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Sunyatā, शून्यता ( Sanskrit, Pali: suññatā), or "Emptiness," is a term for a concept or set of concepts playing an important role in some versions of the Buddhist metaphysical critique, but also having important implications for Buddhist epistemology and phenomenology. Shunyata is most often associated with and the Madhyamaka school, which is usually counted as an early Mahayana school, but according to a number of accounts within the Mahayana, modern Theravada Buddhism, and also Western scholarship, Shunyata, at least in the hands of Nagarjuna, follows directly from (or simply summarizes) the older doctrines of Anatta ( Pali, Sanskrit:Anātman – the rejection of tman), and Paticcasamuppada ( Pali, Sanskrit: pratityasamutpda) (Interdependent Arising).

Shunyata signifies the nonsubstantiality or lack of essential nature of everything one encounters in life. (i.e., that everything is empty of substance, being, soul, essence, etc.) Everything is inter-related, never self-sufficient or independent; nothing has independent reality.

It should be noted that the exact definition and extent of shunyata varies within the different Buddhist schools of philosophy.In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, detailed dialogs between the perspectives of the various schools are preserved in order to train students.

The scholar Walpola Rahula explains that once Ananda the attendant asked Gautama Buddha, "People say the word Sunya. What is Sunya?" The Buddha replied, "Ananda, there is no self, nor anything pertaining to self in this world. Therefore, the world is empty."

1 sunyatā in the Perfection of Wisdom SutrasSutra in Sanskrit is derived from the verb √siv, meaning to sew''. It literally means a rope or thread, and more metaphorically refers to an aphorism (or line, rule, formula), or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. In Hinduism th

1.1 In the Heart SutraThe Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra or Heart Sutra ( Sanskrit: Prajn Pramit Hridaya Sutra) is a well known Mahyna Buddhist scripture. Notable for its brevity, concision and clarity, the Heart Sutra is considered to represent the core teachings of the much l

The Heart Sutra declares that the skandhas, which constitute our mental and physical existence, are empty in their nature or essence, i.e., empty of any such nature or essence. But it also declares that this emptiness is the same as form (which connotes fulness)--i.e., that this is an emptiness which is at the same time not different from the kind of reality which we normally subscribe to events; it is not a nihilistic emptiness that undermines our world, but a "positive" emptiness which defines it.

• "The noble bodhisattva, AvalokitesvaraIn Mahayana Buddhism, Avalokitesvara or Avalokiteshvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. Avalokitesvara is likely the bodhisattva most widely revered among Buddhists; this is especially true considering the distinctively East A, engaged in the depths of the practice of the perfection of wisdom, looked down from above upon the five skandhas (aggregates), and saw that they were empty in their essential nature."
• "Here, O Sariputra, emptines is form; form is just emptiness. Apart from form, emptiness is not; emptiness, form is not. Emptiness is that which is form, form is that which is emptiness. Just thus are perception, cognition, mental construction, and consciousness."
• "Here, O Sariputra, all phenomenaThe word dharma ( Sanskrit; "" in the Devanagari script) or dhamma ( Pali) is used in most or all philosophies and religions of Indian origin, Dharmic faiths, namely Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. It occurs first in the Vedas, of existence are are marked by emptiness: not, arisen, not destroyed, not unclean, not clean not deficient nor fulfilled."