Korea Journal of Buddhist StudiesISSN:1598-0642(Print)불교학연구회

This article tried to understand both the motive of occurrence of Madhyamika Philosophy and the motive of Nagarjuna’s critique on the Realism of Schola Buddhism, from standpoint of the continuity and discontinuity of Middle Way conception. In order to catch out the continuity and discontinuity of the conception of Middle Way, this study compared the conception of Middle Way in Early Buddhism with that of Schola Buddhism and of Nagarjuna. In Early Buddhism, the Middle Way was generally used in four conceptions; the Pain-Pleasure Middle Way, the Being-Non-being Middle Way, the Sameness-Difference Middle Way, and the Eternity-Extinction Middle Way. But the scholars of Schola Buddhism understood the Middle Way of the Buddha through two conceptions of the Pain-Pleasure Middle Way and the Eternity- Extinction Middle Way. When we compared the conception of Middle Way in Early Buddhism with that of Schola Buddhism and of Nagarjuna, we can know that the Realism of Schola Buddhism implies the cutting and discontinuity of the Being-Non-being Middle Way and the Eternity-Extinction Middle Way of the Early Buddhism, but Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika Philosophy implies the restoration and continuity of the Being- Non-being Middle Way, the Sameness-Difference Middle Way, and the Eternity- Extinction Middle Way of Early Buddhism. Nagarjuna proved that only when we admit that all things are the Middle Way, the basic teachings of the Buddha and the moral customs of people can be correctly established. From this, we can understand the motive of occurrence of Madhyamika Philosophy and the motive of Nagarjuna’s critique on the Realism of Schola Buddhism from a new perspective. In short, the motive of occurrence of Madhyamika Philosophy and the motive of Nagarjuna’s critique on the Realism of Schola Buddhism were the restoration of basic teachings of the Buddha and moral customs of people through the restoration of Middle Way theory.