Editing Nothing (section)

===Eastern===
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The understanding of "nothing" varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions. For instance, ''[[Śūnyatā]]'' (emptiness), unlike "nothingness", is considered to be a [[Philosophy of mind|state of mind]] in some forms of [[Buddhism]] (see [[Nirvana]], [[mu (negative)|mu]], and [[Bodhi]]). Achieving "nothing" as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were [[consciousness|consciously]] thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase the mind and clear the thoughts to better focus on the shot. Some authors have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre,<ref>Steven William Laycock, ''Nothingness and Emptiness: A Buddhist Engagement with the Ontology of Jean-Paul Sartre'', SUNY Press, 2001 {{ISBN|0-7914-4909-2}}.</ref><ref>Charles B. Guignon, ''The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger'', pp. 293–325, Cambridge University Press, 2006 {{ISBN|0-521-82136-3}}.</ref> although this connection has not been explicitly made by the philosophers themselves.

In some [[Eastern philosophy|Eastern philosophies]], the concept of "nothingness" is characterized by an [[Egolessness|egoless]] state of being in which one fully realizes one's own small part in the cosmos.{{dubious|reason=Lack of ego does not prima facie equate to nothingness. A small part is nevertheless finite and therefore not nothing.|date=July 2022}}

The [[Kyoto School]] handles the concept of nothingness as well.

====Taoism====
[[Laozi]] and [[Zhuang Zhou|Zhuangzi]] were both conscious that language is powerless in the face of the ultimate. In [[Taoist philosophy]], however real this world is, its main characteristic is [[impermanence]], whereas the [[Tao]] has a permanence that cannot be described, predetermined, or named. In this way the Tao is different from any thing that can be named. It is nonexistence, in other words, nothing.

Taoists also have the related concept of ''[[wu wei]]''.