In the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva presents emptiness (śūnyatā) as the absence of inherent, independent existence in both persons and phenomena. What is ordinarily taken to be a solid “I” is shown to be nothing more than a convenient designation for a shifting collection of physical and mental aggregates, without any permanent, controlling essence. This analysis is then extended to all dharmas: external objects, internal experiences, and mental states are revealed as dependently arisen, contingent upon causes, conditions, parts, and conceptual imputation. Because they arise in dependence, they cannot exist from their own side with fixed, self-established natures; their mode of being is likened to illusions, dreams, or mirages. Emptiness, in this sense, is not a denial of appearance, but a denial of any underlying, unchanging core.

Śāntideva’s explanation unfolds within the framework of the two truths. On the conventional level, everyday distinctions—self and other, agent and action, virtue and non-virtue—are accepted as functionally valid and indispensable for ethical responsibility and bodhisattva practice. On the ultimate level, however, careful analysis fails to uncover any phenomenon that exists independently or with an immutable essence. These two levels are not in conflict: conventional reality operates as a field for compassionate activity, while ultimate truth reveals that all such activity is empty of inherent existence. Emptiness and dependent origination thus stand together; if things truly possessed fixed natures, they could neither arise from conditions nor change.

For Śāntideva, the realization of emptiness serves a profoundly practical purpose. Grasping at an inherently existent self and world gives rise to attachment, aversion, pride, and the full range of afflictive emotions that sustain suffering. When emptiness is understood, the rigid boundary between self and others loosens, undermining the very basis of these afflictions and allowing compassion to expand without partiality. This insight is carefully distinguished from nihilism: phenomena are not dismissed as sheer nonexistence, but are seen as conventionally real while empty of any independent essence. Reasoned analysis prepares the ground, yet the culmination of this path is a non-conceptual wisdom in which dualistic grasping subsides and compassionate activity is naturally sustained within the play of dependently arisen appearances.