It can be viewed from another aspect, namely that of dependence on conglomeration or combination (pratyayopanibandh).  It is by the combination (samavaya) of the four elements, space (akas’a) and consciousness (vijnana) that a man is made.  It is due to earth (p@rthivi) that the body becomes solid, it is due to water that there is fat in the body, it is due to fire that there is digestion, it is due to wind that there is respiration; it is due to akas’a that there is porosity, and it is due to vijnana that there is mind-consciousness.  It is by their mutual combination that we find a man as he is.  But none of these elements think that they have done any of the functions that are considered to be allotted to them.  None of these are real substances or beings or souls.  It is by ignorance that these are thought of as existents and attachment is generated for them.  Through ignorance thus come the sa@mskaras, consisting of attachment, antipathy and thoughtlessness (raga, dve@sa, moha); from these proceed the vijnana and the four skandhas.  These with the four elements bring about name and form (namarupa), from these proceed the senses (_@sa@dayatana_), from the coming together of those three comes contact (spars’a); from that feelings, from that comes desire (tr@s@na) and so on.  These flow on like the stream of a river, but there is no essence or truth behind them all or as the ground of them all [Footnote ref 2].  The phenomena therefore cannot be said to be either existent or non-existent, and no truth can be affirmed of either eternalism (s’as’vatavada) or nihilism (ucchedavada), and it is for this reason

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[Footnote 1:  See Madhyamikav@rtti (B.T.S.), pp. 101-108.]

[Footnote:  Ibid. pp. 209-211, quoted from Salistambhasutra.  Vacaspatimis’ra also quotes this passage in his Bhamati on S’a@nkara’s Brahma-sutra.]

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that this doctrine is called the middle doctrine (madhyamaka) [Footnote ref 1].  Existence and non-existence have only a relative truth (samv@rtisatya) in them, as in all phenomena, but there is no true reality (paramarthasatya) in them or anything else.  Morality plays as high a part in this nihilistic system as it does in any other Indian system.  I quote below some stanzas from Nagarjuna’s Suk@rllekha as translated by Wenzel (P.T.S. 1886) from the Tibetan translation.

6.  Knowing that riches are unstable and void (asara) give according to the moral precepts, to Bhikshus, Brahmins, the poor and friends for there is no better friend than giving.

7.  Exhibit morality (s’ila) faultless and sublime, unmixed and spotless, for morality is the supporting ground of all eminence, as the earth is of the moving and immovable.

8.  Exercise the imponderable, transcendental virtues of charity, morality, patience, energy, meditation, and likewise wisdom, in order that, having reached the farther shore of the sea of existence, you may become a Jina prince.