joyboseroy/emptiness-graph

Emptiness Graph

A typed philosophical knowledge graph of Buddhist emptiness teachings
spanning Theravada, Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, and Yogacara

Medium Article: [https://medium.com/@joyboseroy/i-built-a-knowledge-graph-of-buddhist-emptiness-here-is-what-you-can-do-with-it-5feba6af81fe]

Code: https://gitlab.com/joyboseroy/emptiness-graph

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What This Is

This is not a Buddhist chatbot dataset.

It is a structured philosophical graph encoding the conceptual architecture of sunyata (emptiness) across the major Buddhist traditions — from the Pali Canon's anatta through Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, Shantideva's dialectics, Yogacara's three-natures, and the Prajnaparamita sutras.

The core insight:

Nagarjuna's arguments are essentially dependency analysis.
A thing exists because of other things.
Remove independent existence.
What remains is a network.

Emptiness (sunyata) is not a fact to be retrieved. It is a relational structure to be traversed. This graph makes that structure explicit and queryable.

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Quick Start

from datasets import load_dataset
import networkx as nx

# load all splits
ds = load_dataset("joyboseroy/emptiness-graph")

# build the philosophical graph
G = nx.MultiDiGraph()
for c in ds["concepts"]:
    G.add_node(c["id"], kind="concept", **c)
for t in ds["corpus_manifest"]:
    G.add_node(t["id"], kind="text", **t)
for e in ds["edges"]:
    G.add_edge(e["source"], e["target"], **e)

# what does the Heart Sutra refute?
for u, v, data in G.edges(data=True):
    if u == "heart_sutra" and data["relation"] in ("refutes", "deconstructs"):
        print(f"  {G.nodes[v]['label']} [{data['relation']}]")

# what implies sunyata, from which tradition?
for u, v, data in G.edges(data=True):
    if v == "sunyata" and data["relation"] in (
            "is_identical_to", "is_precursor_of"):
        print(f"  {G.nodes[u]['label']} --[{data['relation']}] ({data['tradition']})")

# find passages that mention a concept
passages   = list(ds["passages"])
pedges     = list(ds["passage_edges"])
pids = {e["source"] for e in pedges if e["target"] == "emptiness_of_emptiness"}
for p in passages:
    if p["id"] in pids:
        print(f"[{p['text_id']}] {p['text'][:200]}\n")

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Dataset Splits

Split	Records	Description
concepts	25	Philosophical concept nodes with Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan terms
edges	38	Hand-authored typed philosophical relations
corpus_manifest	16	Source text metadata, translators, ingestion status
passages	1,126	Text passages from 10 ingested sources
passage_edges	416	Passage to concept mention links

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Two Layers

Layer 1 — Philosophical graph (hand-authored)
concepts, edges, corpus_manifest were written by hand one record at a time. Every edge has a notes field with philosophical commentary explaining why the relation exists. This is the primary scholarly contribution.

Layer 2 — Passage index (automated)
passages and passage_edges were produced by build_passage_index.py from 10 source text files. Texts were split into passages and matched against manually defined concept keyword lists.

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Edge Relation Types (17)

Ontological: negates · presupposes · implies · is_identical_to · is_coextensive_with · depends_on · is_ground_of

Logical/Dialectical: refutes · extends · applies_method_of · deconstructs

Doctrinal: tensions_with · reframes_as · is_conventional_expression_of · is_ultimate_level_of · is_precursor_of

Practice: enables · is_obstacle_to · is_antidote_to

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Concept Nodes (25)

svabhava · sunyata · anatta · anatta_of_persons · anatta_of_dharmas pratityasamutpada · two_truths · two_truths_theravada · prasanga dependent_designation · emptiness_of_emptiness · alayavijnana three_natures · tathagatagarbha · five_aggregates · twelve_nidanas dharmadhatu · nonduality · skillful_means · nihilism_extreme eternalism_extreme · abhidharma_realism · cittamatra · bodhichitta three_kayas

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Sample Query Results

Heart Sutra deconstructs / refutes:
  Five Aggregates      [deconstructs]
  Abhidharma Realism   [refutes]

What implies Sunyata:
  Pratityasamutpada  --[is_identical_to]  (madhyamaka)
  Anatta             --[is_precursor_of]  (mahayana)

Doctrinal tensions:
  Tathagatagarbha  <--> Sunyata
  Cittamatra       <--> Sunyata

Tradition comparison on Sunyata:
  Theravada   : Anatta            [is_precursor_of]
  Madhyamaka  : Pratityasamutpada [is_identical_to]
  Yogacara    : Three Natures     [reframes_as]
  Mahayana    : Bodhichitta       [enables]

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Texts Ingested (10 of 16 planned)

Text	Translator	Passages
Anattalakkhana Sutta	Bhikkhu Sujato	20
Milindapanha (Chariot Argument)	T.W. Rhys Davids	23
Heart Sutra	Nyingma Monlam / multiple	90
Diamond Sutra	Public domain	30
Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita	84000	119
Vimalakirti Sutra Ch.9	Robert Thurman	41
Samdhinirmocana Sutra	84000	570
Mulamadhyamakakarika (Ch.1,18,22,23,24,26)	Geshe Kelsang Wangmo	120
Sunyatasaptati	Christian Lindtner	73
Bodhicharyavatara Ch.9	Padmakara Translation Group	40

All texts sourced from openly available web versions of public domain or openly licensed translations.

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License

Content	License
concepts, edges, corpus_manifest	CC BY 4.0
passages, passage_edges	CC BY-NC 4.0 (includes 84000 material)

Citation

@dataset{bose2026emptiness,
  title   = {Emptiness Graph: A Typed Philosophical Knowledge Graph
             of Buddhist Sunyata},
  author  = {Bose, Joy},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/joyboseroy/emptiness-graph},
  note    = {Hand-authored concept graph and automated passage index
             spanning Theravada, Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, and Yogacara}
}