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| − | [[Acharya]] [[Nāgārjuna]] (c. 150 - 250 CE) was an [[Indian]] [[philosopher]] and the founder of the [[Madhyamaka school]] of [[Mahāyāna Buddhism]]. His writings are the basis for the formation of the [[Madhyamaka school]], which was transmitted to [[China]] under the name of the [[Three Treatise]] ([[Sanlun]]) School. He is credited with developing the [[philosophy]] of the [[Prajnaparamita]] [[sutras]], and was closely associated with the [[Buddhist]] university of [[Nalanda]]. In the [[Jodo Shinshu]] branch of [[Buddhism]], he is considered the First [[Patriarch]]. Little is known about the actual [[life]] of the historical [[Nagarjuna]]. The two most extensive biographies of [[Nagarjuna]], one in {{Wiki|Chinese}} and the other in [[Tibetan]], were written many centuries after his [[life]] and incorporate much lively but historically unreliable material which sometimes reaches mythic proportions. [[Nagarjuna]] was born a [[Brahmin]], which in his time connoted [[religious]] allegiance to the [[Vedas]], probably into an upper-caste [[Brahmin]] family and probably in the southern Andhra region of [[India]].
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| − | ==={{Wiki|Iconography}} and hagiography===
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| − | [[File:Nagarjuna2.jpg|thumb]]
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| − | [[Nāgārjuna]] is often depicted in composite [[form]] comprising [[human]] and [[naga]] characteristics. Often the [[naga]] aspect forms a canopy crowning and shielding his [[human]] head. The notion of the [[naga]] is found throughout [[Indian]] [[religious]] culture, and typically signifies an {{Wiki|intelligent}} [[serpent]] or [[dragon]], who is responsible for the rains, lakes and other [[bodies]] of [[water]]. In [[Buddhism]], it is a synonym for a [[realized]] [[arhat]], or wise [[person]] in general. The term also means "elephant".
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| − | ===History===
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| − | Very few details on the [[life]] of [[Nāgārjuna]] are known, although many legends [[exist]]. He was born in Southern [[India]], near the town of Nagarjunakonda in present day [[Nagarjuna]] Sagar in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. According to [[traditional]] biographers and historians such as [[Kumarajiva]], he was born into a [[Brahmin]] family, but later converted to [[Buddhism]]. This may be the [[reason]] he was one of the earliest significant [[Buddhist]] thinkers to write in classical [[Sanskrit]] rather than [[Pāli]] or [[Buddhist]] Hybrid [[Sanskrit]]. From studying his writings, it is clear that [[Nāgārjuna]] was conversant with many of the [[Nikaya]] school [[philosophies]] and with the [[emerging]] [[Mahāyāna]] [[tradition]]. However, affilitation to a specific [[Nikaya]] school is difficult, considering much of this material is presently lost. If the most commonly accepted attribution of texts (that of {{Wiki|Christian}} Lindtner) holds, then he was clearly a Māhayānist, but his [[philosophy]] holds assiduously to the non-Mahāyāna [[canon]], and while he does make explicit references to [[Mahāyāna]] texts, he is always careful to stay within the parameters set out by the [[canon]]. [[Nagarjuna]] may have arrived at his positions from a [[desire]] to achieve a consistent exegesis of the [[Buddha's]] [[doctrine]] as recorded in the [[Canon]]. In the [[eyes]] of [[Nagarjuna]] the [[Buddha]] was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the [[Madhyamaka]] system. [[David Kalupahana]] sees [[Nagarjuna]] as a successor to Moggaliputta-Tissa in [[being]] a champion of the [[middle-way]] and a reviver of the original [[philosophical]] ideals of the [[Buddha]].
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| − | ===Writings===
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| − | There [[exist]] a number of influential texts attributed to [[Nāgārjuna]], although most were probably written by later authors. The only work that all [[scholars]] agree is [[Nagarjuna's]] is the [[Mūlamadhyamakakārikā]] ([[Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way]]), which contains the essentials of his [[thought]] in twenty-seven short chapters. According to Lindtner the works definitely written by [[Nagarjuna]] are:
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| − | * [[Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā]] ([[Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way]])
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| − | * Śūnyatāsaptati (Seventy Verses on [[Emptiness]])
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| − | * Vigrahavyāvartanī (The End of Disputes)
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| − | * Vaidalyaprakaraṇa (Pulverizing the Categories)
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| − | * Vyavahārasiddhi (Proof of Convention)
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| − | * Yuktiṣāṣṭika (Sixty Verses on {{Wiki|Reasoning}})
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| − | * Catuḥstava (Hymn to the [[Absolute Reality]])
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| − | * Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)
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| − | * Pratītyasamutpādahṝdayakārika (Constituents of [[Dependent Arising]])
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| − | * Sūtrasamuccaya
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| − | * Bodhicittavivaraṇa (Exposition of the [[Enlightened]] [[Mind]])
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| − | * Suhṛllekha (To a Good Friend)
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| − | * Bodhisaṃbhāra (Requisites of [[Enlightenment]])
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| − | * Sushruta Samhita (Redactor of Ayurvedic [[Medicine]] text)
