The Buddhist Mahāyāna school of Madhyamaka considers all differences to be produced by ignorance, which obscures the saṃsāric consciousness. Ascribing the status of reality to these differences is an epistemological obstacle (jñeya-āvaraṇa) or a complex of persistent structures in unenlightened consciousness conditioned by an uncritical understanding of words, concepts, and conceptual constructions, correlating with extra-linguistic reality. However, in fact, the meanings of words and truth or falsity of propositions are purely conventional. The concept of sensation is based on a distinction between subject, object, and sense organ, the conjunction (saṃsarga) of which causes sensation. If all differences were empty (śūnya), having no referents in reality, would sensations be possible? According to the Madhyamaka teaching, at the level of relative truth (saṃvṛtti-satya), they are really possible – but they provide a perception of saṃsāra only as the totality of the fruits of living beings’ karmic actions. At this level, sensation is only “enjoying” the karmic consequences of one’s past actions, but not the knowledge of reality. At the level of absolute truth (paramārtha-satya), sensation is impossible because there is no distinction between the subject and the object. Seeing the emptiness of difference opens the way to the transformation of consciousness, leading to comprehension of true reality – that is, enlightenment and nirvāṇa.
Key words: religious and philosophical systems of ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit written monuments, Buddhism, Madhyamaka, Prāsaṅgika, Nāgārjuna, Candrakīrti, epistemology, theory of sensation, dialectics of the one and the other
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662-2025-4-69-79
About the author
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Sergei L. Burmistrov – D.Sc. (Philosophy), Leading Researcher at the Section of South Asian Studies of the Department of Central and South Asian Studies, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS; 18A Dvortsovaya Emb., St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |