Toh 3824Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way called “Wisdom”

Explanation of the Prajnaparamita Collection: The Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way

Context

Prajñāpāramitā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā, in the Northern Mahayana tradition, is the most profound philosophical work of the Buddha-Dharma, regarded as having arisen in dependence upon the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Buddha-land sharing transcendent wisdom with the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. This work was composed by the Indian monk Nagarjuna in the second century, in order to explain correctly Buddha Shakyamuni’s intention concerning the principle of emptiness (śūnyatā), not as some vague absence of nature, but as the actual condition of existent phenomena.

In the context of the Northern Canon, especially the Kham tradition (Mad'yamika-Prāsaṅgika), this work is regarded as a scripture that cures all sentient beings’ misunderstandings about fixed intrinsic nature, and as the foundation for bodhisattvas to cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path within the context of emptiness.

Main Content

The Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way affirms that the myriad dharmas have no independent intrinsic nature. Nagarjuna does not annihilate worldly phenomena or the Buddha-land, but demonstrates that everything we perceive arises dependently (pratītyasamutpāda), and never exists as something apart from its conditions.

The scripture argues that dharmas cannot be eternal and also cannot be provisional; they cannot be both, and they cannot be neither. These four positions (the fourfold thesis) are like doors into the understanding that every concept is a relative concept. Emptiness here is not nonexistence, but freedom from the extremes of absolute existence or absolute nonexistence.

The theoretical foundation of the Fundamental Treatise is the means of practice, including cause and effect, the Four Noble Truths, and the three refuges in the Three Jewels. None of these is denied. Instead, they are understood as valid relative appearances within the sphere of conventional habituation (samvṛti-satya), but without independent essence when deeply examined (paramārtha-satya).