What is emptiness?  In the second chapter of his lengthy missive, the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, speaking for Yahweh, ancient Israel's God, asks the nation, "Why do you walk after emptiness and become empty?"  It is a good question, really, a question all of us should ask ourselves regularly.  But we can only answer it if we decide what emptiness, for us, is.
     For a Buddhist, emptiness is positive, a state to which one aspires, as it represents one's success in shedding the temptations of impermanence to enter an untroubled eternal destiny.  For almost every other religion, emptiness or, put another way, nothingness, is essential to finding real meaning.  As we let go of what we have, as we relinquish what we know to embrace what we do not, we find what really matters.  We empty ourselves so as to be filled.
     Outside of religion, however, most of us would agree that, if we wish to live meaningful lives, we will devote ourselves to pursuing things of importance, things that last, things that do not take us into unnecessary or undesirable places, things that do not bring us into emptiness.  Although we will not all agree on what is most important, we will probably agree on what is not, except for, perhaps, things having to do with religion.
     Therein lies the problem.  For the religious, that which is important is a function of what has been received, believed to be, and internally considered and processed as divine communication, whereas for the non-religious, it is solely a product of individual meditation or social consensus.  On the other hand, there are things, be they qualities of character or standards of conduct, which both sides agree are important, and it is these on which we can proceed.
     Yet there is a deeper question still.  If we are talking about emptiness, we are in fact affirming that we have meaning, that we have purpose.  Emptiness means nothing unless there is a fullness from which it begins.  So it seems that if we are not to, as Jeremiah urges, pursue emptiness and become empty, we should live in a way that recognizes that we and life have, in and of themselves, value.
     But if we are to be credible, we must also recognize that this value can only be value if absolute value in fact exists.  Otherwise, we have no honest way to claim that value exists at all.  Everything really would be emptiness, the emptiness of a world in which emptiness is all that can be.  And even then, fullness and value, must prevail.
     It's difficult to live without transcendence.