The central teaching of Nagarjuna is the philosophical (anti-philosophical) doctrine of the emptiness (sunyata) in light of Buddha’s central teachings: impermanence, suffering, and soullessness (non-substantial).
Nagarjuna emphasized on the intuitive understanding of nature of impermanence and soullessness, rather than the intellectual or philosophical understanding. He taught that the absolute truth is beyond the concepts of conventional truth, which operates with duality and independence and substantial, such as the observer vs. the observant, the subject vs. the object, cause vs. effect, before vs. after, becoming vs. cessation. The ultimate nature, in fact, is empty. He taught that all conventional ideas and concepts, as well as all conditioned things or elements, are relative and dependent and conditioned, and therefore, they are not absolute. For example, the concept, “before”, exits only with respect to “now” or “after”. Similarly, the “cause” exists only with respect to “the effect”. Since nothing can exist alone without referring to any other thing, Nagarjuna taught that the existence or non-existence, self or non-self, permanence or impermanence does not mean anything, but emptiness.
The ideas of emptiness, to some extent, can be illustrated by the following example. When we write down a letter on a blank piece of paper, we could see the existence of letter with respect to the paper, and if we erase the letter after sometime, we could see the non-existence of letter with respect to the paper. However, if someone asks where the letter was before it appeared on the paper or if someone asks where the letter goes after its disappearance or if someone asks if a letter exists without the paper, or writing or erasing or the writer or the reader, how can we answer? Since paper, letter, writing, erasing, and reading are all conditioned, dependent and non-substantial, we cannot say anything about their ultimate nature. All we can say is they just come and go and they are just empty.
Similarly, Nagarjuna argued that the Buddha used the conventional truths, especially five aggregates and interdependent arising to teach his true teachings, the nature of impermanence and non-substantial. Without the conventional truth, it would be impossible to communicate or teach. However, the teachings of Buddha themselves, which are also conditioned, dependent and non-substantial, are not the absolute truth. When it comes to the absolute truth, there is no way to explain or describe about it, by using any conventional method or terminology. One has to use insightful wisdom.
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