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I am not a Buddhist (yet) but marinating in Buddhist philosophy and secularized Buddhist practices. I have problemes with their cosmology and some of the meatphysics.
I started pracitcing after hearing an introductory lecture on Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, perhaps the earliest known systematic presentation of emptiness.
Does anyone have a good tip for books thst gives a comprehensive presentation of the philosophy of emptiness outside of Buddhism?
"Sitting in Oblivion" by Livia Kohn addresses the idea of zuowang, a Daoist practice which involves a notion of oblivion or emptiness that is comparable to the Buddhist idea. Within the text, there are comparisons made to Buddhism, but the topic of the text is mainly Daoist. Here is a quote from the text, describing zuowang:
"“I let my limbs and physical structure fall away, do away with perception and intellect, separate myself from body-form and let go of all knowledge, thus joining Great Pervasion. This is what I mean by ‘sitting in oblivion’.” So runs the classic passage in Zhuangzi 6. Also explained with the phrase “making one’s body like dried wood and one’s mind like dead ashes” (chs. 2, 22), it describes a state where all visceral awareness of emotions and desires is lost and all sense perception is cut off." -- pg. 17, "Sitting in Oblivion" by Livia Kohn
