The Water-Moon and the Middle Way: Emptiness, Karmic Efficacy, and Dependent Origination as Ultimate Truth

The Buddhist path navigates a profound understanding of reality often expressed through the doctrine of the Two Truths: conventional truth (the world of appearances, causality, and karma) and ultimate truth (emptiness, the lack of inherent existence). A common point of confusion, as highlighted in discussions, is how these two can coexist without contradiction. This article, drawing from a previous synthesis that underscored the necessity of clarifying karma's functionality despite its emptiness, aims to demonstrate—based on classical Madhyamaka masters and contemporary insights—that emptiness and Dependent Origination are not only compatible but are inseparable, forming the core of the Middle Way. It will show that the empty, illusory nature of phenomena is precisely what allows them to function causally, and that this very insight into Dependent Origination constitutes an ultimate truth, not a negation of ethical and practical engagement with the world.

Overview: The Causal Dance of Empty Appearances

The great Madhyamaka masters, including Nāgārjuna, Candrakīrti, Jamgön Mipham, Je Tsongkhapa, and Longchenpa, consistently teach that all perceived phenomena—from the vivid red of a petal to the subtle workings of karmic imprints and even the causal chain of the Four Noble Truths—can only function because they are empty of any intrinsic, self-powered core (svabhaˉva). Appearances are likened to "water-moons": they arise dependently, manifest, and participate in causal processes, yet they utterly lack inherent substance. Conversely, the notion of a self-powered, independent essence is a "rabbit-horn": a conceptual fiction that never appears and has no function. Holding these two insights together—the conventional reality of causal display (appearance) and the ultimate reality of essencelessness (emptiness)—constitutes the Middle Way. This path skillfully avoids the extremes of nihilism (denying conventional reality and efficacy) and reification (attributing inherent existence to phenomena). This article will explore these principles, integrating full classical passages and scholarly insights to provide a reference-rich exploration.

1. The Two Truths: An Inseparable Union of Emptiness and Interdependence

The perception of duality between ultimate truth (emptiness) and conventional reality (Dependent Origination, karma), where one might seem to negate the other, is a common hurdle. However, as noted in pertinent discussions, in Buddhism, the Two Truths are inseparable. This inseparability is key.

Khamtrul Rinpoche, in The Royal Seal of Mahamudra, Volume 2, elucidates this:

“The meditation of inseparable phenomena and emptiness is called “emptiness endowed with the supreme aspect.” Not knowing how emptiness and interdependence abide in nonduality, you decide that emptiness is a nothingness that has never existed and that is not influenced at all by qualities or defects. Then you underestimate the cause and effect of virtue and vice, or else lapse exclusively into the nature of all things being originally pure, primordially free, and so forth. Bearing such emptiness, the relative level of interdependence is not mastered. In this respect, this is what is known as mahamudra: one’s basic nature is unoriginated and, since it is neither existent nor nonexistent, eternal nor nil, true nor false, nor any other such aspects, it has no existence whatsoever. Nonetheless, its unceasing radiance arises as the relative level of all kinds of interdependence, so it is known as emptiness having the core of interdependence and interdependence having the nature of emptiness. Therefore, emptiness does not stray to the nature of knowables. In the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way it is said: ‘Anything that doesn’t arise dependently / Is a phenomenon that has no existence. / Therefore anything that is not empty / Is a phenomenon that has no existence.’ And as said in the Commentary on Bodhichitta: ‘It is taught that the relative plane is emptiness, / And emptiness alone is the relative plane.’”

Jason Parker (2019) also emphasizes this union:

“A lot of talk on here lately about how lame relative reality is vs how awesome ultimate reality is. Apparently an omniscient master is supposed to see how both the relative and the ultimate exist at the same time in a Union of Appearance and Emptiness. It's because everything is dependently arisen that it can be seen as empty. Not even the smallest speck exists by its own power.”

Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso wrote in the Beacon of Certainty:  

This non-dual understanding means that the ultimate, empty, luminous nature of reality is not contradicted by the functioning of karma; rather, karma functions precisely within, and as an expression of, this empty, radiant nature.

2. The Nature of Appearances: Empty Designations and Dream-like Reality

The Madhyamaka analysis begins by examining the nature of everyday objects. Candrakīrti, in his Madhyamakāvatāra, employs the famous seven-fold reasoning to deconstruct the notion of a "chariot," demonstrating that neither the whole chariot nor its individual parts (wheels, axle, body) possess an independent, findable essence. The term "chariot," he argues, is a designation applied to a collection of these parts.