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| − | There are other works attributed to [[Nāgārjuna]], some of which may be genuine and some not. In particular, several important works of [[esoteric]] [[Buddhism]] (most notably the Pañcakrama or "Five Stages") are attributed to [[Nāgārjuna]] and his [[disciples]]. Contemporary research suggests that these works are datable to a significantly later period in [[Buddhist]] history (late eighth or early ninth century), but the [[tradition]] of which they are a part maintains that they are the work of the [[Mādhyamika]] [[Nāgārjuna]] and his school. [[Traditional]] historians (for example, the 17th century [[Tibetan]] Tāranātha), aware of the chronological difficulties involved, account for the anachronism via a variety of theories, such as the [[propagation]] of later writings via [[mystical]] [[revelation]]. A useful summary of this [[tradition]], its literature, and historiography may be found in Wedemeyer 2007. Lindtner considers that the Māhaprajñāparamitopadeśa, a huge commentary on the Large Prajñāparamita not to be a genuine work of [[Nāgārjuna]]. This is only extant in a {{Wiki|Chinese}} translation by [[Kumārajīva]]. There is much [[discussion]] as to whether this is a work of [[Nāgārjuna]], or someone else. Étienne Lamotte, who translated one third of the [[Upadeśa]] into French, felt that it was the work of a North [[Indian]] [[bhikkhu]] of the [[Sarvāstivāda]] school, who later became a convert to the [[Mahayana]]. The {{Wiki|Chinese}} scholar-monk Yin Shun felt that it was the work of a South [[Indian]], and that [[Nāgārjuna]] was quite possibly the author. Actually, these two [[views]] are not necessarily in opposition, and a South [[Indian]] [[Nāgārjuna]] could well have studied in the northern [[Sarvāstivāda]]. Neither of the two felt that it was composed by [[Kumārajīva]] which others have rashly suggested.
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| − | ===Philosophy===
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| − | [[Nāgārjuna's]] [[primary]] contribution to [[Buddhist philosophy]] is in the further development of the {{Wiki|concept}} of [[śūnyatā]], or "[[emptiness]]," which brings together other key [[Buddhist]] [[doctrines]], particularly [[anatta]] ([[no-self]]) and [[pratītyasamutpāda]] ([[dependent origination]]). For [[Nāgārjuna]], it is not merely [[sentient beings]] that are [[empty]] of [[ātman]]; all [[phenomena]] are without any [[svabhāva]], literally "own-nature" or "[[self-nature]]", and thus without any underlying [[essence]]; they are [[empty]] of [[being]] independent. This is so because they are arisen dependently: not by their own [[power]], but by depending on [[conditions]] leading to their coming into [[existence]], as opposed to [[being]]. [[Nāgārjuna]] was also instrumental in the development of the two-truths [[doctrine]], which claims that there are two levels of [[truth]] in [[Buddhist]] [[teaching]], one which is directly (ultimately) true, and one which is only conventionally or instrumentally true, commonly called [[upāya]] in later [[Mahāyāna]] writings. [[Nāgārjuna]] drew on an early version of this [[doctrine]] found in the Kaccāyanagotta [[Sutta]], which distinguishes [[nītārtha]] (clear) and [[neyārtha]] (obscure) terms -
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| − | : By and large, [[Kaccayana]], this [[world]] is supported by a polarity, that of [[existence]] and non-existence. But when one reads the origination of the [[world]] as it actually is with right [[discernment]], 'non-existence' with reference to the [[world]] does not occur to one. When one reads the [[cessation]] of the [[world]] as it actually is with right [[discernment]], '[[existence]]' with reference to the [[world]] does not occur to one.
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| − | : "By and large, [[Kaccayana]], this [[world]] is in bondage to attachments, clingings (sustenances), and biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or [[cling]] to these attachments, clingings, fixations of [[awareness]], biases, or obsessions; nor is he resolved on 'my [[self]].' He has no uncertainty or [[doubt]] that just [[stress]], when arising, is arising; [[stress]], when passing away, is passing away. In this, his [[knowledge]] is independent of others. It's to this extent, [[Kaccayana]], that there is [[right view]].
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| − | : "'Everything [[exists]]': That is one extreme. 'Everything doesn't [[exist]]': That is a second extreme. Avoiding these [[two extremes]], the [[Tathagata]] teaches the [[Dhamma]] via the middle..."
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| − | [[Nāgārjuna]] differentiates between [[saṃvṛti]] (conventional) and [[paramārtha]] (ultimately true) teachings, but he never declares any to fall in this latter category; for him, even [[śūnyatā]] is śūnya--even [[emptiness]] is [[empty]]. For him, ultimately,
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| − | : nivṛttam abhidhātavyaṃ nivṛtte cittagocare
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| − | : anutpannāniruddhā hi nirvāṇam iva [[dharmatā]]
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| − | : The designable is ceased when the range of [[thought]] is ceased,
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| − | : For phenomenality is like [[nirvana]], unarisen and unstopped.
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| − | This was famously rendered in his tetralemma with the [[logical]] propositions: X, not X, X and not X, neither X nor not X. "The designable is ceased when the range of [[thought]] is ceased" is the premise upon which the MindstreamDoctrine is founded.
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| − | [[Category:Nāgārjuna]]
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| − | {{R}}
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| − | [http://www.tamqui.com/buddhaworld/Nagarjuna www.tamqui.com]
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| − | __NOTOC__
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