C21 No real origination/coming of the effect & cessation/going of the cause at the causal junction.
Analysis of Chapter 21 of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Origination (sambhava) and Disappearance (vibhava)) using the same Madhyamaka Logical Reasoning in 11 steps. Analysis of the three spheres: (i) origination/coming-into-being-of-the-effect, (ii) relation/opposition/union, (iii) dissapearance/going-into-non-existence-of-the-cause.
.
Summary:
Chapter 21 of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā executes a highly specific diagnostic analysis on the microscopic junction of causality — the precise transition point where a cause disappears (vibhava) and an effect originates (sambhava). As peers versed in Madhyamaka reasoning, we understand that the dualistic mind naturally constructs a “triad” (#1) to conceptualize this junction: the origination or coming of the effect (i), the relation or transition itself (ii), and the disappearance or going of the cause (iii). Nāgārjuna systematically dismantles the inherent existence of this triad using the “tetralemma” (#2), directly targeting the structural flaws of the Abhidharma theory of discrete, successive dharmas.
-
When applying the tetralemma to this junction, we observe that origination and disappearance cannot be “identical or temporally overlapping” (#2.1), because synchronicity destroys the fundamental sequence required for true change and causality. Conversely, they cannot be completely “different or entirely separate in time” (#2.2); if a cause has absolutely ceased and plunged into an ontological void, it possesses no residual power to serve as an immediately preceding condition to generate an effect. If origination and disappearance were inherently separate entities, they would remain hermetically sealed and frozen, precluding any causal interaction. Nāgārjuna extends this analysis to destructible and indestructible phenomena, demonstrating that an inherently existing causal junction fails under all logical conditions. While an empiricist might argue that we visually observe causality functioning every day, Nāgārjuna clarifies that such observation is a cognitive illusion born of conventional confusion, not proof of absolute, inherent existence.
-
The collapse of this microscopic junction necessitates the collapse of the macroscopic metaphysical superstructures built upon it. If there is no absolute bridge between a cause and its effect, the Abhidharma chain of successive moments of consciousness, the twelve links of dependent origination, the karmic cycle of rebirth, and the ontological boundary between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa all fail as ultimate realities. A karmic chain composed of absolute, discrete links that blink completely into non-existence cannot maintain any continuity. Regarding rebirth across the skandhas, if the aggregates of the dying person and the newborn are inherently separate, karmic transfer is impossible across the ontological void; if they are identical, actual death and rebirth never occurred.
-
Through this profound deconstruction, we arrive at the recognition that the spheres of origination, relation, and disappearance are entirely “empty of svabhāva (inherent existence)” (#3). They do not stand as independent entities; rather, they are “inseparable, dependently co-originated, mutually defining, and merely co-imputed by the mind” (#4). This reveals the harmony of the “Union of the Two Truths” (#5). Emptiness is not a nihilistic void but the vital prerequisite for causality: it is precisely because phenomena lack a frozen, absolute essence that conventional interaction, transformation, and change are possible. Therefore, these causal junctions are “like reflections in a mirror or mirages” (#6) — they are functionally operative within conventional reality, yet entirely devoid of absolute substance.
-
Applying the “generalized tetralemma” (#7), we affirm that the true nature of the causal junction — and indeed all phenomena — is beyond all conditioned, dualistic conceptual proliferation; it is not 'this', not 'non-this', not both, and not neither. The “Middle Way” (#8) remains free from the extremes of realism, nihilism, dualism, and monism. Practically, this demands "acting without acting" (#9) — utilizing causal triads and conventional systems as indispensable tools for navigating human life, but engaging with them entirely without reification, grasping, or attachment to absolute outcomes. True liberation involves recognizing that our grand Buddhist and scientific frameworks are immensely useful maps, but they are not the ultimate territory. Freed from the compulsion to slice the fluid river of reality into absolute, discrete boxes, we simply “abide in tathatā (suchness), perceiving all phenomena, junctions, and the cosmos as primordially equal, pure, perfect, and non-dual” (#10).