Real Buddhism abhors a vacuum

From the standpoint of thought, the substance from which it is composed seems non-existent or empty to the run-of-the-mill person (prithagjana).  Said another way, from the standpoint of dependent origination, there appears to be neither substance nor ultimate reality.  Only phenomena appear to exist, in other words.  But reason informs us that things cannot arise from other things or by themselves or through combinations since they are of a contingent, dependent nature.  

When we hear that all sensory phenomena, including our thoughts, are empty we are to understand that only their superficial, temporal nature is empty and transitory.  But this does not mean that a substratum does not exist or is lacking.  Without such a dynamic substratum no dependent thing can arise.  In the same way, before I can make a heap of something I first need something such as sand or nuts.  There is no attribute without substance.  Nor can waves be propagated lacking a medium.  This, I hasten to add, was not overlooked by early Buddhists like the Mahasanghikas who postulated the doctrine of beginningless and endless pure Mind (anadi-ananta-vimalacitta).

Without understanding or accepting that things cannot simply arise from mere absence nihilism takes hold of us—and takes hold of Buddhism.  For one snakebitten by nihilism all is empty.  Accordingly, there can be no substance from which empty things arise—there are only empty things.  Because this nihilism is also a form of skepticism we can advance no farther except to cast every determination into the abyss of emptiness calling ourselves agnostics!

But of course even Buddhism eventually must abhor a vacuum.  Eventually Buddhism reaches a stage where it must depart from the absurdity of emptiness wrongly grasped.  Underscoring this, the doctrine of emptiness (Shunyavada) according to S.N. Dasgupta can become “blank phenomenalism which only accepts the phenomenal world as it is but which would not, for a moment, tolerate any kind of essence, ground or reality behind it (cited by Narain, The Madhyamika Mind, p. 50).  

What eventually has to rise from the ashes of nihilism or blank phenomenalism is the Phoenix of absolute or pure Mind for which emptiness, it can truly be said, ironically describes the indescribable nature of this Mind which being the substance of all is translucent and devoid of attributes.  It is not surprising, therefore, according to C.D. Sharma that,  

“Nagarjuna himself in his Ratnavali (I, 45 and 60) identifies Reality with Pure Consciousness or Bodhi or Jñâna.  Aryadeva also identifies Reality with the Pure Self or Chitta.  (Cittvisuddhiprakarana, 27, 28, 74).  Shantideva in much-inspired verses praises the only Reality, Bodhi-Chitta or the True Self which is Pure Consciousness.  (Bodhi charyavatara I, 8, 10, etc.)  If the Bodhi of Nagarjuna, the Chitta of Aryadeva, and the Bodhi-Chitta of Shantideva are not the self-luminous Self, which is Pure Consciousness, what else on earth can they be?” (Narin, The Madhyamika Mind, p. 52).

Clearly the above shows that Buddhists like Nagarjuna were not run-of-the-mill Buddhists who were satisfied with the easy road of nihilism or blank phenomenalism; believing all is empty which demands we do nothing except wait for our death which in this respect amounts to a kind of ersatz nirvana.

Comments

[minx]

There is more behind this universe than meets the eye. As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren't vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered. Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow."
The stuff that's pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe. 
Scientists discovered the flow by studying some of the largest structures in the cosmos: giant clusters of galaxies. These clusters are conglomerations of about a thousand galaxies, as well as very hot gas which emits X-rays. They discovered that the clusters were moving nearly 2 million mph (3.2 million kph) toward a region in the sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. This motion is different from the outward expansion of the universe (which is accelerated by the force called dark energy).

The scientists deduced that whatever is driving the movements of the clusters must lie beyond the known universe

In a way all this does not contradict basic buddhist cosmology but instead confirms it. Ultimately a nihilist cannot speak of complete emptiness or vacuum and proove it empirically, but a true buddhist on the other hand can speak of the invisible substratum of the One Mind ontologically and still find sufficient basis for such claims in contemporary astrophysics.

[Mumon]

"Believing" I think is a kind of category mistake for us, as applied to emptiness.

It's not an imagined fantasy.