No,emptiness implies a set that is a something,whereas nothingness implies no sets. Infinite sets, limited only in nature after there kind of set, move through eternal Substance that is a Living God whose attributes fill emptiness. We still say it is empty only because God's infinite, invisible, Nature can not be observed directly..however dark cosmic energy and dark cosmic matter both point to sets of infinities after their kind that demonstrate the existence of God that fill the "void" of space/time. Confused ideas are something in the mind of someone,but "nothing" in the reality existing outside the head of the confused person. If we believe in existence outside of our minds it must be something--not nothing. It must be eternal God as Substance as Nature ( both as " natura naturan", creative nature,and as "natura naturata",created nature), our work must be to remove the superstitious shell of confused ideas-- to reveal the living God in the emptiness of those sets of ideas, we have, to discover the fullness of all reality.

Answer 6

They are not the same.

Nothing means No thing, and No thing can refer to Spirit. Spirit is the all in all and is certainly not emptiness.

Answer 7

It isn't exactly the same, emptiness is more the lack of something that you miss where is nothing is well...nothing.

Answer 8

"Emptiness" ("shunya" in Sanskrit) in some schools of Buddhism and also some forms of philosophical Hinduism is defined as "empty of other." Hindu and Buddhist philosophers and apologists often debated this idea in ancient times.

"Nothing" suggests nihilism. Emptiness implies "something" that is pure in and of itself without any qualifiers, comparisons, taints, etc.

Answer 9

Emptiness is a void. that is something. Not nothing.
A void can be filled but nothing will always be nothing.

Answer 10

Emptiness can be filled or not. Nothingness abhors a vacuum and will fill it with anything. The difference is, with emptiness, you have a choice!