Today, whenever we talk about Pratityasamutpada in the Mulamadhyamakarika (MMK), we easily use the term “mutual relation.” However, such an expression is never used by the early commentators of MMK except when they deny it as their opponents' expression. In contrast, Candrakirti affirmatively understood Pratityasamutpada as being established by mutual relation. Then, what about Bhaviveka, a commentator in the mid-term era of the Madhyamika school, and earlier than Candrakirti?
In comparing Bhaviveka with Candrakirti in their use of “mutual relation,” we find Bhaviveka made a distinction, on the basis of “applying certain expressions”, between the mutual relation (parasparapeksa) in convention (samvrti), and the mutual dependence (sapeksa) of “samketikaparamartha”. We can analogize from this comparison that affirmative use of the term “mutual relation” in two ways highly corresponds to their theory of two truths, that is, they recognized the way we see Pratityasamutpada as an ascetic path to ultimate truth.
