mention of the gender neuter Brahman concept. Buddhism denies both Brahman and Atman concepts in ancient Hindu literature, and posits Śūnyatā (emptiness, voidness) and Anatta (non-Self, no soul) concept instead. The word Brahma is normally used in Buddhist sutras to mean "best", or "supreme". Brahman in the texts of Advaita Vedanta and many other Hindu schools, states Nakamura, is a concrete universal, manifesting itself as phenomenal reality which is not illusory and nondual. In the earliest Upanishad, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Absolute, which came to be referred to as Brahman, is referred to as "the imperishable". The Pāli scriptures present a "pernicious view" that is set up as an absolute principle corresponding to Brahman: "O Bhikkhus! At that time Baka, the Brahmā, produced the following pernicious view: 'It is permanent. It is eternal. It is always existent. It is independent existence. It has the dharma of non-perishing. Truly it is not born, does not become old, does not die, does not disappear, and is not born again. Furthermore, no liberation superior to it exists elsewhere." The principle expounded here corresponds to the concept of Brahman laid out in the Upanishads. According to this text the Buddha criticized this notion: "Truly the Baka Brahmā is covered with unwisdom." The Buddha confined himself to both ordinary empirical sense experience and extrasensory perception enabled by high degrees of mental concentration. The Upanishadic scholars, according to Francis X Clooney and other scholars, assert their insights as a combination of intuitive empiricism, experimentalism, and inspired creative perception. See also Brahma Brahma from Mirpur-Khas Mahabrahma Phra Phrom Notes Buddhist cosmology Buddhist gods Twenty-Four Protective Deities