Prasaṅgika

Prasaṅgika

"Prasaṅgika Emptiness" is the theory that all things and phenomena lack (or are empty of) any type of inherent identity or self-characterizing essence. This lack of inherent existence does not mean that all phenomena are non-existent; inherent non-existence is also negated by Prasaṅgika emptiness. In the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, specifically in the Madhyamaka view, Prasaṅgika Emptiness is a category of Madhyamaka viewpoints attributed primarily to Indian scholar Candrakirti, but which is based also on Buddhapalita's commentaries on Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna and later commentators use the method of logical consequence (prasanga in Sanskrit) to refute flawed views. By using this type of reductio ad absurdum, Nagarjuna, Buddhapalita, Candrakirti, and later Lama Tsongkhapa simultaneously refutes incorrect/opposing viewpoints and establishes the position of Prasaṅgika.

"Emptiness," in the Prasaṅgika sense, does not mean space, lack of physical obstruction, non-existence, or the simple not-finding of a conventional identity for the object or phenomenon being scrutinized. Prasaṅgika is the conclusive analytic absence of any findable internal quality of an object or phenomenon which provides a name, identity, function, and/or discreteness to that object or phenomenon. The strong implication being that the mind of the observer (technically, a conceptually designating consciousness) provides the name, identity, function, and conventional discreteness to that object. The relationship between the mind and object is commonly described as "Co-dependent arising, dependent arising, and dependent origination." The mind is also viewed as dependently arising on the basis of the object which that mind knows. This is why, when one analyzes a material object, a mind, or an abstract phenomena (like time, non-composed space, coming, going, causality, etc) that nothing self-characterizing or identity providing is found.