Mādhyamikas’ Argumentation against the Concept of Motion

Abstract

The concept of motion in Madhyamaka is treated as empty, i.e. having no referent in reality, for any change including the change of position of an object in space is generated by unenlightened saṃsāric consciousness. The Mādhyamikas teaching on motion was compared by some scholars with the views of the ancient Greek philosophical school of Eleatics, who also treated motion as unthinkable. But, while the Eleatic school considered true being to be absolute rest, the Mādhyamikas considered the concept of rest to be as empty as that of motion, for it is correlated with the concept of motion and has no sense without it. According to Nāgārjunas argumentation and to his commentator Candrakīrti, motion exists nor in that part of space which has already been traversed neither in that part which has not yet been traversed, and the moving object itself is treated as a point having no spatial dimension and therefore devoid of internal motion. Besides, the Mādhyamikas oppose the moving subject, space and motion itself to one another, considering them to be independent of each other on the level of superficial truth. This leads to logical contradictions and thereby shows that all these concepts are empty. The real essence of motion could be described by words only if we knew it already, and we can understand it only using words and concepts. This forms a vicious logical circle, and the way out of it can be enlightenment and knowledge of the true reality.