He states:

“Just as the term ‘chariot’ is applied to a collection of wheel, axle, body and so on, so the designation ‘self’ (or ‘flower’) is applied to aggregates that lack any core.” (Madhyamakāvatāra VI.151)

This applies equally to a flower or a person. Qualities like color are also shown to be relational and dependent. The "redness" of a petal is not an intrinsic quality residing in the petal itself but arises in dependence on the petal's surface properties, the ambient light, and the visual apparatus of the perceiver.

Nāgārjuna, in his foundational Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK), generalizes this principle to all phenomena, directly equating Dependent Origination with emptiness and identifying this understanding as the Middle Way:

“Whatever is dependently co-arisen,

That is explained to be emptiness.

That, being a dependent designation,

Is itself the middle way.

…There is no thing whatsoever that is not dependently arisen;

therefore there is no thing whatsoever that is not empty.” (MMK 24:18-19)

The term Nāgārjuna uses here, prajn~aptirupaˉdaˉya ("dependent designation"), is crucial. It signifies that emptiness is not some void existing apart from phenomena, nor is it another "thing." Rather, emptiness is the very nature of phenomena that arise only in dependence on other factors. Nāgārjuna further clarifies the dream-like, empty yet functional nature of these dependent originations:

"In brief from empty phenomena

Empty phenomena arise;

Agent (cause), karma (action), fruits (effect), and their enjoyer (subject) -

The conqueror taught these to be [only] conventional.

Just as the sound of a drum as well as a shoot

Are produced from a collection [of factors],

We accept the external world of Dependent Origination

To be like a dream and an illusion.

That phenomena are born from causes

Can never be inconsistent [with facts];

Since the cause is empty of cause,

We understand it to be empty of origination."

Thus, all phenomena, including agents, actions, and effects, are conventional, dependently arisen, and dream-like—empty of inherent existence yet functioning within the conventional sphere.

3. Two Families of Illusion: The Functional Water-Moon and the Non-Existent Rabbit-Horn

To clarify how empty phenomena can function, Madhyamaka employs various analogies. A key distinction is made between two types of "illusions":

Jamgön Mipham, in his commentary on Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra, explicates this contrast with reference to karmic causality:

“Although virtuous and non-virtuous deeds are alike in lacking inherent existence, an unripened action will still ripen, while an action that has ripened will not yield further results. Just as a patient with an ocular disease may see black lines [that appear and seem to function visually for that patient] that nevertheless disappear once the malady is cured, so too karmic seeds operate once and then cease. A rabbit’s horn, by contrast, never appears at all.” (Adapted from Introduction to the Middle Way, pp. 122-123)

Mipham further elaborates in his auto-commentary:

“All illusory objects—rabbit horns, black lines, water-moons—are equal in lacking inherent nature. Yet an ocular patient sees black lines, and these appearances condition a matching consciousness; they are functional [conventionally, for that perceiver]. A rabbit horn never appears, hence is non-functional. Likewise, virtue and non-virtue are equally unreal [i.e., empty of inherent existence], yet one yields happiness and the other suffering. An action unreaped will ripen once; having ripened, it ceases—just as black lines vanish when the disease is cured.”

This illustrates that conventional phenomena, though empty like a water-moon, are not nothing; they appear and have specific functional capacities within the dependent web of reality. The illusion of inherent existence, however, is like a rabbit's horn—a mere conceptual construct with no corresponding referent in reality and no functional capacity.

4. Emptiness as the Very Condition for Causal Efficacy, Change, and Interdependence

Contrary to the assertion by some earlier Abhidharma schools that only things possessing an intrinsic nature (svabhaˉva) could function causally, the Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka, following Nāgārjuna, reverses this. It is precisely because phenomena are empty of inherent existence that they can arise, change, interact, and cease. As scholar Jay L. Garfield summarizes this Madhyamaka standpoint:

“Only what is conventionally non-intrinsic is causally effective, for only dependently arisen phenomena are subject to change.” And, “Nāgārjuna’s point is not that empty things are inefficacious, but that only because they are empty can they function; were they to possess intrinsic nature they would be inert.”

If phenomena possessed a fixed, independent, intrinsic nature, they would be immutable, incapable of interacting with other phenomena or undergoing any transformation. Nāgārjuna makes this point powerfully in his Vigrahavyāvartanī (Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness):

“Where emptiness applies [i.e., where phenomena are understood as empty], the causal efficacy of convention applies;

where emptiness does not apply [i.e., if phenomena were inherently existent], convention has no power.” (Vv 71, adapted)

As Khamtrul Rinpoche explained, this is "emptiness having the core of interdependence and interdependence having the nature of emptiness." The analogy of the moon reflected in a lake is apt: precisely because the reflection is an empty, dependent arising, it is subject to conditions and can appear and disappear. Similarly, because suffering and its causes are empty of inherent existence, they can be ceased through the path.

