NAGARjUNA'S PHILOSOPHY devoid of specific character (i3 tfJ�) is itself to be eternally devoid of (all determinate) essence To be devoid of (all determinate) essence is itself to be identical (1iiJ ) with dharma-dhatu, tathata, bhutako!i {i.e., the �timate reality).29 (49S b) The Middle Way: The Middle Way is the way that rises above the two extremes in its comprehension of the mundane nature of things ; it restores to the mind the Wldistorted understanding of the conditioned, dynamic nature of all entities, and in that very act it restores also one's awareness of the real nature of oneself as well as of all the rest as the Wlconditioned dharma "To speakis to determine" (lim�JH!:ftm) ;30 and yet, the determinate is not exclusively so A collection of bare particulars is not even con ceivable: To cling exclusively to the determinate is to deprive life of its richness and dynamism, while to cling exclusively to the inileterminate is to reduce it to the level of the determinate and divest it of all its mean ing and relevance to the dependent and the contingent "Salak$atJa (determinate) is one extreme, alak$atJa (indeterminate) is another; to reject these two extrem� and to fare on the Middle Way is the true nature of the B \1ddha." (492C) 88 CHAPTER III IGNORANCE Section I N A T U R E A ND F U N C T I O N O F I G N O R A N C E Nature of Ignorance: We have already noted that even the ignorant has the sense of the real But in him the sense of the ground of things has been minimized to the limit ; and the exclusive absorption in the specific and the obvious is at its peak He does not distinguish the mundane and the ultimate He imagines the conditioned as unconditioned But this imagination of his does not alter the true nature of things ; and this un alterability is the only hope for man, although of this he may not be always aware.l The PrajFiiipiiramitii-sutras emphasize the fundamental truth that the true nature of things ever remains the same, unaffected by our imaginative constructions, and convey this truth by the illustra tions of illusion.2 We may note here a few points about illusion and its cancellation (I) With the cancellation of error, the character that is revealed to be false comes to be realized as something that has been superimposed on things by virtue of our own imaginative construction It was in our ignorance that we imagined it to belong to the thing itself as its true nature Unreflective belief in the reality of the imagined is cancelled in the light of reflective criticism: if it were true, it should not have been negated While truth is revealed by rational criticism, falsity is imagined by ignorance (II) To deny false beliefs is not to deny the things themselves, nor does this denial neces sa rily amount to the actual negation of the "ap as false pearance".3 The denial is of our uncritical belief in regard to things 89 NAGARJUNA'S PHILOSOPHY What was once conceived to be real is now realized to be unreal (III) With the realization of the falsity of the imagined characters, again, what was once conceived to be objective to and constraining the self is now revealed to be truly not so ; the once believed ultimacy of the line of division between the "self" and the "not-self, " the subjective and the objective, is rejected as untrue Defming ignorance, the Sutra says : All things are devoid of substantiality (�i*�ffl1f) ; they so exist that they are not absolutely existent This (non-substantiality of things which is their true nature) people not know, and this is ignorance (All things are non-substantial) and in regard to these the common people, owing to the power of ignorance atid the thirst of passion (��jJ�'��), give rise to perversions and imaginative constructions (* �7}5J!J) Tpis is called ignorance These people get bound by the two dead-ends ; they not know and have not seen the truth of the non substantiality of things and so they give rise to ; maginative construc tions in regard to all things and cling to them (1i:ttt 7}5J!J;f) On account of their clinging in regard to things that are non-substantial, they yet give rise to (perverted) · cognitions, (perverted) understandings and (perverted) views So they are considered as common people, com parable to children Such people not get beyond (life in the limited spru:res, viz , the realm of desire etc.) ; they not dwell (in the noble way) ; for this reason they are called the common people, comparable to children ; they are called also "the clinging" (*tf) Because they lack the power of skilfulness, they give rise to imaginative construc tions and cling (to things).4 (3 74a-b) Kinds of error: (I) Error in regard to the mu n dan e truth : The passage cited above shows that ignorance consIsts in misconstruction, mistaking things for what they are not In the context of the mundane nature of things preeminent in this passage, the misconstruction consists in mi s taking the relative as absolute, the fragmentary as complete