The Tree of Enlightenment

the sutras, and in the approach of the Abhidharma tradition,
where we find the various alternatives isolated and methods of
answering questions elucidated. is should be sufficient to indicate
that the origins and methods of the Madhyamaka philosophy
go far back in the history of Buddhist thought.
As for Nagarjuna’s fundamental message in his philosophical
works, it is important first to realize the object toward which his
criticism is directed – namely, the notion of independent being,
or self-existence (svabhava). e fact that his doctrine has been
termed the doctrine of insubstantiality (nihsvabhavavada, literally,
‘the doctrine that refutes svabhava’) emphasizes Nagarjuna’s
characteristic rejection of the notion of self-existence.
Nagarjuna rejects self-existence by examining relativity, or
interdependent origination, in a critical, dialectic way, beginning
with the idea of self-existence, going on to the idea of relativity
or the absence of self-existence, and terminating with the idea
of emptiness (shunyata). ese three steps – from self-existence
to non-self-existence, and finally to emptiness – are developed
through three types of investigation: (1) the investigation of causality,
(2) the investigation of concepts, and (3) the investigation
of knowledge. rough the investigation of these three classes
of phenomena, Nagarjuna and the Madhyamaka system take us
from the naive, everyday belief in the idea of self-existence, in
the independent reality of phenomena, to an intellectual understanding
of emptiness.
Let us first look at the Madhyamaka critique of causality.
Madhyamaka philosophy arrives at the insubstantiality and relativity
of all phenomena through an examination of interdependent
origination. In this context it is shown that, insofar as all
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