The Madhyamika (Śūnyavāda) School

 

The Madhyamika School

Mahayana Buddhism is divided into two systems of thought: the Madhyamika and the Yogacara. The Madhyamikas were so called on account of the emphasis they laid on madhyama-pratipat (the middle view). In his first sermon at Banaras, the Buddha preached the Middle Path, which is neither self-mortification nor a life devoted to the pleasures of the senses. However, the middle path, as advocated by the adherents of the Madhyamika system, is not quite the same. Here, the middle path stands for the non-acceptance of the two views concerning existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity, self and non-self, and so on. In short, it advocates neither the theory of reality nor that of the unreality of the world, but merely of relativity. It is, however, to be noted that the middle path propounded at Banaras has an ethical meaning, while that of the Madhyamikas is a metaphysical concept.

The Madhyamika School is said to have originated with the teacher, Nagarjuna or Arya Nagarjuna (2nd century CE). He was followed by a galaxy of Madhyamika thinkers, such as Aryadeva (3rd century CE), Buddhapalita (5th century CE), Bhavaviveka (5th century CE), Candraklrti (6th century CE) and Santideva (7th century CE). Nagarjuna wrote a number of works of which the Madhyamika-karika is regarded as his masterpiece. It presents in a systematic manner the philosophy of the Madhyamika School. It teaches that sunyata (the indescribable absolute) is the absolute. There is no difference between samsara (phenomenal world) and nirvana or sunyata (reality). Sunyata or the absolute corresponds to the nirguna Brahman of the Upanisads. In the invocation in verse at the beginning of the work, Nagarjuna gives the fundamentals of his philosophy in a nutshell. He describes Pratitya-samutpada (Dependent Origination) by means of eight negatives. ‘There is neither origination nor cessation, neither permanence nor impermanence, neither unity nor diversity, neither coming-in nor going-out, in the law of Pratitya-samutpada. Essentially, there is only non-origination which is equated with sunyata. Elsewhere he also states that Pratitya-samutpada is called sunyata. Hence sunyata, referring as it does to non-origination, is in reality the middle path which avoids the two basic views of existence and non-existence. Sunyata is the relative existence of things, or a kind of relativity. Prof. Radhakrishnan writes:' ‘By sunyata. therefore, the Madhyamika does not mean absolute non-being, but relative being.’ The Madhyamika view holds Sunyata to be the central idea of its philosophy and is therefore designated the sunyavada. The Madhyamika-karika further deals with two kinds of truths: samvrti (conventional or empirical truth) and paramartha (higher or transcendental truth). The former refers to ignorance or delusion which envelops reality and gives a false impression, while the latter is the realization that worldly things are non-existent like an illusion or an echo. Paramiirtha- satya (transcendental truth) cannot be attained without resorting to samvrti-satya (conventional truth). Samvrti- satya (conventional truth) is only a means, while paramartha- satya (transcendental truth) is the end. Thus, viewed from the relative standpoint (samvrti). Pratitya-samutpada explains worldly phenomena, but looked at from the absolute standpoint (paramartha), it means non-origination at all times and is equated with nirvana or sunyata. Towards the beginning of the 5th century CE, the Madhyamika was divided into two schools of thought: the Prasarigika school and the Svatantra school. The Prasarigika school uses the method of reductio ad absurdum to establish its theses, while the Svatantra school employs independent reasoning. The former was founded by Buddhapalita and the latter by Bhavaviveka. A study of the Madhyamika works reveals that dialectic is the core of Madhyamika philosophy. It may be mentioned that the T’ien-t'ai and San-lun sects of China advocated the doctrine of sunyata and were thus a continuation of the Indian Madhyamika system. The Sanron sect in Japan also followed this system.