NĀGĀRJŪNA’S CHALLENGE TO ANCIENT BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS: AN INQUIRY INTO EVOLVING EMPTINESS (ŚŪNYATĀ) DOCTRINE IN BUDDHISM

Abstract

The term ‘Buddhist Hermeneutics’ is used often for those Buddhist exegetics who had been engaging to exegesis the subtle teachings of the Buddha, encompassing notion of translations from Pāḷi and ṥanskrit language, and interpretations from the sixth century B.C.E to tenth-eleventh century C.E. The tradition of hermeneutics was started immediately after the Buddha’s passed away, especially the period when the first Buddhist council and the second Buddhist council were held respectively. However, after the Buddha’s demised (Mahāparinibbāna), it is scholarly believed that Buddhism was spitted into eighteen sects, which are compiled into four main schools regarding the popular Buddhist doctrinal dispute: how the mind comes into existence. The four developmental Buddhist schools are namely, Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika, Vijñāṇavāda and Madhyamaka or Śūnyatāvāda. Among the aforementioned four Buddhist schools, the Madhyamaka as a systematic philosophical tenet among the four great Buddhist Schools , arose in the second century C.E. with the figure of the great saint Ācārya Nāgārjuna . Despite Madhyamaka School has had a continuous history of its development, it was established by means of subtle doctrinal exposition of emptiness (skt. śūnyatā) that was marvelously presented by Ācārya Nāgārjuna.

The notion of emptiness, however, is greatly played an important role in the sense of developing Madhyamaka School. Emptiness doctrine was widely evolved by Nāgārjuna during his lifespan. Initially, Nāgārjuna’s main purpose was to prompt the emptiness doctrine for establishing Madhyamaka School through negating Ābhidharmika interpretation, i.e., dharma-theory. Subsequently, Nāgārjuna started to preach emptiness doctrine in removing traditional dogmatic belief with using its skillful method (upāya kauśalya) by means of establishing the Buddha’s secret teachings. For instance, Nāgārjuna states śūnyata as the remover of all types of view (Pāli: diţţhi, skt. drŗti). Hence, Venerable Nāgārjuna addresses, “Sarvadṛsti prahānā Śūnyatāṁ tāṁ pracatsmahe”, which means “śūnyatā is thought to eliminate all views”.

The objectives of this research paper is to delineate Nāgārjuna’s encounter to ancient Buddhist hermeneutics who were dealing with Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika and Vijñāṇavāda Buddhist Schools, by applying metaphoric term emptiness (śūnyatā) along with depicting the evolving of emptiness (śūnyatā) doctrine.