This paper examines the understanding of emptiness through the history of religion, culture and philosophy in the East and the West. First, I introduce the concept of emptiness in Eastern cultures and religions, where it has played an important role since the Mahāyāna texts. I briefly outline some of the more important texts in which emptiness represents the point of complete stillness and the highest level of meditation. This is followed by an outline of the understanding of emptiness in the West by various philosophers. Finally, to make the thesis varied and interesting, I use collage as a method to search for free associative connections to the topic of emptiness in individuals seemed to me to be an excellent choice to explore the understanding of the concept in young and older people.
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