The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism

by Choong Mun-Keat

This book investingates the teachings of emptiness in early Buddhism, as recorded in the Pali and Chinese version of the early Buddhist canon. In general, the findig is that these two version,although differently worded, record in common that the teaching of the historical Buddha as connected with emptiness. The general reader, with little or no prior knowledge of Buddhism, can discover in this book how early Buddhism provides a vision and a method to help in overcoming the ills of the mind. CHOONG MUN_KEAT (Wei-keat) studied Chinese and pali Buddhism in Malaysia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka,before obtaining his Bachelor of Arts (1990) in the Faculty of Buddhist Studies at Konazawa University (TOKYO), and his Master of Arts in Studies in Religion (1994) and Ph.D.(1998) in the area of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland. His Ph.D.thesis topic is: The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutra-anga Partion of the Pali Samyutta-nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama. His research interests lie in comparative studies of the pali and Chinese versions of the early Buddhist canon.