Let me tell you a story to help illustrate the concept of "Sunyata" or emptiness as it is understood in Buddhism: In this story, a Zen Master meets with a student who has come to learn about Zen. While they are talking, the Master offers the student some tea. They continue chatting, as the Master begins pouring the tea. He keeps pouring and pouring, until the teacup is full and begins overflowing. Distracted, the student interrupts the Master to point out that the cup is full. "Master," he says, "The cup is overflowing. No more will go in." The Master gently replies to him, "Like this cup, you are full of your own judgments and habits and opinions. In order for me to show you Zen, you must first empty your cup, empty your mind and create space for new ideas and possibilities." In this story, the student is told that his mind needs to be "empty", but the Master doesn't mean "empty" as simply lacking any content but rather full of the potential to learn and understand.
This state of emptiness is very different from the vacuum that the word often brings to mind. It's vibrant, alert, and fully conscious. In this state, there can be thoughts, but no thinker. There can be words, but no speaker. There is no separate and individual entity in Sunyata.