How did Ācārya Nāgārjuna’s emptiness (śūnyatā) doctrine challenge ancient Buddhist philosophical schools? Dr. Sanjoy Barua Chowdhury

Ācārya Nāgārjuna (150–250 CE) is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers in the history of Buddhist scholasticism. The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is Nāgārjuna’s best-known work. The Madhyamaka, as a systematic philosophical tenet among the four great Buddhist philosophical schools—Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, Vijñāṇavāda, and Madhyamaka—arose in the second century C.E. with the leadership of Ācārya Nāgārjuna.

Despite Madhyamaka School having a continuous history of development, it was established through the subtle doctrinal exposition of emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā) that Ācārya Nāgārjuna marvelously presented. The notion of emptiness, however, has greatly played an important role in the development of Madhyamaka School. During his lifetime, Nāgārjuna greatly expanded the doctrine of emptiness. At first, Nāgārjuna’s main goal was to promote the emptiness doctrine to start the Madhyamaka School by rejecting the Ābhidharmika interpretation, also known as dharma theory. Subsequently, Nāgārjuna started to preach emptiness doctrine by removing traditional dogmatic belief by using its skillful method (Skt. upāya kauśalya) to establish the Buddha’s secret teachings. For instance, Nāgārjuna states that śūnyata is the remover of all types of views [wrong views]. Hence, Venerable Nāgārjuna addresses, “śūnyatā is thought to eliminate all views”.

Moreover, Nāgārjuna introduced his fellows to the Madhyamaka as the doctrine of ‘Middle-Way’ (madhyamā-pratipad). Literally, Madhyamaka means ‘one who holes to the middle’. Nāgārjuna in his remarkable Mūlamadhyamakakārikā text, clearly states that the doctrine of Śūnyatā itself depends upon and follows the middle way position. Therefore, Nāgārjuna says, “Whatever is dependent arising, that is emptiness, that is dependent upon convention, and that itself is the middle way.” This stanza reveals that the four key terms śūnyatā (emptiness), pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination), upādāya prajñapti (designation or derived name), and madhyamā-pratipad (Middle Path) are expressly declared as synonyms. Among the four key terms, the concept of emptiness is the foremost, which deals with the rest of the three terms in ascribing the philosophy of the middle way (Madhyamaka School). 

Eminent Nāgārjuna’s encounter with ancient Buddhist hermeneutics who were dealing with Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, and Vijñāṇavāda Buddhist Schools by applying the metaphoric term emptiness (śūnyatā), along with depicting the evolution of emptiness (śūnyatā) doctrine. Nāgārjuna did not accept any dogmatic concepts conceptually; he explained logically and demonstrated to the people not to grasp in attachment as the Buddha advises. The śūnyatā (emptiness) doctrine of Nāgārjuna is the teaching of the Buddha as a par excellence. The early Buddhist teaching describes the notion of ‘emptiness’ (śūnyatā) from threefold perspectives, namely, treating it (śūnyatā) as a meditative dwelling, as an attribute of objects, and as a type of heedfulness-release, whereas Madhyamaka and Yogācāra Schools used the concept of emptiness as a skillful means for understanding doctrinal expositions, such as the dependent nature (parikalpita svabhāva) among the three natures’ (trisvabhāva), ascribing the middle way (madhyamā-pratipad), using it as a remover of all wrong views.

Based on the above considerations, one can conclude that the doctrine of emptiness, like a lamp, could be used as an object to understand the central Buddhist teaching of dependent origination along with the Buddha’s doctrinal diversity.

For more information, please see Chowdhury, Sanjoy Barua. 2019. “Nāgārjuna’s Challenge to Ancient Buddhist Hermeneutics: An Inquiry into Evolving Emptiness (śūnyatā) Doctrine in Buddhism”. ASEAN Journal of Religious and Cultural Research 1 (3):1–5.