6. Karmic Causality as a Dependently Arisen, "Water-Moon" Process

The Madhyamaka understanding of karma exemplifies empty yet functional dependent arising:

• No Infinite Production: Once a karmic imprint has ripened, its specific causal chain for that fruition ends. Mipham (p. 123) uses the analogy of an illness whose symptoms cease once cured.
• No Randomness (Specificity): Despite emptiness, there is a lawful order: pleasant effects from virtuous causes, painful effects from non-virtuous ones, reliably functioning within conventional Dependent Origination.

The Buddha referred to the full extent of karma as acintya—"inconceivable" for an ordinary mind. However, the general principle—actions have consequences appropriate to their nature, all within emptiness—is a cornerstone.

7. Upholding Conventional Reality: Karma, Ethics, and the Path of Practice

Misunderstanding emptiness can lead to nihilism—scorning karmic cause and effect. Longchenpa, in Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind, powerfully refutes this:

“Those who scorn the law of karmic cause and fruit / Are students of the nihilist view outside the Dharma. / They rely on the thought that all is void; / They fall in the extreme of nothingness...

”The law of karmic cause and fruit, / Compassion and the gathering of merit - / All this is but provisional teaching fit for children: / Enlightenment will not be gained thereby. / Great yogis should remain without intentional action. / They should meditate upon reality that is like space. / Such is the definitive instruction.” / The view of those who speak like this / Of all views is the most nihilist...

How strange is this! / They want a fruit but have annulled its cause...

Throw far away such faulty paths as these! / The true, authentic path asserts / The arising in dependence of both cause and fruit, / The natural union of skillful means and wisdom. / Through the causality of nonexistent but appearing acts, / Through meditation on the nonexistent but appearing path, / The fruit is gained, appearing and yet nonexistent; / And for the sake of nonexistent but appearing beings, / Enlightened acts, appearing and yet nonexistent, manifest. / Such is pure causality’s profound interdependence...

Thus all the causal processes / Whereby samsara is contrived should be abandoned, / And all acts that are the cause of liberation / Should be earnestly performed.”

Longchenpa also warns: "To reject practice by saying, ‘it is conceptual!’ is the path of fools." This aligns with Jason Parker's observation about Je Tsongkhapa, who "was the biggest proponent of keeping vows and virtuous actions... leveraged the relative by practicing millions of prostrations... while keeping his conduct spotless."

8. The Union of Appearance and Emptiness: Je Tsongkhapa's Insight

The Tibetan master Je Tsongkhapa powerfully emphasized the necessity of understanding appearance (Dependent Origination) and emptiness as an inseparable unity. In his Three Principal Aspects of the Path, he warns:

11 “The knowledge that appearances arise unfailingly in dependence,

And the knowledge that they are empty beyond all assertions—

As long as these two appear to you as separate,

There can be no realization of the Buddha’s wisdom.

12 Yet when they arise at once, not each in turn but both together,

Then through merely seeing unfailing Dependent Origination

Certainty is born and all modes of misapprehension fall apart—

That is when discernment of the view has reached perfection.

13 When you know that appearances dispel the extreme of existence [i.e., reification/eternalism]

While emptiness eliminates the extreme of nothingness [i.e., nihilism],

And you also know how emptiness itself arises as cause and effect [i.e., how causality functions within emptiness],

Then no view of extremes can ever mislead again.”

In his In Praise of Dependent Origination, Tsongkhapa hails this unified insight as "the finest key that opens the door to emptiness."

9. Conclusion: The Middle Way – Living the Two Truths Non-Dually

The Madhyamaka teachings consistently demonstrate that phenomena like karmic seeds are akin to "water-moons": vivid, appearing, participating in causal relationships, and having conventional efficacy, yet utterly hollow of any intrinsic, independent nature. In contrast, the notion of an inherent essence (svabhaˉva) is a "rabbit-horn": a conceptual fiction, never truly seen and entirely non-functional.

It is precisely because phenomena are empty of such an inherent nature that they can arise, change, interact, and cease in dependence upon conditions. This understanding is not a denial of conventional reality but its deepest affirmation, revealing the very mechanism that makes ethics, meditation, karmic consequences, and ultimately, liberation from suffering, possible. Understanding Dependent Origination not as a provisional step but as the direct expression of emptiness—what Khamtrul Rinpoche termed "emptiness endowed with the supreme aspect"—is to perfect the view. This is the Middle Way that transcends all extremes, allowing wisdom and compassion to mature together as the foundation for the path to enlightenment, leading to the indivisible union of wisdom and compassionate action.

