The History of Buddhist Thought c25.39

c25.39

“Suppose it is said that there are conditions if a thing arises causally. So long as they have not arisen, why are they not called non-conditions ?” This, says La Vallée Poussin, is the cornerstone of Mādhyamika dialectic. It occurs elsewhere in the form, “ if there is no father without a son, how does the existence of a son come about ? If there is no son there is no father, and hence both father and son are unreal.”² He goes on : “ neither of the non-existent nor of the existent is there a cause. If a cause of the non-existent, of what is it the cause ? If of the existent, why a cause ?”