(adj.), suññatā (noun)
void (ness),
empty (emptiness).
As a doctrinal term it refers, in Theravāda, exclusively to
the anattā doctrine,.i.e. the unsubstantiality of all phenomena:
"Void is the world ... because it is void of a self and anything belonging
to a self" (suññam attena vā attaniyena vā; S. XXXV, 85); also
stated of the 5 groups of existence (khandha, q.v.) in the same text.
See
also M. 43, M. 106. - In CNidd. (quoted in Vis.M. XXI, 55), it is said:
"Eye ... mind, visual objects ... mind-objects, visual consciousness ...
mind-consciousness, materiality ... consciousness, etc., are void of self and
anything belonging to a self; void of permanency and of anything lasting,
eternal or immutable.. They are coreless: without a core of permanency, or core
of happiness or core of self." -
In M. 121, the voiding of the mind of the
fermentations, in the attainment of Arahatship, is regarded as the "fully
purified and incomparably highest (concept of) voidness. -
See Sn.v.1119; M.121; M.122 (WHEEL 87); Pts.M. II: Suñña-kathā; Vis.M. XXI, 53ff.

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