Within the Mahāyāna tradition, emptiness (śūnyatā) is understood as the absence of inherent, independent existence in all phenomena. Nothing possesses a fixed, unchanging essence or self-nature (svabhāva); rather, everything arises dependently, through causes, conditions, parts, relationships, and conceptual designation. This insight is closely tied to dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda): because things arise only in dependence, they are empty of any solid core. Emptiness, therefore, is not a separate, absolute reality standing behind appearances, but the very way phenomena themselves are. It is not a nihilistic void, but the recognition that what appears solid and self-existing is, upon analysis, contingent and relational.

Mahāyāna articulates this through the doctrine of the two truths: conventional and ultimate. On the conventional level, persons and things appear and function; they can be named, used, and related to in ordinary life. On the ultimate level, those same persons and things are empty of inherent existence, lacking any independent essence. These two perspectives are not mutually exclusive but complementary, revealing different aspects of the same reality. Emptiness thus represents a middle way between the extremes of asserting a truly existing essence and denying all existence whatsoever.

This understanding extends to both persons and phenomena, sometimes expressed as a two-fold emptiness: the emptiness of the individual self and the emptiness of all dharmas. Early Buddhist teachings emphasized the lack of a permanent self in persons; Mahāyāna deepens this by applying the same analysis to all conditioned and unconditioned phenomena. Because everything is empty in this way, even the concept of emptiness itself is not to be grasped as some final, substantial ground. Clinging to emptiness as a new metaphysical essence would contradict its very meaning and fall back into rigid views.

Realization of emptiness is regarded as the heart of wisdom (prajñā) on the bodhisattva path. This realization cuts through ignorance, which habitually reifies self and world, and in doing so it loosens the grip of attachment and aversion. Far from undermining compassion, it actually supports boundless, non-dualistic compassion by eroding the hard boundary between self and others. When beings are seen as empty of fixed nature, compassionate activity can be flexible, fearless, and free from egoistic clinging. In this way, insight into emptiness and the cultivation of compassion are inseparable dimensions of the Mahāyāna path.