Śūnyatā (/ʃuːnjəˈtɑː/ shoon-yə-TAH; Sanskrit: शून्यता; Pali: suññatā), translated most often as “emptiness”, “vacuity”, and sometimes “voidness”, or “nothingness” is an Indian philosophical concept। It is either an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience.
One example of this usage is in the Pheṇapiṇḍūpama Sutta (SN 22:95), which states that on close inspection, each of the five aggregates are seen as being void (rittaka), hollow (tucchaka), coreless (asāraka). In the text a series of contemplations is given for each aggregate: form is like “a lump of foam” (pheṇapiṇḍa); sensation like “a water bubble” (bubbuḷa); perception like “a mirage” (marici); formations like “a plantain tree” (kadalik-khandha); and cognition like “a magical illusion” (māyā).