4.1. The Mādhyamika and the Yogācāra School (Introduction)

Nāgārjuna is known to be first systematic founder of Mādhyamika School who was born in Brahmin family in South India about the second century A.D.^[1] His famous work is Mādhyamika-śāstra where he states the philosophy of the Mādhyamika school with great dialectical skill.^[2] His main contribution is his dialectical method. Ashvaghoṣa, the author of Buddhacarita, is also regarded as a pioneer.

Mādhyamika School is called Mādhyamika because they are followers of the middle path which was also followed by the Buddha at the time of his enlightenment. This middle way ignores the errors of existence and non-existence, affirmation and negation and so on. Mādhyamika is a Sanskrit word which means “middle way”. This school is also known as Śunyavāda. Many non-Buddhist scholars wrongly viewed the meaning of the word “śūnya” and also ignored its real logical meaning thus showed that Śūnyavāda as a scepticism or nihilism. But according to Mādhyamika, the word śūnya does not mean a “nothing” or an “empty void”. Etymologically the word “śūnya” is derived from the word “Svi” which means “to expand”. Ontologically, śūnya is the void which is also fullness because it has nothing in particular but it has possibility of everything. According to Nāgārjuna, śūnyatā is experience that cannot be shared with one by another. One has to experience by himself. It is not affected by Empirical mind. It cannot be expressed in words. It is non-dual which means one.

In the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra (sagāthaka, 167) it is mentioned that the real nature of object cannot be realized by the mind and cannot, therefore, be described. A real thing must be independent and should not rely on anything else for its existence and origination. But everything we know of is dependent on some condition. Thus, it cannot be real. Also, it cannot be said to be unreal because an unreal thing, like a square circle, can never come into existence. To say that it is both real and unreal or that it is neither real nor unreal, would be unintelligible.^[3] Śūnyatā or voidness is the name for this indescribable real nature of things. Things appear to exist, but when we try to understand the real nature of their existence, our intellect is baffled. It cannot be called either real or unreal, or both real and unreal, or neither real nor unreal.