Considered the most important Buddhist philosopher after the historical Buddha, Nāgārjuna founded the “middle way” Madhyamaka school, developed the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, the concept of śūnyatā, or "emptiness," the ultimate and relative “Two Truths.” He also served as the head of Nālandā University and as the "father of iatrochemistry" practiced Ayurveda medicine. An important factor in Buddhism’s spread to Tibet, China, Japan and other Asian countries, his teachings represent the pinnacle of philosophical insight and wisdom.
Lineages
Mahasiddha Taoist Zen
Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way
Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism
“It is called, ‘consummation of incomparable enlightenment.’ attained by freedom from separate personal selfhood and by cultivating all kinds of goodness… though there is no goodness; such is merely a name.”
Chapters:
54. Planting Well
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“Perfect peace lies in freedom from characteristic distinctions… free from the idea of a personality, free from the idea of a being, and free from the idea of a separated individuality.”
Chapters:
61. Lying Low
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“So many things can unexpectedly end our lives. We are impermanent like a bubble on water than can easily break in the wind. It's a miracle that after exhaling, we can take a next breath; after falling asleep, we can wake up again.”
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“How do you think you can help mundane beings with gold? It will only cause greater conflict and strife, greater sin and evil.”
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“All birth ends in death, all creation ends in dissolution. All accumulation ends in dispersion. All that appears real is transitory. Ignore these omens and drink the elixir of fearlessness!”
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“First, abandon all thought of action. Then see desirable objects as mere concepts, delusory mental pictures.”
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“Events have no more reality than clouds swirling through the sky. How can they harm or profit us in any way?”
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“Attachment to seemingly concrete objects is always a cause for suffering. But these objects of desire have no real existence.”
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“The firewood is not itself the fire.”
from Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way
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“Conflicting emotions, deeds and bodies, actors and results are as castles in the sky, a mirage, an optical illusion and the moon's reflection in water.”
from Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism
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“All the causes and results of positive and negative deeds have emerged merely from the symbols of conceptualizing thought... pacified by the emptiness which is without conceptual elaborations.”
from Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism
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“The Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna was probably the first to express a similar idea—reality is in itself a relative term which depend on the standpoint of an observer—and base his whole philosophy on it which led to the foundation of Mahayana, the Great Way, which became the main religion of China and was amalgamated with Taoism in the creation of Ch'an or Zen (the meditative school of Buddhism).”
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“Nagarjuna grew bored and dissatisfied with his scholarly life; it all seemed empty and sterile and so he threw himself headlong into a life of sensual pleasure. Before long, there was hardly a household in Kahora he had not plundered of its blossoming maidens and ripe young wives.”
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“Nagarjuna much preferred to approach truth by taking the arguments of other philosophical schools on their own terms and logically reducing them ad absurdum, rather than by himself offering any definitions of reality.”
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