Buddhism was first developed in India by Siddhartha Gautama as a means to end suffering. Nirvana could ultimately be achieved by adhering to the Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way. The Mahayana tradition arose within Buddhism with different interpretations of the Buddha's teachings and new ideals. It emphasized the role of the bodhisattva and the bodhisattva path as a means to achieve enlightenment, or Buddhahood. The nature of the Buddha is no longer equivalent to that of the arhant, but rather beyond the level of the arhant; he is a transcended being. Within Mahayana, the Madhyamika and Yogacara schools of philosophy developed in India and the Zen tradition arose once Buddhism spread to East Asia. While Madhyamika, Yogacara and Zen emphasize several different concepts with the aim of achieving enlightenment, all three adhere to the Mahayana doctrine of emptiness and non-duality. At the heart of the Mahayana doctrine of emptiness lies the early Buddhist belief in anatman, or no self. There is both a spiritual and material part to human nature, but it is “the moral identity that survives death and is reborn” (Prebish and Keown 56). The concept of anatman eliminates attachment to the material by asserting that an individual has no true core, or soul, and the five skandhas, or aggregates of attachment, namely material form, feelings, perceptions , mental formations and consciousness, provide proof of this. “It is considered that none of the five skandhas can exist in the absence of the other four” (Hershock). Desire is one of the primary causes of suffering, and the five aggregates are the objects of desire. Dependent origination holds that everything is conditioned and "fails to be intrinsic" (Prebish and Keown 49)....... middle of paper ...... the answer can be seen in the translation of emptiness. If emptiness is translated as upaya, or skillful means, then emptiness is a means of eliminating attachment to all opinions by criticizing them much like Nagarjuna does. “The void can potentially liberate or trap one further in greater conceptual illusions” (Low 133). The trap occurs when the opinion is not ultimately true. Enlightenment is at the heart of Buddhism; it is a form of freedom. Madhyamika, Yogacara and Zen have different ways of interpreting the different stages of enlightenment, but they all believe that achieving enlightenment means having the wisdom to see reality in its natural form. All sentient beings and all dharmas are empty and free from subject-object dualism. Once the individual understands the impermanence of reality, he attains wisdom and therefore enlightenment..