Within the Madhyamaka tradition, emptiness (śūnyatā) is not a peripheral idea but the very heart of its vision of reality. Madhyamaka maintains that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence or self-nature (svabhāva); nothing possesses an independent, unchanging essence. This emptiness is not a nihilistic void, but the absence of any fixed, self-sufficient core in things. Precisely because phenomena lack such inherent nature, they arise only in dependence upon causes, conditions, parts, and conceptual designation. Emptiness thus names the way things exist: relationally, contingently, and without any ultimate, permanent essence.

This insight is articulated through the framework of the two truths. On the level of conventional truth, persons, objects, and events appear and function; ethical action, cause and effect, and everyday distinctions all operate meaningfully. On the level of ultimate truth, those same phenomena, when analyzed, are found to be empty of inherent existence. Emptiness is therefore the ultimate truth about what conventionally appears, not a separate reality standing apart from the world of experience. Even “emptiness” itself is said to be empty of inherent nature, guarding against turning it into a hidden metaphysical substance.

Madhyamaka presents this understanding of emptiness as the “Middle Way.” It avoids the extreme of eternalism, which asserts truly existing, self-sufficient entities, and the extreme of nihilism, which denies any existence or efficacy at all. By showing that things exist dependently yet lack inherent essence, Madhyamaka affirms the functioning of the world without granting it an independent, unchanging core. Emptiness and dependent origination are thus inseparable: whatever is dependently arisen is precisely what is meant by “empty.”

On the path of practice, emptiness becomes both method and insight. Madhyamaka employs rigorous analysis to deconstruct all fixed views, exposing the absence of inherent existence in any position that the mind might cling to. This deconstruction is not mere intellectual exercise; it serves a soteriological purpose. As the grasping at inherent existence loosens, the roots of attachment and aversion are undermined, and the basis of suffering is gradually dissolved. In this way, the realization of emptiness functions as a profound key to liberation, revealing a reality that is fluid, interdependent, and free from the burden of reified concepts.