Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism was one of the earliest schools of Buddhism to develop after the death of the Buddha, along with Theravada Buddhism. One of the leaders in this new movement was Nagarjuna, who lived between the first and second centuries and who founded what is known as the Madhyamaka philosophy, or the philosophy of the Middle Way. The Mahayana was divided into two schools as well, and the Madhyamaka was one of these philosophical traditions.

Nagarjuna was a monk who was likely associated with one of the four ordination lineages of the Mahsurpghika, Theravada, Sarvastivada, or Sammatiya, though which was his is not known. His philosophical tradition was a way of viewing the world and "would have crossed the boundaries of the various ordination lineages of the Sangha" (Gethin, 238). Some have seen the doctrines of Nagarjuna as subverting the original teachings of the Buddha, but this is not so.

Instead, the Madhyamaka attempts to analyze the concept of dharma and to show that a dharma can have no independent existence of its own, and he did this by introducing the concept of Sunyata, or emptiness. Nagarjuna stated that a dharma "certainly cannot be defined as that which possesses its own inherent existence" (Gethin, 242). In so dong, Nagarjuna was following Buddhist principles, finding that "such ultimate divisions of analysis are always arbitrary and cannot be taken as referring to ultimate realities in themselves" (Gethin, 242).

Nagarjuna is therefore not denying the value of the Abhidharma vision of the world, only finding that it is conventional and "taught for the purpose of the abandoning of greed, hatred, and delusion" (Gethin, 242). For the Mahayana Buddhist, the ideal is that of the Boddhisattva, or Being of Enlightenment, an individual who defers his own final deliverance from the world in order to save other people. This differs from those with the self-centered desire for personal salvation and instead leads to the idea of the salvation of every living thing.

This ideal is seen in the Buddha himself. The Boddhisattva concept implies that merit can be transferred from one person to another, though this is opposed to the old conception of karma. In the Middle Way, there is a vision of the entire world as a grand system where all specific entities are inter-related, and where also it is possible to be aware of being on one's ultimate nature not divided from the Undivided. This is what was described in the First Sermon.

The First Sermon discusses avoiding the two extremes and states that he who manages thus has won the Truth and that the Buddha has gained the Middle Path which gives vision, knowledge, calm, insight, enlightenment, and Nibbana. In Nagarjuna's teachings, the idea of emptiness as he describes it follows the Buddha's teachings concerning finding a Middle Way between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism, which is one reason why dharmas cannot ultimately exist in themselves.

If it is assumed that they do, then those so claiming "must either fall into the trap of eternalism by denying the possibility of real change" or "fall into the trap of annihilationism since, in changing, what existed has gone out of existence" (Gethin, 238). Thus, says Nagarjuna, the Buddha's teaching must be that "everything is empty of its own inherent existence" (Gethin, 239). Central in Nagarjuna's approach is his idea of the two truths, ultimate truth (pararnathasatya) and conventional truth (sarnvrtisatya).

While Nagarjuna only mentioned this idea in passing, "it is central to his whole enterprise and to the Buddhist attempt at enlightening beings" (Strong, 146). Conventional truths are expressed in conventional language and are necessary to teach about the ultimate and about emptiness. This latter is the final important Mahayana concept, the emptiness of inherent existence, or the absence of any kind of enduring or self-sustaining essence. Another way of viewing the two truths is that relative or conventional truth is empirical truth, or truth as experienced by the senses.

Ultimate truth, however, is Sunyata, or emptiness, which can only be realized in terms of transcending concepts through intuitive insight. All the phenomenon of this world have a relative rather than an absolute existence, and all the things of this world are thus only part of a single, underlying flux which is always in the state of becoming. Nagarjuna's analysis of Nirvana also follows Buddha and makes specific reference to the teachings of the Buddha to do so.

The discussion of emptiness as a precondition follows Buddha: The Buddha said that both existence and freedom from existence are abandoned. Therefore it is fitting to say that nirvana is not a thing and.