| --- |
| license: cc-by-4.0 |
| language: |
| - en |
| - sa |
| - pi |
| tags: |
| - knowledge-graph |
| - buddhism |
| - philosophy |
| - emptiness |
| - madhyamaka |
| - prajnaparamita |
| - theravada |
| - yogacara |
| - nagarjuna |
| - shantideva |
| - computational-humanities |
| - graph-dataset |
| pretty_name: Emptiness Graph |
| size_categories: |
| - 1K<n<10K |
| task_categories: |
| - graph-ml |
| - text-retrieval |
| dataset_info: |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: text |
| dtype: string |
| - name: text_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: concepts_mentioned |
| sequence: string |
| splits: |
| - name: passages |
| num_examples: 1126 |
| - name: concepts |
| num_examples: 25 |
| - name: edges |
| num_examples: 38 |
| - name: corpus_manifest |
| num_examples: 16 |
| - name: passage_edges |
| num_examples: 416 |
| --- |
| |
| # 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] |
| [](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
|
|
| Code: https://gitlab.com/joyboseroy/emptiness-graph |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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. |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## Quick Start |
|
|
| ```python |
| 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") |
| ``` |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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 | |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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. |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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` |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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` |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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] |
| ``` |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## 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. |
|
|
| --- |
|
|
| ## License |
|
|
| | Content | License | |
| |---------|---------| |
| | `concepts`, `edges`, `corpus_manifest` | CC BY 4.0 | |
| | `passages`, `passage_edges` | CC BY-NC 4.0 (includes 84000 material) | |
|
|
| ## Citation |
|
|
| ```bibtex |
| @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} |
| } |
| ``` |