This is viparyaya (perversion) : 90 IGNORANCE The common people owing to the poison of ignorance give rise to perversion (f'Pijif.m) in regard to everything In regard to the imperma nent they give rise to the thought of permanence (I7IC) This power of ignorance to generate perversion is compared to the power of a dream that creates illusory objects which one fondly believes to be real while still in the dream, only to laugh at one's own foolish imagination when one awakes.5 The thoughts and emotions that are thus built on perversions are crooked ones distorted by wrong notions Owing to the afHictions (kleSas) headed by ignorance, people give rise to perversion and (thus to) crooked (thoughts and emotions) in regard to the true nature ofthings (it-''ItmJ:f MA$III! ) (298c) The passage which we have quoted above as defining ignorance (3 74a-b) makes out that it lIS by clinging that one gets bound to dead ends It is the unseasoned emotion that clings at every step, seizes every thing that it lights upon When the mind lacks the comprehensive awareness of the complete nature of things it sticks fast to the fragmen tary as the complete This is owing to the thirst working in blindness The mind in this state swings from extreme to extreme ; in its swinging to extremes, it clings to dead-ends Extremes or dead-ends are the partial seized as complete, the relative seized as absolute The same passage on ignorance shows that it is by the power of skilfulness that one keeps oneself free from clinging Wisdom consists in giving up d ogm atism by widening the understanding, by deepening the penetration The right comprehension in regard to the mundane nature of thin gs consists in realizing that all things are siinya, relative and non-substantial, conditioned and changing This comprehension lies at 'the root of the skilfulness of the wise (II) Error in regard to the ultimate trtlth : If this comprehension of things as conditioned and non-substantial be taken as itself the comprehension of their ultimate truth, this again would be a case of clinging This is a 91 NAGARJONA'S PHILOSOPHY case of imagining that the conditioned nature of things is itself their ultimate nature, that everything is absolutely conditionec1 Now, this would mean an absolute division between the conditioned and the un conditioned, the divided and the undivided, the permanent and the im permanent, and in this case the undivided would not be the truly undi vided, as it would be divided from the divided The undivided would not be the bhutalak�ana, the true nature of things, as it would be ab solutely different and completely separate from them This is an error not in respect to the mundane nature of things but in respect to their ultimate nature This is also a case of the error of misplaced absolute ness, for, while the conditionedness of the conditioned and the con sequent division between the conditioned and the unconditioned are alike conditioned, they are here mistaken to be absolute and ultimate Tills error which one may fall into in regard to the ultimate nature of things consists in the imagination of determination and division in reference to it, by which one misses its unconditioned, undivided nature Thus the Siistra says: As ignorance and other kle1as enter (and hide the truth of) things one misses their true nature ; as one misses their true nature one's under standing of them becomes crooked and not straight When the wise banish ignorance then the truth of things shines once again For example, the thick dark cloud covers up the nature of akasa which is ever pure by nature But when the clouds are blown away then the purity of akasa shines forth once again (3 34a) The Buddhas by virtue of their power of great merit, wisdom and skill, remove the perversions in the hearts of the common people and enable them to comprehend the svabhava-sunyata (the ultimate reality) of things Akasa for example is ever pure by its very nature ; dirt and darkness not soil it (�*:f;.filiJ) But sometimes with the blowing of the wind the clouds screen it The common people simply say that akiisa has become impure But when the fierce wind blows once again and removes the clouds, people would say that akiisa has become pure But truth akasa neither became dirty nor clean, Just in the same way the Buddhas, by the fierce wind of their teachings of the dharma, blow in 92 ... noted that even the ignorant has the sense of the real But in him the sense of the ground of things has been minimized to the limit ; and the exclusive absorption in the specific and the obvious... : The passage cited above shows that ignorance consIsts in misconstruction, mistaking things for what they are not In the context of the mundane nature of things preeminent in this passage, the. .. imaginative construction It was in our ignorance that we imagined it to belong to the thing itself as its true nature Unreflective belief in the reality of the imagined is cancelled in the light