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THE BUDDHIST DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION
173 absolutely it means Reality (tattva) which is release from plurality (nirvāṇa)."44
The word Emptiness does not mean void but it means devoid of self or of anything belonging to self (attanīya).45 In conventional usage the very word śünya (empty) shows that which is beyond the power of human expression and this term is meant for absolute Truth. For instance it is stated in the Madhyamaksāstra : "How would that be produced which is empty? How would that be destroyed which is empty ? It logically follows then, that which is empty is not originated and not destroyed."46
Nirvāņa for Nāgārjuna, is without any designation. It is only in conventional or relative terms that one may say something about it but in the ultimate sense, nirvāṇa has been said to be neither eliminated nor attained, neither annihilated nor eternal. Neither disappeared nor originated.
Nāgārjuna holds that there is no difference between nirvāṇa and samsāra from the absolute point of view, since both are empty (śünya). The difference lies only in conventional norms of Truth. The same thing when it is viewed through the glasses of casuality is samsāra, and when casuality is abstracted it is nirvāna. "The universe viewed as a whole, is the Absolute, viewed as a process, it is phenomenal world,"47
For E. Conze, the term Emptiness has its true connotations in the process of liberation. It is purely soteriological term. He further states:
"As a practical term 'emptiness' means the complete denial or negation of this world by the exercise of wisdom, leading to complete emancipation from it. Meditation on "emptiness' serves the purpose of helping us to get rid of this world by removing the ignorance which binds us to it."48
The 'emptiness' which denies any absolute, self-sufficient being, also establishes existence (that is, existence empty of any self-existent reality) through dependent co-origination, emptiness is neither an absolute monism nor nihilism."
44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.
C.D, Sharma, A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, p. 86. E. Conze- Bu tuhist Thought in India, p. 59, Visuddhimagga, XXII, 7-10. Frederick J. Streng, op.cit., p. 72, Madhyamakaśastra, XX. 11. Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana, p. 48, E. Conze, op.cit., p. 61Frederick Streng, op.cit, p. 80.
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