Specifics of the concept of reality in the Tibetan-Mongolian Mahayana
Authors:   Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Urbanaeva Irina S. 
Published: December 2024

The article analyzes the ontological meaning of emptiness (śūnyatā) and its connection with dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) in Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka. In his main philosophical treatise Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK), Nagarjuna (150–250) argues that the ultimate meaning of Buddha’s Teachings is expressed in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras – in the doctrine of emptiness from the self-existence (svabhava) of all objects. This teaching of absolute meaning is explained in MMK in a laconic, paradoxical and overwhelming form. The negative pathos of MMK gives rise to many discussions and interpretations. Particularly common are nihilistic interpretations of MMK. Researchers also find it very difficult to understand the connection between “emptiness” and “dependent arising”. The author, relying on Tibetan texts (Mahayana sutras, MMK, commentaries on MMK written by Prāsaṅgika (a sub-school of the Madhyamika philosophical school) philosophers – Buddhapalita (c. 470–540), Chandrakirti (b. a. 600 AD) and the great Tibetan scholar and yogi Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), et al., through ontological analysis establishes the specifics of the understanding of reality by Nagarjuna. Madhyamaka is not a project of fundamental ontology (metaphysical theory of being). Ontology in Madhyamaka pursues a soteriological goal. It denies the existence of a true (substantial) reality. Madhyamaka is characterized by the following: (1) Emptiness is justified from self-existence, or self-emptiness, the absence of self-existent nature = self = essence in objects. Self-emptiness is recognized as their suchness – the absolute truth, and its direct comprehension serves as a way of radical exit from samsara. (2) The concepts and conventions of the world, including the doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda, serve as clever tricks for gradually teaching emptiness. Dharma as a Path to liberation is explained based on two truths. The emptiness of self-existence, as an absolute truth, is consistently combined in the process of learning (the Path) with relative truth = dependent origination. (3) The mind, afflicted with kleshas (kleśa), clings to mental fabrications (constructs) as reality. “True reality” or “self-existence” is identified as the object of negation and is eliminated in the process of directly realizing emptiness. In the Tibetan-Mongolian Mahayana concept of reality, which is based on Madhyamaka, absolute truth (self-emptiness) and relative truth (dependent origination) are not two realities or realms, but are two ontological reversals of each object: these are two ontological perspectives. They form a specific unity, but each performs its own soteriological function: emptiness is a perspective in which innate and acquired clinging to self, essence, etc. is eliminated. Dependent origination is a perspective in which things exist not substantially, but nominally. Their unity explains the possibility of action (karma), liberation, enlightenment without the influence of harmful distorting factors of perception. Both nihilistic and relativistic interpretations of the Madhyamaka concept of reality are erroneous.