SUNYATA

in Buddhist philosophy, the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality; sunyata is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise. Although the concept is encountered occasionally in early Pali texts, its full implications were developed by the 2nd-century Indian philosopher Nagarjuna. The school of philosophy founded by him, the Madhyamika (Middle Way), is sometimes called the Sunyavada, or Doctrine That All Is Void. The term sunyata may also be used as a recognition of anatta, or the absence of any self apart from the five skandhas (mental and physical elements of existence).