Mūlamadhyamakārikā(MMK.10)中觀論頌:
Examination of Fire and Fuel (Agnīndhana-parīkṣā)

By Paramartha

Introduction

The chapter eleven of the MMK deals with the beginning (pūrvākoṭi) and the end (parakoṭi) of things, phenomena or phenomenal world. Esoteric religions including Buddhism of course reveals that the concept, that every thing or phenomenon must have a commencement and a finishing, is an illusion. This is essentially the ontological commitment to all phenomena or existents. Ontological commitment to phenomenal world is substantial worldview which conflicts with Buddhist doctrine of Insubstantiality (Anattā) or Emptiness (śūnyatā). Substantiality view of ontological commitment is the worldview of intellectual conceptualization directed and empowered by self-centred ego. Ontological commitment is the preconceived, substantial paradigm or vision that every designation, name or appellation has a corresponding real substantial existent. Such linear view of the ontological commitment to existences or phenomena is contrary to the Buddhist fundamental doctrine of dependently co-arisen (paṭicca-samuppanna) unity or non-duality. Unity or Non-duality connotes oneness of the world or cosmos. Buddhism advocates conditionality and rejects substantiality or independent multiplicity. Every phenomenon (dharma) is conditioned by contigent conditions to dependently co-produce necessary becoming. For instance, wellness or longevity is a phenomenon conditioned by contigent conditions of a healthy lifestyle. Perfection of character formation is conditioned by eight contigent conditions of the Noble Eight-fold Path or six contigent conditions of the Six Prajñāpāramitā.

Cyclic Worldview

The Buddhist worldview is cyclic. Being Cyclic, it is has neither the beginning nor the ending. The metaphor of the cycle of chicken-egg illustrates the cyclic truth of evolution perfectly: Is it egg which precedes the chicken or vice versa? This is a linear question and it is irrelevant to Buddhist worldview of Unity or Non-duality. The egg or chicken is both first and the last. It is pertinent to unveil that the God conceived by monotheists according to the Qur’an is both the first (al-awwal) and the last (al-Ākhir). This ontological view of similarity between Buddhism and Islam is significant in the ultimate truth. In the ultimate sense, both the beginning and the end are actually not evident. The linear concept of the evolution of the universe is a cosmic illusion (māyā). The real truth is that the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. The cyclic concept of ontology is the ultimate Truth.

The cyclic concept of non-dual wisdom is profound. Its significance should not be underestimated. Whoever discerns the truth of beginninglessness or the endlessness perceives the Buddha or God. According to Islamic Sufi worldview of Ibn ‘Arabī, God is the first (al-Awwal) and the last (al-Ākhir). God is everything The universe itself is outward manifest of the God. God is eternal as God is beginningless and endless. It is significant to perceive that the Buddhist concept of Ultimate Reality concurs with the definition or attribute of God. Vedānta of Hinduism also endorses the universality of the eternal Truth of neither beginning nor ending which mirrors the ultimate Truth of Unity or Non-duality. Of course, I categorically acknowledge this communal truth of Unity or Non-duality of all esoteric religions without any doubt whatsoever on the basis of personal deep contemplation and discernment.

The phenomenal world is a constant flow of occurrences or events without any permanent self–nature (svabhāva) in its continuity or discontinuity. The beginning point of the flow or the ending point of the flow is not evident or recognizable. It is non-dualistic. Non-dualism or oneness is the ultimate Truth to be discerned by all aspiring Gnostics (jñānis).

Illusory Tri-temporality

For instance, in the physical phenomenon of the cycle of raining, the water evaporates from the ocean, ascends to the atmosphere, condenses, rains, returns to the ocean again. Subsequently, under the heating sun, it evaporates again, condenses, rains, and returns to the ocean again. The cycle is repeated incessantly. Hence, the beginning and the ending points are not identificable. The metaphor evidences that the beginning ( past ) and the ending (future) do not exist, The present is contigent upon the past and the future. When the past instance and future instance do not exist, it follows that the present also does not exist. This confirms that what Śākyamuni Buddha and all other religious sages’ promulgation that all phenomena of the multiplicity of the empirical world is a cosmic illusion. This unveils the Truth that everything is insubstantial or empty of inherent existence. Everything or every being is part of a totality and is never separate from the totality. This is, in truth, a very profound message declared by all esoteric religions.

The chapter eleven on ‘The Examination of the Prior and Posterior Extremities’ of MMK unveils the doctrinal position of Śākyamuni Buddha, Sarvāstivāda School and the School of Sautrāntikas. The ontological views of the last two schools are substantial. Hence, they were vigorously refuted by Nāgārjuna who faithfully and fearlessly defended the Word of the Buddha (Buddhavacana) in his MMK.

