Nagarjuna

1 Born a Brahmin in southern India, he lived between 150-250 C.E.

2 Converting to ‘Buddhism’ he became a monk philosopher and

left behind many writings. He is often compared with St. Thomas Aquinas, the famous Christian theologian (1224-74).

3 Nagarjuna was a common name….refers to snake/elephant as

symbolic of wisdom/arhatship. Some times called Second Buddha,

such was his high regard then and now.

4 Various miracles are attributed to him, but he also pioneered Ayurvedic

medicine

5 His context was the emerging ‘new wisdom school’ or Mahayana/Great

Vehicle. The important Pranjaparamita sutra

already existed but Nagarjuna developed the philosophy.

6 His major work is “The Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way” in which he

builds on the teaching of the Buddha in his first sermon about the importance of the Middle Way.

This is why Nagarjuna’s school of thought is called Madhyamika…the Middle

Way.

7 Some see him as an interpreter and commentator on the original teachings, but many say

he is a real innovator and that perhaps he took intellectual thought too far !

8 Like most Buddhists Nagarjuna discusses ‘how things really are’. Earlier Buddhists had

accepted that there was no independent self (anatta) but what of the ‘atoms’ (dharmas) that

composed the material world …did they exist independently ? The Abhidhamma school

claimed they did exist independently

9 Nagarjuna pointed to the Buddha’s middle way between eternalism and nihilism and accused

The Abhidamma of eternalism: arguing from Dependent Origination or mutual dependence

Nagarjuna concluded that things only existed in relation to other things and so where EMPTY.

10 Emptiness or Void (sunyata) ……[compare Nirvana as ‘blown out’] is a big idea in Mahayana.

Is it a tool to unpick and challenge all beliefs or is it, itself, a belief in a transcendental reality ?

11 Nagarjuna response is the TETRALEMMA (which was known in India earlier):- If we ask…

Does Buddha/Nirvana/Emptiness/Cosmos exist ? Ans… YES, NO, BOTH, NEITHER ?

None of these four positions are acceptable or possible answers according to Nagarjuna.

12 Another word he uses for ‘emptiness’ is relativity. He outlines two types of truth…….

Relative truth and Ultimate truth . When we fully accept that all we can know is relative truth

then we have realized ultimate truth. Is this nihilism ? Nagarjuna says not, it’s a frank

recognition that awakening is beyond words ! Nirvana is not what you think!

13 Other Buddhists have tended to use more positive words for Buddha’s status or Nirvana,

in early Buddhism it was ‘refuge’, ‘other shore’, ‘peace’, ‘ocean’ etc, whereas for newer

Mahayana schools like Yogacara (Vijnavadin) ‘mind’ or ‘consciousness’ were employed.

But what was common to all Mahayana schools was the identity of Nirvana and samsara

in a way that was MIDDLE…avoiding materialist nihilsm and an eternal metaphysical claim.

DIFFICULT !!!