The Analytical Study of the Affirmative Catuṣkoṭi by Nāgārjuna in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā Scripture

Abstract

At the Buddha time, it is generally said that there had been debated among sects to defend their beliefs and against the others'. After that, the Catuṣkoṭi dialectic of Madhyamaka school had emerged, at the post-Buddha time, not only for proclaiming their views but also to refute the others’ which they believed that was against the Buddha ‘s teaching. The objectives of this article are to investigate the views of Madhyamaka school consisted of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā text, the Buddhist teaching which the school insisted on and the validity of the view.

The study has found that the verse in chapter 18.8 is the merely affirmative verse affirming the Buddha teaching as shown in the text that existence is real, is not real, both real and is not real and neither real nor is not real. After analyzing the validity of the verse, it shows that the four sentences in this affirmative Catuṣkoṭi are not against the law of thought and by comparison to the applied dialectic propositions, there were equivalent to the meaning as shown in the text.

Another important aspect to be considered is the view of two truths, it becomes the key point and leads to reassure that it is to be the views of the Buddha teaching because there is also the same concept of the two truths written in the early Buddhist scriptures as well. However, from the Madhyamaka view, to reach the ultimate truth, one needs to understand what the two truths as conventional truth and ultimate truth are.  In other words, the concept of existence is neither real nor is not real, needs to be deeply explained in detail. It is necessary to be given a clear notion between the two before being interpreted so as not to mislead the understanding because even the same thing but can be different. Therefore, it has been said that Madhyamaka school is not only to depute the other view's but also insists on their beliefs as well.