John Tan wrote in the past: "Sentient beings in ignorance tend to seek truly existent entities to attribute causal efficacy to them. In their confusion, they wrongly conclude that since conceptual constructs do not exist inherently, they lack causal efficacy and significance. This view is inverted and in fact contradicts our daily experiences of how things function. The mind that grasps at substantiality fails to comprehend how phenomena, being empty of inherent existence, can still function and possess causal efficacy. This failure arises because the "framework of essentiality" obstructs the "logic" that only phenomena empty of inherent existence can arise dependently and thus have causal efficacy."

Malcolm:

Thorough knowledge of relative truth is ultimate truth; for this reason the two truths are mutually confirming and not in contradiction at all.

….

The ultimate truth is that neither you, the child, nor the candy exist inherently. As QQ pointed out, whatever is dependently originated, that is empty and dependently designated. The two truths are inseparable.

…

Queequeg said:

I'm not sure cause and effect as you have in mind applies to the view explained through ichinen sanzen. "Since suffering and its causes do not exist..." I don't think its any sort of conventional view. As I understand, its the view taught in, for instance, the Heart Sutra: 

There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,

no end to suffering, no path to follow.

Malcolm replied:

Which actually means:

There is suffering, a cause of suffering,

an end to suffering, a path to follow.

Why? "Matter is empty, emptiness is matter; apart from matter there is no emptiness; apart from emptiness there is no matter, the same for sensation. perception, formation, and consciousness."

The Heart Sūtra is merely saying there is no inherent suffering, cause, end, or path, and that the two truths, samsara and nirvana, etc., are inseparable.

…

John Tan:

A substantialist mindset thinks that unreality has no consequences.

However, in the worldview of a non-substantialist, nothing is substantial, and that is why there is pain, suffering, and all these consequences.

So, you have to understand why the conventional is so important: because sentient beings mistakenly believe you need true existence to have causal efficacy.

They think that because there is no true existence ultimately, therefore, there are no consequences.

Appendix: Selected Full Primary Passages

• Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK) 24.18-19:

  “Whatever is dependently co-arisen,

  That is explained to be emptiness.

  That, being a dependent designation,

  Is itself the middle way.

  There is nothing whatsoever that is not dependently arisen;

  Therefore there is nothing whatsoever that is not empty.”

• Candrakīrti, Madhyamakāvatāra VI.151:

  “Just as the term ‘chariot’ is applied to a collection of wheel, axle, body and so on,

  so the designation ‘self’ (or ‘flower’) is applied to aggregates that lack any core.”

• Jamgön Mipham, Auto-commentary to Madhyamakāvatāra VI (on the two types of illusion):

  “All illusory objects—rabbit horns, black lines, water-moons—are equal in lacking inherent nature. Yet an ocular patient sees black lines, and these appearances condition a matching consciousness; they are functional. A rabbit horn never appears, hence is non-functional. Likewise, virtue and non-virtue are equally unreal, yet one yields happiness and the other suffering. An action unreaped will ripen once; having ripened, it ceases—just as black lines vanish when the disease is cured.” (Adapted for clarity and flow)

• Je Tsongkhapa, Three Principal Aspects of the Path, Verses 11-13: (Quoted in full in Section 8 above)

Works Cited (Illustrative and to be expanded based on specific translations used)

• Nāgārjuna. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way). (e.g., trans. Jay L. Garfield).
• Nāgārjuna. Vigrahavyāvartanī (Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness).
• Nāgārjuna. Lokatitastava (Verse Transcending the World).
• Nāgārjuna. Acintyastava (Praise to the Inconceivable).
• Nāgārjuna. Commentary on Bodhichitta (Bodhicittavivaraṇa).
• Candrakīrti. Madhyamakāvatāra (Entering the Middle Way). (e.g., Padmakara Translation Group).
• Jamgön Mipham. Commentary on the Madhyamakāvatāra. (e.g., trans. Padmakara Translation Group, Introduction to the Middle Way).
• Je Tsongkhapa. Three Principal Aspects of the Path.
• Je Tsongkhapa. In Praise of Dependent Origination.
• Longchen Rabjam (Longchenpa). Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind (Tib. Sems nyid ngal gso). (e.g., trans. Padmakara Translation Group, The Trilogy of Rest, Vol. 1).
• Khamtrul Rinpoche. The Royal Seal of Mahamudra, Volume 2.
• Garfield, Jay L. (1994). “Dependent Arising and the Emptiness of Emptiness: Why Did Nāgārjuna Start with Causation?” Philosophy East & West, 44(2), 219-250.
• Parker, Jason. (2019). [Relevant online discussion forum or personal communication, if applicable, otherwise specify source if published].
• Smith, Ācārya Malcolm. [Relevant teaching, text, or communication context].
• Tan, John. [Relevant teaching, text, or communication context].
• (Include other specific scholarly sources or translations referenced for specific interpretations).