B uddhist philosophy absorbed the ideas of “emptiness” and “existence” and developed them into the concept of “emptiness and existence,” which became part of the special terminology of Buddhism.

Theravadan Buddhist philosophy maintains that “emptiness and existence are separate and unrelated.” Some Buddhist sects, such as the Sthavirah (school of elders), assert that “dharmas and self are both real.” Others, such as the Prajnaptivadinah sect of the Mahasanghikah (school of the assembly), assert that “dharmas are empty and false.” Still others, such as the Sarvastivadah (school of the reality of all phenomena), maintain that “dharmas exist but the self is empty,” and to a certain extent they become attached to emptiness. Emptiness does not banish existence, and existence is not apart from emptiness. Existence is included within emptiness, and emptiness is preserved within existence. Although emptiness and existence are two things, they are associated in essence, not completely cut off and unrelated to each other. For example, Madhyamika (Middle School) philosophy emphasizes emptiness, but does not deny existence. They assert that emptiness is just existence and use existence to clarify the middle. The Yogacharya philosophy emphasizes existence, but does not renounce emptiness. They say that existence is just emptiness and use emptiness to manifest the middle. In this way, these two schools of Mahayana philosophy use the characteristics of emptiness and existence and the perfect interfusion of ultimate truth and worldly truth to express the supreme meaning. As a consequence, people usually refer to the Madhyamika philosophy as the Mahayana School of Emptiness and the Yogacharya philosophy as the Mahayana School of Existence.