emptiness

In Buddhism, a central concept which may be interpreted in a variety of ways. Emptiness needs to be found for a proper state of meditation to be achieved: when a person is empty of all emotion, thought, and feelings, they are receptive to the ultimate emptiness or void of all phenomena. This insight, that nothing actually has reality of itself, lies at the heart of Buddhist philosophy in the Mahāyāna tradition. The Pāli word for this Buddhist teaching is sunnata. It has a variety of meanings within the different traditions of Buddhism.