Minowani's Writings

on what the Buddha taught

Ākiñcañña is often translated as nothingness.

According to the dictionary ākiñcaññā means 'state of having nothing', 'absence of any possessions'. Nothingness, stating that nothing really exists, is nihilism; a wrong view involving a view of self: 'nothing really exists and thus neither does a self'. The sermons do show that with ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ (base for this "nothingness") there are perception and feeling and thus cognition, so there is that. Perhaps by focussing to much on the 'state of' part instead of the 'having' part it got shortened to nothingness and thus lost meaning.

As a shorter alternative for this 'state of having nothing' possessionlessness or non-ownership would do, involving 'not self (anattā)' instead of 'there is no self'. Of course is a possession not you, your self, it is possessed, owned, taken up, which in turn can thus be taken down, abandoned, as well.

Ākiñcañña (nt.) non-ownership.