The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

4. Discussion of Nagarjuna’s work.
For Nagarjuna, the primary question was not about mind, nor about the origin
of knowledge but about the reality of the physical world. Tarab Tulku Rinpoche
presented an all encompassing position when he said,
“everything existing
partakes in a fundamental 'mind-field', which is the basic 'substance' from
which mind in a more individual way and the individual body develop”. [13] In
order to emphasise that Nagarjuna does not only speak about views without
substance but also about bodies without substance, here is a comparison with
the views of reality suggested by quantum physicists. Physics is about views
and the conditions of physical reality. It creates models and thus examines
only realities which have been posited by physics itself. Nevertheless, as the
experimental psychologist Irvin Rock who studied visual perception, describes
it, we should not go so far as to consider all our perceptions and thought
models to be purely adventitious. While the constructions of our mind are not
identical with reality, they are not purely coincidental and usually not
deceptive. [14] Behind these models are empirical bodies and there is some
approximation of a structural similarity between a physical model and the
corresponding physical and tangible reality.