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The Middle Way - Lecture 03
Fruit arises from conditions, not from non-conditions, and within the conditions the fruit does not exist before it manifests. Causes and conditions are the principal factors that give rise to fruit, so before the fruit arises, the cause is not yet a condition. A condition only becomes a condition when the fruit truly manifests; before that, it is called a non-condition. Master Nagarjuna used dialectical reasoning to break apart two views: that the fruit already exists in the condition, and that the fruit does not exist at all in the condition, for both are illogical.
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Three cases of the relationship between fruit and condition:
- the fruit does not exist in the condition
- the fruit already exists in the condition
- the fruit both exists and does not exist in the condition
All are illogical when called conditions, because if the fruit already exists, there is no need for arising; if the fruit does not exist, then conditions cannot give rise to fruit. The traditional concept of dependent arising is dismantled to see the reality of non-arising, with no fixed beginning.
The Sarvāstivāda school holds that dharmas truly exist, that the three times truly exist, and that self-nature is permanent, but Nagarjuna uses dialectical reasoning to dispel wrong views and reveal right view. The Sarvāstivāda school bases itself on the true existence of the three times and self-nature like gold in jewelry, but the Madhyamaka treatise refutes all notions of permanence, asserting that all dharmas are unborn, non-self, and are only notions in the mind.
