


A typical example would be the common sentence:





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    The '無' on Yasujiro Ozu's grave, I would think, has more to do with the answer to the koan, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?" than a direct reference to emptiness. – A.Ellett Oct 19 '16 at 20:22
  • @A.Ellett: indeed, it very likely does. Which is what I meant by a "more spiritual overtone" (e.g. omnipresent in zen koans). – Dave Oct 25 '16 at 1:23










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    In 地, 水、火、風、and 空, 空 should probably be translated as "space" and represents a translation of "akasha" (space) from Sanskrit and not "shunyata" (emptiness). In other contexts, like the Heart Sutra, 空 represents a translation of "shunyata". – A.Ellett Oct 19 '16 at 18:58
  • Well, being that it's buddhist and not scientific in nature. 空 refers more to heaven or heavenly the state of the mind. Keep in mind that Kanji can't always be directly translated into english and thier use is strongly influenced or even dictated by context. In this case, this is the correct kanji for emptiness. It means emptiness of mental constructs (or your concept of the existence or lack of matter and structure.) It's hard to get your head wrapped around concepts like emptiness in the buddhist sense, which is why the buddha siddhartha gautama said trust nothing and test for yourself. – Escoce Feb 20 '18 at 15:43

無 is taken directly from the Chinese, and is often translated as "nothing." It is fundamentally a Daoist concept. You can find it prominently in the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi. It has many implications, from metaphysics (the opposition of being 有) to linguistics (the inability of language to capture all meaning) to the pragmatics of living life (a room is useful because it's empty) to the paradox of acting without intention (wu wei 無為). Zen (Chan) Buddhists in China borrowed this concept to help understand related ideas in Buddhism (specifically the limitations of language to capture meaning and the lack of substantial being in the cosmos). So Mu in Japanese has fundamentally this meaning--there is no substantiality to things, and language does not capture all possible descriptions of reality.

空 is also taken directly from the Chinese and (in a Buddhist context) is a technical term, a translation of the Sanskrit (Sunyata). It is often translated into English as "empty," and refers specifically to the belief in Buddhism that there is no substantial, persisting, permanent part of anything: 一切皆空. It is closely related to the concept of anatman which is rendered in Chinese as 無我. So you can see that 空 and 無 are conceptually related.

To answer the question: why is 空 used to represent the Buddhist concept of emptiness instead of 無, the answer is that 空 was selected very early in the tradition as a translation for sunyata, perhaps to distinguish from Daoist 無. The early translator could just have easily chosen 無 or even 虛. The choice has nothing to do with the basic meanings of the terms 空 and 無 and everything to do with a translator's difficult (and probably ultimately arbitrary) choice early in the tradition. 空 at the time the translator chose it, probably around the first century CE, was not a technical philosophical term in Chinese (meaning simply empty) and so would have been a good choice to translate a foreign term for its lack of conceptual baggage. 虛 and especially 無 would have been more conceptually laden, and so potentially confusing to the beginning student of Buddhism.

  • My understanding was that 空 is alternative version of 虛 not a completely different character. – A.Ellett Oct 19 '16 at 18:59
  • @A.Ellett At least character-wise, they are distinct two characters with different pronunciations. – broken laptop Oct 21 '16 at 15:08
  • @broccoliforest wow. thanks for correcting me. i wonder how i got that idea into my head. – A.Ellett Oct 22 '16 at 0:28

Essentially both Kanji means emptiness. But in this context Because it represents, symbolises that the emptiness is just like the vastness of the infinite sky, ether, universe that's unchanging reality, totally beyond the reach of ordinary perception. 空 means both sky, emptiness depending on context. That's the beauty of Kanji it conveys two significant meanings both relevant to each other. Also incidentally 空 is also last character in name of Sun Wukong 孫悟空 since he was bestowed his name, the great sage equaling the heavens, later achieved enlightenment after accompanying Xuanzang in Journey to the west.

As for imprinted on grave, it signifies souls are not material as dead upon death, in grave, but eternal.

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