Executive Briefing: The Middle Way Between Nihilism and Eternalism
Nagarjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way) demonstrated through rigorous dialectical deconstruction that emptiness (*Śūnyatā*) is not nothingness, but the absence of inherent, autonomous essence (*Svabhāva*).
1. The Two Truths Doctrine: Conventional vs. Ultimate
Conventional truth (*Samvriti-satya*) allows for everyday linguistic concepts, ethics, and physics; Ultimate truth (*Paramārtha-satya*) recognizes that all conceptual designations are empty constructs.
2. References
- Garfield, J. L. (1995). The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika. Oxford University Press.