Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-Kha-Pa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path by Guy Newland

Author:Guy Newland
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Snow Lion Publications
Published: 2008-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Some Hinayana Buddhist philosophers say, "Yes, we do." They catalog the elemental particles and regard them alone as ultimately real, irreducible. Everything else-tables, etc.-they regard as conventional because these are just names we apply to reducible composites, collections of particles.

Along with other Mahayana Buddhist philosophers, Madhyamikas refute any notion of a partless particle. If an object takes up any space at all, then we can imagine its eastern and western sides. These two sides are parts, and the particle-no matter how small-is therefore not irreducible. It is a composite of its parts. On the other hand, if the particle occupies no space at all, then how can we ever use it to construct a composite thing like a table? Even if we have billions or trillions of particles, if each one takes up no space, we will never be able to build a visible and tangible object.

So, another argument Madhyamikas might make against intrinsic nature would be: "If school buildings existed by way of their own intrinsic nature, then they would not depend upon parts." It is easier to see that buildings depend on parts than it is to realize their emptiness! And depending on parts certainly contradicts the mistaken idea of something's existing in and of itself. But again: Simply knowing that something depends on parts is not the same as realizing its emptiness.

It is important to know very clearly that things change, depend on causes, and depend on parts. Such wisdom protects us from mistaken philosophies and undermines our tendencies to cling. But even more important is the fact that these understandings guide us toward the deeper and liberating truth that they imply: that all things are empty. We are not born with some idea of "partless particles" or "indivisible building blocks." Nor are we born with the idea of an uncaused divine Being who caused the world to exist. These ideas are acquired through culture; they are not the root source of our suffering in cyclic existence. They are simply branches or twigs that have grown, nourished from that root. If we only prune off some branches, new branches will grow.

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