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Dependent Arising, Non-arising, and the Mind: MMK1 and the Abhidharma

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Abstract

The first Chapter of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā offers a critique of causation that includes the Abhidharmic category of the ‘four conditions’. Following the South-Asian commentarial tradition, this article discusses the precise relationship between Madhyamaka philosophy and its fundamental Abhidharmic background. What comes to light is a more precise assessment of Madhyamaka ideas about viable conventions, understood as the process of dependent arising. Since this is primarily in the sense of conceptual dependence, it involves sentiency as a necessary causal element, and the relationship between sentiency and conceptuality is highlighted by Nāgārjuna and his commentators. Viable conventions exclude the possibility of a non-contingent core, and the systems and categories that revolve around such non-contingent element (ātman) are discarded by the Madhyamaka even at a conventional level.

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For the Tibetan Versions of the Akutobhayā, Prajñāpradīpa and Madhyamakāvatāraṭīkā, Please See the Madhyamaka Section of http://www.asianclassics.org/

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  1. Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

    Mattia Salvini

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  1. Mattia Salvini
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Salvini, M. Dependent Arising, Non-arising, and the Mind: MMK1 and the Abhidharma. J Indian Philos 42, 471–497 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-014-9219-6

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