(Freedom in the Two-Truths View not the half-eaten ham sandwich)
When presenting the view in Je Tsongkhapa’s exposition of Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way, precision is essential. Even slight deviations can lead either toward eternalism or nihilism.
The six realms are not merely “created by self-clinging mind.” According to classical realised texts presentation, the six realms arise from karma and afflictions accumulated under the influence of ignorance. Ignorance is the root, karma is the mechanism, and rebirth is the result.
Phenomena exist conventionally. The error is not that phenomena appear, nor that aggregates appear. The error is that mind superimposes inherent existence upon what merely exists through dependent designation.
The object of negation must be identified exactly.
The ignorance to be abandoned is not the mere appearance of self.
The ignorance to be abandoned is the grasping at a self that appears to exist from its own side, independently, objectively, under its own power, without depending upon causes, conditions, parts, designation, or conceptual imputation.
This is why Tsongkhapa repeatedly states that what is refuted is inherent existence (svabhāva), not conventional existence (which operates functionally).
A person exists.
Karma exists.
Suffering exists.
Liberation exists.
Buddhas exist.
These are not refuted.
What is refuted is the way they appear to ignorance. (Or to a human sentient being in the desire realm with that perception].
The person exists merely designated upon the basis of the aggregates.
The aggregates exist merely designated upon their parts.
The parts exist merely designated upon their own bases.
Nothing withstands ultimate analysis.
Yet everything functions conventionally.
This union is the difficult point.
Emptiness does not destroy dependent origination.
Dependent origination establishes emptiness.
As Je Tsongkhapa writes in The Three Principal Aspects of the Path:
Appearances eliminate the extreme of existence.
Emptiness eliminates the extreme of non-existence.
When you understand the arising of cause and effect
From the viewpoint of emptiness,
You are not captivated by either extreme.
The practice of bringing everything onto the path therefore means bringing every appearance into the recognition of dependent origination.
A pleasant sound arises.
The ordinary mind grasps: “I like this.”
The afflicted mind develops attachment.
The wisdom practitioner investigates:
“How does this sound exist?”
“It arises from causes.”
“It depends upon ears.”
“It depends upon consciousness.”
“It depends upon designation.”
“It cannot be found under analysis.”
“It nevertheless functions.”
Thus the appearance itself becomes Dharma instruction.
The sound becomes a teaching on dependent origination.
The attachment becomes a teaching on self-grasping.
The awareness recognising this becomes the path.
In this way everything becomes a text.
Not because all phenomena are literally scriptures.
***Rather because every phenomenon reveals the nature of mind and the manner in which ignorance constructs suffering.***
Renunciation in this context is especially profound.
It is not primarily renouncing objects.
It is renouncing belief in the truth of the hallucination of inherent existence.
The practitioner begins to lose faith in the story projected by ignorance.
The world still appears.
The aggregates still appear.
The self still appears.
But one increasingly recognises that appearance and mode of existence do not agree.
Things appear inherently existent.
Things do not exist inherently.
This gap between appearance and reality is called ignorance.
Closing that gap is wisdom.
***When awareness repeatedly recognises dependent origination, the habitual tendency to assent to inherent existence weakens.***
The continuum of ignorance is interrupted.
Afflictions weaken.
Karma ceases to be accumulated under self-grasping.
The causes of samsara are exhausted.
This is why Tsongkhapa praises dependent origination above all teachings.
Not because it is merely a philosophical view.
But because understanding dependent origination directly undermines the root ignorance that projects inherent existence onto self and phenomena.
When the mind no longer assents to that projection, the basis of “I”, “me”, “mine”, attachment, aversion, pride, jealousy and all six realms is cut at the root.
That cutting is renunciation. ✂️
That seeing is wisdom.
That union of appearance and emptiness is the Middle Way.
That liberation of the mindstream from grasping at true existence is precisely what the Buddha taught as the path to freedom.