The Concept of Karma in Madhyamaka

The concept of karma in the Buddhist Mahāyana school of Madhyamaka is treated as having meaning only at the level of relative truth, but at the level of absolute truth it is empty, for it depends on the concept of an acting subject (kart), and that, in its turn, depends on the concept of karma. It is this logical circle in the definitions that makes all concepts empty. I.e. having no referent in reality. The true reality (bīnfa-tathaia) is indescribable, and only one who has attained enlightenment (boahu) can see it. In fact, the essence of enlightenment is the knowledge of true reality. However, the concept of karma is not entirely meaningless in the Madhyamaka. It makes sense at the first stage of the path to enlightenment — on the path of sizakas and pardyskuddhēs (that is, the thingyana path), since it is the idea of karma, i.e. the consequences of one's actions in this life and attaining their fruits in the future that prompts a person that suffers in samsāra to strive for liberation from it. Only at the second stage — on the bodhisattvas' path (that is, on the path of the Mahāyana, which is impossible to step out without fully passing the first stage and without gaining the fruit of an Arhat), a person comprehends the emptiness of the concept of karma, as well as any other concepts. The concept of karma, in accordance with the Madhyamaka teaching, should be regarded as purely instrumental: its goal is not to designate some kind of reality, but to change the consciousness of a person so that the desire arises in him to enter the path to enlightenment and sufficient perseverance in following it. But the law of karma still governs the person even at the beginning of the bodhisattvas' path, and only at its higher stages does a person gradually free himself from the action of this law and gain nīvāpa without abode — a state that goes beyond the difference between nīvāpa and samsāra.