ABSTRACT
Emptiness, in the Ma¯dhyamika system, is generally understood to be an apophatic concept. The delineation of Emptiness involves a process of negation using reductionist analyses and a philosophical procedure that is a via negativa.1 Ma¯dhyamika masters, from Na¯ga¯rjuna and A¯ryadeva through Candrakı¯rti and S´a¯ntideva to Tsongkhapa and Mipham, widely employed in their writings sharp reasonings and arguments, which are highly analytical, reductionist and negational in their mode of investigation, to establish Emptiness. These reasonings are known as the Ma¯dhyamika reasoning (dbu ma’i rigs pa/gtan tshigs) or the reasoning scrutinizing the ultimate (don dam dpyod byed kyi rigs pa). For brevity, I shall call them ‘the ultimate analysis’ here.2
