[Advaita-l] Advaita and Madhyamika Buddhism

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste,
In reading advaita works critical of Buddhism, it appears to me that the
concept of shUnyata or emptiness as postulated by Nagarjuna has not been
represented correctly in advaita.

Shunyata does not mean nonexistence or a void. Shunyata, as I understand
it, simply signifies that things have no self-being or “essence” of their
own. However in most advaita works it has only been briefly discussed and
dismissed as nihilism. Nagarjuna himself is critical of nihilism, so it
does not appear that he had nihilism in mind when postulating shUnyata.

Does anyone know why it has been represented as nihilism and cursorily
dismissed?

Regards,
Venkatraghavan