Heretical Views

The common belief of the early Hindu philosophers contemporary with Nāgārjuna attributed the origin of the universe to the primodial matter called Prakriti. When God is perceived as permanent substantial personality, every view pertaining to God becomes substantial and metaphysical. Substantial or metaphysical views are not parallel to the eternal Truth of dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. Unity or Non-duality rejects permanent and immutable self-nature (svabhāva) at the conventional or mundane level. In fact, monotheism advocates oneness of the world It categorically rejects or denies the conception of discrete entities. The Monotheists’ doctrine of ‘One in many; many in One’ concurs with Buddhist doctrine of dependently co-arisen unity or non-duality. Vedānta philosophy perfects and fulfills the teaching of early Upaniṣ̣ads. Vedānta of Hinduism and Mahāyāna Buddhism concur on the philosophy of theosophy. Both are compatible to the teaching of Islamic Sufism which advocates the Unity of Being (waḥdāt al-Wūjud).

In actuality, The notion of God as a permanent substance is erroneous if the absolute Essence of God as the knowledge of eternal Truth is properly discerned. Substantiality view is dualistic, intellectual and egostic. God is non-dualistic, egoless and cannot be intellectually comprehended. God is an eternal Truth of non-dualism beyond the intellectual understanding of men. Nevertheless and fortunately, the Truth of the ineffable God can be discerned gnostically or  intuitively.  In Truth, God is infinite and eternal. It has neither a beginning nor an ending. The beginning is inconceivable. In other words, it is beginningless because God itself cannot be conceived intellectually because of its insubstantial infinity. In the ultimate sense, the concept of God and that of the Buddha are synonymous according to Islamic Sufism. This confirms that there is only one truth and not two in the world.

Ibn ‘Arabī

Whoever aspires to understand the true nature of God as the eternal Truth sought by all esoteric religions ought to investigate intensively or indepthly into the doctrine of the ‘Unity of Being’ (Waḥdat al-Wūjud) expounded by the celebrated, towering Islamic Sufi, Ibn ‘Arabī or the Vedānta philosophy of Brahman expounded by Shankara. This Sufism and Vedānta philosophy are parallel to the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Co-arising (pratī̄tyasamutpāda) or Emptiness (śūnyatā). Ibn ‘Arabī’s  celebrated work, ‘Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam’ and Shankara’s work, ‘Brahman Sūtra’ shed  lucid light on the relationship between the world and God (that is between conventional truth and ultimate Truth). Both works have impacted the world in terms of  ontology and theosophy. From their works, one benefits enormously from their expositions on the relationship between the empirical world and God. This is parallel with the relationship between the conventional truth and the ultimate truth or between the phenomena and the Principle expounded in the Mahāyāna Avataṃsaka Sūtras of Hua-yen Buddhism. The towering Mahāyāna philosopher, Nāgārjuna brilliantly illustrates the ultimate Truth and the middle path by utilizing the doctrine of Emptiness.

Buddhist Worldview

Let’s now return to the central theme of our discussion. According to the Buddha’s promulgation, the beginning of phenomenal world or cosmos is inconceivable. In other words, there is no beginning or no prior extremity of the phenomenal world or cosmos. The Buddha expounds that “Inconceivable is the beginning of this life process (saṃsāra)”.Saṃsạ̄rarefers to the Buddhist concept of cosmos consisting of the three worlds of desire, form and formless. The three worlds are the creation of the deluded mind of ignorance. Ignorance results in the false mental constructs or erroneous imagination of the ordinary worldlings.

Śākyamuni Buddha declares that the prior end or first beginning of the phenomenal world or cosmos is not evident (S2.178,193,3.144). Nāgārjuna, in defence of the exposition of the Buddha, declares that there is neither the beginning nor end of things. Nāgārjuna maintains that both the ultimate prior end and ultimate posterior end of the universe are not proper. Hence, he rejects all the views on the origination of the universe or things advocated by the substantialists. They advocated the linear view of the causal process. The philosophical error of the substantiality view of the substantialists or metaphysicians is that prior entity substantially and causally produce the posterior entity.

They advocated the simple linear causal view that the cause essentially or substantially produces the effect. The cause contains the effect and the effect is contained in the cause. In short, a single cause produces a single effect. Śākyamuni Buddha rejects such a linear substantial view. The Buddhist Law of Dependent Co-arisen Unity states that any event or phenomenon is dependently co-arisen from multiple, contigent conditions. The main condition is called cause (hetu) and all other dependent factors are known as supporting conditions (paccayas). In actuality, multiple contigent conditions produce multiple contigent effects. A single cause does not produce a single effect. The Dhamma Theory (Dhammavāda) of the Abhdhamma of the Theravāda tradition unveils the Truth of Insubstantilaity and Dependent Co-arising through the dual-work of analysis and synthesis.

The entire cosmos is intrinsically a cosmic Unity. Therefore, the infinite cosmos has neither a prior end or beginning nor a posterior end or ending. Only contigent beings in the cosmos change but the unity of the cosmos remains constant. Such vision of the infinite cosmos concurs with the Islamic concept of God expounded brilliantly by Ibn ‘Arabī in his doctrine of Unity of Being (Waḥdat al-wūjud) or the Sufi doctrine of Unity or Oneness (Tawḥīd). Ibn ‘Arabī lucidly elucidates metaphorically the doctrine of ‘Unity of Being ’utilizing skillfully the metaphor of the Ocean of Unity. This doctrine of ‘Unity of Being’ is parallel to the doctrine of the network of Interdependent Co-arising of Oneness of all phenomena (Dharmadhātu pratityasamutpāda) or the Dharma realm of Unity expounded in the Avaṃtasaka Sūtra of Mahāyāna tradition.

