The System of the Two Truths in the Prasannapad.a. and the Madhyamak.~vat~,ra: a Study in Madhyamika Soteriology

Throughout the Madhyamakakdstra, nirvdn.a is described in very uncompromsing terms. Nirvdn.a is the ultimate truth, 1 it is reality (tattva). 2 Nirvdn.a is not dependent on anything whatsoever, it is entirely at peace and absolutely unsusceptible to conceptualization. 3 When the mind has become inactive, when the business of the world with its dichotomy between subject and object has come to a complete standstill because the chaos of birth, old age and death is no more, then one is said to have arrived at the final beatitude of nirvdn.a. 4 Candrakfrti states quite clearly that "it is utterly impossible for nirvdn.a to be attained by any path that has to do with sam. sdra, the beginningless cycle of birth and death", s Whereas samsdra is ignorance, nirvdna is the ultimate truth. 6 Samsdra is bewilderment, passion and enmity, and nirvdna is complete tranquility. Understood in this way, as final release from all the misery of birth, decay and death, nirvdna is the goal o f the Buddhist Path, the raison d'etre of Buddhist philosophy and practice, and the ultimate concern of N~g~rjuna's MadhyamakaJdstra. 7 And yet, if nirvdna is an absolute denial o f sam. sara, then how are we to interpret karika XXV. 197 -