ŚŪNYAM AND ŚŪNYATᾹ. "Empty," "open," "devoid," "nothing," and "nonexistent" are words used to translate the term śūnyam. "Emptiness," "openness," "nothingness," "nonsubstantiality," "relativity," and "the inexhaustible" have been used to translate śūnyatā. These two terms, of major importance in Buddhism, have been used to express a philosophical idea, a focus of meditation, a religious attitude, and a manner of ethical action. "Emptiness" may thus indicate deprivation (or self-substantiated reality in conventional experience), a complex implicit interrelatedness of all existing things, or blissful perfect freedom (from anxiety, anger, and pain). As general religious terms, śūnyam and śūnyatā are used in an attempt to indicate and incite an awareness of "the way things really are" (yathābhūtam). The complexity of the concept expressed as "emptiness" derives from the...