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Translations of
Śūnyatā
Englishemptiness, voidness, openness, thusness, etc.
SanskritŚūnyatā
(Dev: शून्यता)
PaliSuññatā
(Dev: सुञ्ञता)
Bengaliশূন্যতা
(Shunnôta)
Burmesethone nya ta, သုညတ
Chinese
(PinyinKōng)
Japanese
(rōmaji: )
Khmerសុញ្ញតា
(Sonnhata)
Korean공성(空性)
(RR: gong-seong)
Mongolianхоосон
Tibetanསྟོང་པ་ཉིད་
(Wylie: stong-pa nyid
THL: tongpa nyi
)
Thaiสุญตา
VietnameseKhông ̣(空)
Glossary of Buddhism

Śūnyatā (Sanskrit: शून्यता, romanizedśūnyatā; Pali: suññatā) – pronounced in English as /ʃnˈjɑː.tɑː/ (shoon-ya-ta), translated most often as emptiness and sometimes voidness – is a Buddhist concept which has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context. It is either an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience.

In Theravada Buddhism, suññatā often refers to the non-self (Pāli: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman) nature of the five aggregates of experience and the six sense spheres. Suññatā is also often used to refer to a meditative state or experience.

In Mahayana, Sunyata refers to the tenet that "all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature (svabhava)," but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen, Shentong, or Zen.

Etymology