Studies in Madhyamaka epistemology in Russian Buddhology in the 19th and early 20th centuries

The study of Mahāyāna Buddhism in general, and particularly of Madhyamaka as the historically first Mahāyāna school, has been a characteristic feature of early Russian Buddhist studies since its beginning. The founder of the national Buddhology school, V.P. Vasiliev, substantiated the thesis that within Madhyamaka, true knowledge lacks intrinsic value and serves solely as an instrument for achieving the supreme goal of Buddhism — enlightenment (bodhi) and nirvana. I.P. Minaev, in turn, revealed the role of social factors in the process of the formation and evolution of Buddhist schools. The epistemological theory of Madhyamaka, seen from this perspective, appears as a product of polemics on practical methods of attaining enlightenment. However, as demonstrated by Th.I. Stcherbatsky, this soteriological knowledge is inherently non-rational, since discursive thought—which operates with binary oppositions (truth/falsehood, external/internal, wholesome/unwholesome, nirvāṇa/saṃsāra, etc.)—is incapable of comprehending true reality (tattva), free from any dichotomies. Stcherbatsky’s student, O.O. Rosenberg, elaborated the interpretation of emptiness (śūnyatā) in Madhyamaka as a disconnection between the statements of conventional language and true reality, which cannot be described by any sign system. According to their views, Madhyamaka epistemology is a kind of mystical intuitivism where knowledge is not a goal in itself but a way to the attainment of religious salvation.