On one level, then, the two truths amount to a distinction between conventional
reality, where things appear with svabhāva, and ultimate reality, where they are seen as
empty. Yet, a number of misunderstandings need to be clarified, each of which involves a
reification of emptiness, or its misconstrual in terms of svabhāva. For instance, we might
regard emptiness as some realm or reality that is completely independent of the ordinary
world of conventional reality. Otherwise, we might conceive of the conventional and
ultimate as involving two different perspectives on the same world, one held before and
the other gained after enlightenment is attained. A third misinterpretation is to think that
although an enlightened being perceives the two truths simultaneously, he perceives them
as dual, apprehending the conventional and the ultimate as two different things.
Nāgārjuna‘s emphasis that ―there is not even the slightest difference‖ between nirvana
and saṃsāra suggests that the two truths are wholly identified with each other. I shall
argue, following Garfield and other authors, that to perceive the ultimate truth is to
perceive the conventional as conventional, that is, to see the relation between the two
truths.