The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1410 page)

. Any difference which exists must be an epistemological one resulting from ignorance and misconception. Accordingly, the M
dhyamaka posits ‘two levels of truth’: the level of Ultimate Truth (
param
rthasatya
), i.e. the perception of emptiness of the true nature of phenomena (the view of the enlightened); and the level of ‘relative’ or veiled truth (
samv
tisatya
), i.e. the misconception of dharmas as possessing a substantial self-existent nature (the view of the unenlightened). The gaining of enlightenment is the passage from the latter to the former.
After N
g
rjuna the work of the school was carried forward by his disciple
ryadeva, but subsequently two schools divided, the Svatantrika, led by
Bh
vaviveka
; and the
Pr
sa
gika
, championed by
Candrak
rti
, which adhered to the negative dialectic of the founder. The M
dhyamaka system was transmitted from India to Tibet and China (where it flourished, particularly in Tibet, as a central school of Mah
y
na philosophy), and to Japan, where it is known as
Sanron
. See also
SAN-LUN
.

 
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