Nagarjuna's Twelve Gate Treatise

MADHYAMIKA The hallmark of Miidhyamika philosophy is 'Emptiness', sunyata. This is not a view of reality. In fact it is emphatically denied that sunyata is a view of reality. If anybody falls into such an error as to construe emptiness as reality (or as a view, even the right view, of reality), he is only grasping the snake at the wrong end (Mk, 24. 1 I)! Nftgfujuna in Mk, 24. 18, has referred to at least four ways by which the same truth is conveyed: Whatever is dependent origination, we call it emptiness. That is (also) dependent conceptualization; that is, to be sure, the Middle Way. The two terms, pratitya samutpiida and upiidiiya prajnapti, which I have translated here- as 'dependent origination' and 'dependent conceptualization' need to be explained. The interdependence of everything (and under 'everything' we may include, following the Mftdhyamika, all items, ontological concepts, entities, theories, views, theses and even relative truths), i. e. , the essential lack of independence of the origin (cf. utpiida) of everything proves or shows that everything is essentially devoid of its assumed essence or its independent 'own nature' or its 'self-existence' (cf. svabhiiva). Besides, our cognition of anything lacks independence in the same way. Our conception (cf. prajnapti) of something a essentially depends upon something b, and so on for everything ad infinitum.

1. Nagarjuna and the Spread of His Teachings. - 1. Nagarjuna and the Spread of His Teachings. - 2. San-lun Approaches to Emptiness. - 2. San-lun Approaches to Emptiness. - 3. The Nature and Value of the Text. - 3. The Nature and Value of the Text. - Notes. - N? g? rjuna s Twelve Gate Treatise. - Table of Contents [Seng-jui]. - Preface [Seng-jui]. - I. Causal Conditions. - II. With or Without Effect. - III. Conditions. - IV. Characteristics. - V. With or Without Characteristics. - VI. Identity or Difference. - VII. Being or Non-being. - VIII. Nature. - IX. Cause and Effect. - X. The Creator. - XI. The Three Times. - XII. Production. - Notes. - List of Chinese Terms. - Selected Bibliography. - Index of Names. - Index of Subjects.