This explanation of interdependence as a mere conditionality, not only renders implausible any kind of conceptual notion of production that is uncaused and so forth, but also any other sort of idea: the dualities of eternalism and nihilism, permanence and impermanence, existent things and non-existent things and so forth become impossible. To express this:
And as all things arise interdependently
These theories will not withstand analysis.
Submitted to interdependence’s arguments
All complex nets of faulty views are ripped to shreds. (6.115)
Since it is only through the reasoning which states, ‘based on this, that arises,’ that relative entities can be found to have an existent identity (svātmabhāva) and not through any other, the view presented here – arguing for a mere conditionality of dependent arising – tears up the entire net of faulty views. By positing such mere conditionality as dependent arising, one cannot accept that entities have any inherent nature whatsoever. As stated:
Something arising based on this and that
Hasn’t come into being in and of itself.
How then can that which has no self-becoming
Be seen as something that has come into being?1
Similarly,
Interdependent arising itself
Is called emptiness.
This, itself being an imputation,
Conveys the middle way.2
And from the sutras:
What is born conditionally is unborn,
Having no inherent being of its own.
Depending on conditions they are said to be empty –
He who understands emptiness is heedful.3
Title
Chapter 1: Pramuditā
