(Skt.): Also called emptiness. The absence of self or ego in the mind and in its external projections. Refers to the fact that all conceptual frameworks are empty of any reality, of a solid and unchanging essence. Also refers to the absolute and pure quality of mind. Emptiness is taught as the central theme of prajnaparamita texts and madhyamika philosophy.
(Sanskrit), SuññatÄ (PÄli) or stong pa nyid (Tibetan) is a term, translated as "Emptiness" or "Voidness", which constitutes an aspect of the Buddhist metaphysical critique as well as Buddhist epistemology and phenomenology. ŚūnyatÄ signifies that everything one encounters in life is empty of soul, permanence, and self-nature. Everything is inter-related, never self-sufficient or independent; nothing has independent reality. Yet śūnyatÄ never connotes nihilism, which Buddhist doctrine considers to be a delusion, just as it considers materialism to be a delusion.