ABSTRACT
A direct consequence of the difference in the identification of the negandum between Mipham and his opponents, which we have seen in Chapter 3, is the disagreement between them in defining the ultimate reality in Pra¯san˙gika Ma¯dhyamika thought. Both parties, like most other Ma¯dhyamika thinkers, accept the absence of the negandum (dgag bya med pa) established by a negative Ma¯dhyamika analysis to be the ultimate reality qua Emptiness. Unlike the exponents of gzhan stong who espoused an absolutist theory of the ultimate reality in the form of inherent Buddha Nature, both the Gelukpas and Mipham maintained the ultimate reality to be a pure apophatic and negational concept (pratis.edha, dgag pa). However, due to the discrepancies in identifying what is negated by the analysis, and therefore is absent or empty, they differ in defining the nature of such an absence or Emptiness, which, to both parties, constitutes the ultimate reality.
