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Concept

Śūnyatā

The Sanskrit term for emptiness — the central philosophical concept of Mahayana Buddhism. See emptiness for the full treatment.

mahayana buddhismzentibetan buddhismtheravada buddhism buddhismmahayanasanskrit

Śūnyatā (शून्यता) is the Sanskrit term rendered in English as emptiness. In Chinese kōng (空), in Japanese , in Tibetan stong pa nyid.

To avoid splitting the teaching across two pages, the full treatment — the doctrine, Nāgārjuna‘s argument, the two truths, readings across Mahayana, Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, and careful distinctions from Taoist wu, apophatic theology, and Advaita’s Brahman — is at Emptiness.

The Heart Sūtra‘s most-quoted line states it as compactly as any:

rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.

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concept tradition practice teacher text
  1. See the consolidated treatment at [[emptiness]] for citations and full exposition.