The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

3. Interpretation of MMK’s 25 chapters.
In 25 out of 27 chapters, Nagarjuna emphasizes one central idea: bodies are
neither together nor separated. The most important characteristic of bodies
is their interdependence and the resultant, substancelessness, the
impossibility of existing individually and independently. This is the meaning of
pratityasamutpada and sunyata: bodies are without own being and are not
independent of each other. Reality does not consist of single, isolated material
or immaterial components. It is not the behaviour of independent bodies but
the behaviour of something between them that is essential.
Let us concentrate on the 25 chapters: a thing is not independent of its
conditions, nor is it identical with them. A mover does not exist without the
distance within which to move. The mover and the distance are not one. A
viewer is not the same as the view, but a viewer without a view does not exist.
There can be no cause without an effect, or an effect without a cause. The
notion ‘cause’ has no meaning without the notion ‘effect’. Cause and effect are
not one, but they cannot be separated into two independent notions either.
Without a characteristic, we cannot speak of a characterization, and the other
way round. How could there be a desirous one without desire? When there is
no action there is no agent, neither exists per se. Without fire there can be
nothing designated as fuel. The material or immaterial components of a twobody
or three-body system do not exist in isolation, they are not one and yet
they are not independent of each other. Something is happening between these
bodies and because of this they are not substantially real. For two or
sometimes three complementary bodies or for two concepts like cause and