Empty (sunyata) means "empty of inherent existence" (空无自性). You
are not the 1st one who thinks "empty " leads to
misunderstanding:
『大智度論』說：「畢竟空即是畢竟清淨，以人畏空，故 言清淨」（大正二五‧五０八下）。
何期自性本自清淨 - Hui Neng,
If you ask the Mahyamaka people, they will interpret above as
何期自性本空
Must be careful how we understand 何期自性本自清淨
To understand it as 何期自性本空 is the correct way of
understanding.
But many people will misunderstand '清淨' as meaning there is no
thoughts, no impurities, no defilements, no phenomena. Our true
nature is thoughtless, formless, free of all shapes and colours and
impurities.
When this happens we treat our true nature as a void entity, It
becomes an eternal, absolute substance 'behind' and contains all
phenomena, forever pure, forever untouched by phenomena. This is
dualistic and again is seeing 'buddha-nature' as an inherent
essence. It becomes misunderstood as a pure formless observing
principle, the Witness that simply observes but is unaffected by
form.
When this is
done, it prevents us from experiencing the color, texture, fabric
and manifesting nature of awareness. Suddenly thoughts are being
grouped into another category and disowned. In actual case,
thoughts think and sound hears. The observer has always been the
observed. No watcher needed, the
process itself knows and rolls as Venerable Buddhaghosa writes in
the Visuddhi Magga. There is no 'impurity' and 'purity'
ultimately.
To truly understand 自性本自清淨 is to understand it as Heart Sutra's
不淨不垢. It is not something apart from all phenomena -- all
phenomena, all thoughts, all defilements are themselves empty. Form
is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form.