Within Vajrayāna, emptiness (śūnyatā) functions as the ground and framework of tantric meditation rather than as a merely abstract doctrine. Meditative sessions commonly begin by dissolving the ordinary sense of self, world, and experience into emptiness, often likened to a dream or illusion. From this basis, all subsequent practices—visualization, mantra, subtle-body work—are held within the understanding that they lack inherent, independent existence. This orientation prevents the practitioner from reifying the sacred forms that are about to be generated, even as those forms are engaged with great intensity and precision.

A central expression of this is deity yoga in the generation stage, where the meditator arises from emptiness as a deity and inhabits a mandala environment. The deity’s form is cultivated as vivid and detailed, yet regarded as insubstantial, like a rainbow: a powerful appearance that is nevertheless empty of solid essence. This gives rise to the experiential sense of “appearance–emptiness,” in which relative appearance and ultimate emptiness are held together without conflict. The same logic applies to the mandala as a symbolic universe and to mantra recitation, where sound is experienced as potent yet echo-like and empty. In this way, body, speech, and mind are all engaged as expressions of emptiness rather than as fixed realities.

Completion-stage practices deepen this integration by directing attention to the empty, luminous nature of mind itself. Techniques that work with subtle energies and meditative absorption are framed as ways of revealing the clear light mind, understood as the subtlest awareness that is empty of self-nature while still cognizant. Blissful states, visionary experiences, and altered perceptions are treated as displays of mind’s emptiness, not as ultimate attainments to be grasped. Advanced approaches such as Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen articulate this as recognizing the natural state as primordially pure, empty of conceptual elaboration, yet luminously aware.

Throughout these practices, the union of bliss and emptiness is especially emphasized. Intense meditative bliss is not an end in itself but a powerful support for realizing that even the most exquisite experience is ungraspable and without inherent existence. By seeing bliss as inseparable from emptiness, strong attachment is transformed into wisdom rather than reinforcing craving. Tantric sessions are often sealed by dissolving the deity, mandala, and environment back into emptiness, reinforcing the insight that all appearances, including sacred ones, arise from and return to the same empty nature. In this way, tantric methods do not depart from the Mahāyāna view but enact it, training perception so that every appearance is recognized as a dynamic play of appearance and emptiness.