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History of Nothingness

System	Phenomenal World	Absolute	World View	Conceptual Device	Pros	Cons
classical Hinduism	multiplicity is an illusion	one, being, permanent	monism	brahman/maya	accounts for unity, sense of identity	what about change and multiplicity?
Gotama (563-483 B.C.E)	impermanent, ignorance, suffering (trilaksana)	extinction (nirvana)	atomism	four noble truths (aryasatya); dependent co-origination (pratitya-samutpada)	accounts for multiplicity and change	what about unity and identity?
Nagarjuna (2nd cent. CE)	provisional truth (samvrti satya): concepts are limiting and insufficient	ultimate truth (paramartha satya): emptiness; everything and every truth statement is empty	non-dualism	2-fold truth announce a paradigm change from ontology to epistemology and interdependence of both truths	addresses the elusiveness and limits of knowledge, provides tools to combine opposites	challenges the universality of the rules of logic
Vasubandhu (4th cent. CE)	binary structure of everyday consciousness	acitta (no-mind> beyond binary consciousness	non-dualism	trisvabhava (three natures) outlining three stages of consciousness	subjectivity of knowledge, model of spiritual development	rejection of binary logic, accusation of idealism
Chih-i and Fatsang (6th and 7th cent. CE)	realm of realativity, manifestation of the absolute	not relative, manifested in the relative	non-dualism	Chih-i's threefold truth of emptiness, provisionality, and means; Fa-tsang's 4 levels of the dharmadhatu: 1) one in one 2) all in one 3) one in all 4) all in all	addresses ontological matrix of epistemology, universalism, syncretism, hermeneutical, mondel, unity in multiplicity, change--identity	paradox, reification of emptiness, implies absolute knowledge
Kukai (9th cent. CE)	realm of relativity, manifestation of the absolute	not relative, manifested in the relative, Mahavairocana (Sun Buddha)	non-dualism	ten stages of consciousness and mandala	see above and acknowledges limits of intellectual pursuit, intuition	paradox,implies absolute knowledge
Dogen (13th cent. CE)	realm of relativity, manifestation of the absolute	not relative, manifested in the relative, absolute is a verb/activity, presencing	non-dualism	genjo (manifesting>, fourfold system of Buddha-nature as (being, non-being, emptiness, and impermanence, collapse of time into the present)	see above and system is self-reflexive, integrates philosophy of time, includes epistemological perspective	paradox, what present? how to reconcile with everyday experience?