The Emptiness of the World

This is what I have heard:

At one time the Buddha was residing in the Jeta Grove in Anathapindaka’s monastery in the town of Shravasti. At that time a bhikshu by the name of Samriddhi came to where the Buddha was staying, prostrated before the Buddha, sat down to one side and asked the Buddha:

World-honoured Lord, you have spoken of the emptiness of the world. What is meant by the emptiness of the world?

The Buddha taught Samriddhi:

Eyes are empty, they are not permanent, lasting and without change. They do not have a separate self and do not belong to a separate self. Why is that? Because their nature is such. If the sense object, (form), eye consciousness, eye-contact and the conditions for eye contact are sufficient, there are feelings, that are either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral and those feelings are empty, they are not permanent, lasting and unchanging. They do not have a self and they do not belong to a self. Why is that? Because their nature is such. The same is true for ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. That is why we say that the world is empty.

When the Buddha had spoken, the bhikshu Samriddhi put into practice what he had heard.

~Samyuktagama 232