Sarvāstivāda

The Sarvāstivādins posited the theory of permanent, immutable self-nature (svabhāvavāda). The Doctrine of Self-nature states that a permanent self-nature or substance traverses tri-temporally the past time, present time and future time. The intrinsic nature or permanent substance remains changeless through the journey of the tri-temporal existence. Hence, this concept of substance leaves no room for the origin and end of things. It exists permanently in its continuity. The Buddhist fundamental doctrine of Impermanence (Anicca), Insubstantiality (Anattā), and Dependent Co-arising (Paṭiccasamuppāda) reject such a heretical doctrinal view. It is an unlimited linear continuity of life process as the underlying substance of self-nature (svabhāva) is permanent. If the claim is true, saṃsāric journey is forever permanent. Consequently, liberation is not attainable.

The holy life is only possible if there is constant change of personal spiritual development from darkness to light and light to light. The notion of ‘svabhava’ indicates strict determinism which connotes that one’s destiny cannot be changed by human wills and efforts.

 The Buddhist doctrine of Impermanence, Insubstantiality and Dependent Co-arising reject strict determinism of fatalism. Buddhist philosophy offers hope of change for the better. If the conditions of life are rectified, improved and enhanced, the life of a poor individual can be improved or elevated. The quintessence of Buddhist teaching is that all phenomena are empty of permanent self-nature or substance. When an individual is empty of poor or weak permanent substance (for instance laziness or poor memory), the quality or destiny of an individual can be transformed for the better by undergoing intensive education and training conducted by experts or intelligentsia. It is because of emptiness of permanent essence that transformation and self-improvement can be effected. Therefore, Nāgārjuna in his MMK expounds the following verse :

‘Everything is pertinent ‘ means ‘Every occurrence or event is possible ’. ‘Whom emptiness is proper’ means ‘ through conditioning of contigent conditions to produce necessary existent ’. Overall, transformation of a phenomenon is possible if the phenomenon does not contain a permanent substance. Emptiness permits free movement of contigent conditions. A contigent condition is impermanent and changeable or mutable. The changeability of contigent conditions allows room for improvement or hope of change. Strict fatalistic determinism contradicts with Buddhist fundamental doctrine of Impermanence and Insubstantiality or Emptiness.

The five aggregates of the human personality do not contain any permanent substance. Therefore, the destiny or quality of life of a person can be changed if that person rectifies, improves or replaces the existing non-conducive conditions with a more conducive condition. Hence, it is evident that Buddhist philosophy or wisdom is a powerful personal motivational programme to alter the destiny of a aspirant for a positive change. The concept of permanent substance is not pertinent as it leaves no end of things and worst of all, it makes life hopelesss. Hence, evil life can not be rectified; impoverished life can not be enriched. This is sheer fatalism rejected by Śākyamuni Buddha. Personally,I have an unshakeable faith in the Dharma. My life has been influenced, impacted and improved vastly by the Dharma.

Sautrāntikas

The tenet of Sautrāntikas is equally problematic and their heretical view also implies that there is abrupt ending of an existing operating phenomenon or event. In other words, there is sudden cessation of development or growth  when maximal point is reached.

The Sautrāntikas posited the theory of non-identity and momentariness. They have put themselves in a dilemma as their ontology implies neither beginning nor end of things. The Perfuming-effect Theory (Vāsanāvā̄da) gives no account of the beginning or end of the continuity series of evolution. If there is no beginning, how could one initiate a new development? If there is no ending, mortality is forever existing. There is then no way to halt mortality to reach immortality which is the summit of spirituality. Then, the Noble Eight Fold Path, which is the path of spiritual transformation, is a nonsense.

Conclusion

The Buddha concludes that both the beginning and ending during the course of development or evolution of the phenomenal world are inconceivable. It is a cyclic process and not a linear view of ontology and cosmology.The truth is mirrored from the metaphor of the cyclic view of chicken-to-egg and chicken-to-egg in which the beginning and the ending are not conceivable! This concurs with the Islamic Sufi view of cosmology that God is both the beginning and the end. When God is declared to be both the beginning (al-Āwal) and the end (al-Ākhir), it connotes that beginning and ending are not conceivable. There should be only one ULTIMATE TRUTH. It can not be two. This communal truth of inconceivable beginning and ending between Buddhism and monotheism is very significant and profound.

Editor’s Note:

Mahāyāna philosopher, Nāgārjuna’s wisdom of understanding of the relationship between the illusive conventional truth and the ultimate Truth of Emptiness is parallel to Islamic Sufi philosopher, Ibn ‘Arabī’s profound comprehension of the theosophy pertaining to the relationship between illusory phenomenal world and God. Both of them unveiled an identical communal truth of Wisdom in their own dissimilar ways. This confirms the Vedānta philosophy of Hinduism which categorically states that all sages speak the same message in many different ways.