Slide 1
NagarjunaTHE FIRST BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHER
References:Leaman, Oliver (2005) Key Concepts In Eastern
Philosophy. Taylor & FrancisThe Meaning of Sunyata in
Nagarjuna's Philosophy (Thomas J. Macfarlane, 1995)
www.integralscience.org accessed September 25 , 2013Internet
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, entry: Nagarjuna (c.150c.250)
http://www.iep.utm.edu accessed September 25 , 2013Santina, Peter
Della (2000) Causality and Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna.
Buddhist Research Society: Singapore
Nagarjuna LIFE & WORKS (c. 150-c.250)
Nagarjuna (born six centuries after Siddharta, in the southern
Andhra region of India, with a religious allegiance to the Vedas,
later converted into Buddhism) is:the greatest Buddhist
philosopherSecond Buddha for the MahayanaFounded Madhyamika (the
philosophy of the Middle Way) teaching path to liberation through
the realization of emptiness.He writes : Fundamental Verses on the
Middle Way (Mulamadhyamakakarika),theSeventy Verses on Emptiness
(Sunyatasaptati), theSixty Verses on Reasoning (Yuktisastika)Proof
of Convention(Vyavaharasiddhi)
Nagarjunas TeachingThings arise , alterable and destructible
because phenomena lack fixed essences (nihsvabhava), . Their
physical and empirical forms are built upon the fact that nothing
(sunya) ever defines and characterizes them eternally and
unconditionally. Change is possible because a radical
indeterminancy (sunyata) permeates all forms. Beings relate to one
another not because of their heterogeneous forms, but because their
interaction makes them susceptible to ongoing transformation.At the
heart of the Middle Way is the concept of sunyata (emptiness)The
whole philosophy, in fact, can be viewed as different aspects of
sunyata.Nagarjunas LegacyTHE ROOT OF ALL SUFFERING the ignorance of
clinging, the error of mistaking the relative for the absolute, the
conditioned for the unconditioned.
CRITICISMdiscriminates between the real and the unreal, cancels
the confusion of the relative with the absolute, and recognition of
sunyata as truth. KNOWLEDGETranscending all determinations it is
yet not exclusive of anything determinate, and is therefore itself
undeniable
