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Conception of reality in Mahāyāna Buddhism
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Nagarjuna defines Reality as 'that which can only be directly realised, that which is quiescent, inexpressible, that which is non-discursive and non-dual.19 For him, Reality is indescribable, non-determinate thus it is Sunya. When he says that reality is Sünya. his idea is not different from that of Asvaghosa. Reality is Sunya in the sense of non-describability, free from all empirical predicates. The word Sunya is understood in two senses in Nagarjuna's system. Firstly, it is Sunya from the point of view of phenomena. It means Srabhāvaśünya, i.e. devoid of independent substa. ntial reality of its own. Secondly, from the absolute point of view, it means Frapancaśunya i.e. devoid of verbalization, thought construction and plurality. It is indescribable in human language. It is transcendent to thought. It does not mean absolute blank. Nagarjuna makes it very clear by saying that it cannot be called void or not void, or both or neither, but in order to indicate it, it is called void.13 His stand is more negative than that of Agvaghosa. He emphasizes the transcendental aspect of the Absolute. His dialectical approach does not allow him to identify this Absolute with even pure consciousness.
Nagarjuna, while speaking about the relation between Absolute Reality and phenomenal world, says that the universe viewed as a whole is the Absolute, viewed as a process, it is the phenomenal world. In other words, the same thing when it is viewed through the glasses of causality is phenomenal world and when causality is discarded it is the Absolute or Nirvana. 14 Really there is no difference between Phenomena (Samsara) and Noumena (Nirvana;.15 He criticises Hinayänist's conception of Nirvana (liberation) which can be attained only by realising pudgalaniratmaya (soullessness). He says that Nirvana is not merely extinction of miseries but, it is the extinction of all conceptions of our productive imagination. It is beyond all categories of thought, it cannot be defined. Nirvana is giving up all views, stand points and predicaments. 10 For Nagarjuna there are two levels from which truth may be envisaged-the paramartha ard samvrti, the absolute and relative, the transcendental and the empirical. He says that the teachings of Buddha are based on two 12. Aparapratyayam Santam prapañcairprapancitam.
Nirvikalpamanānārtham etat tattvasya lakṣaṇam.--M.K.-XXII-11.
13. Śūnyamiti na vaktavyam aśūnyamiti va bhavet.
Ubhayam no' bhayam ceti prajñaptyartham tu kathyate.--M.K.-XXII-II.
14. Ya ajava n javibhāva upādāya pratītya vā,
So pratityänupādāya nirvāṇamupadeśyate.-M.K. XXV-9.
15. Na şamsarasya nirvaṇādasti kiñcidviseṣaṇam,
Na nirvanasya samsäradasti kiñcidviseṣaṇam.-M. K. XXII-19.
16. Muktistu sunyatadṛṣṭeḥ tadarthaseṣabhāvanā,
T-14
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