emptiness

emptiness, in mysticism and religion, a state of “pure consciousness” in which the mind has been emptied of all particular objects and images; also, the undifferentiated reality (a world without distinctions and multiplicity) or quality of reality that the emptied mind reflects or manifests. The concept, with a subjective or objective reference (sometimes the two are identified), has figured prominently in mystical thought in many historical periods and parts of the world. The emptying of the mind and the attainment of an undifferentiated unity is a theme that runs through mystical literature from the Upaniṣads (ancient Indian meditative treatises) to medieval and modern Western mystical works. The concepts of hsü (q.v.) in Taoism, sunyata (q.v.) in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and the En Sof in Jewish mysticism are pertinent examples of “emptiness,” or “holy Nothing,” doctrines. Buddhism, with its basic religious ultimate of Nirvāṇa (q.v.), as well as its development of the sunyata doctrine, has probably articulated emptiness more fully than any other religious tradition; it has also affected some modern Western considerations of the concept. A good deal of 19th–20th century Western imaginative literature has been concerned with emptiness, as has a certain type of Existentialist philosophy and some forms of the Death of God movement. The particular meanings of “emptiness” vary with the particular context and the religious or cultural tradition in which it is used.