Nagarjuna

This article is about the Buddhist thinker. For other uses, see Nagarjuna.

Nāgārjuna (నాగార్జునా in Telugu, 龍樹 in Chinese) (c. 150 - 250 C.E.) was an Indian Buddhist scholar-monk, the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) Buddhism, and arguably the most influential Indian Buddhist thinker after Gautama Buddha, who, it is believed, prophesied his birth (Gyamtso 2003, ix). He is credited with writing the most eloquent expositions of śūnyatāvada (the doctrine of emptiness), being the first to propose the two-truths doctrine, and was abbot of the famous Nalanda Buddhist university.

His influence has been felt not only in Indian Buddhist thought, but also in the sub-continent's non-Buddhist philosophies (particularly in Advaita Vedanta), in China, where it spawned the Three Treatise (Sanlun) School (and by extension in Japan and Korea), and Tibet, where he is considered to be a "second Buddha" (Ray, 82).

Biography

According to traditional biographers and historians such as Kumarajiva(鳩摩羅什), Nāgārjuna was born in South India near the town of Nagarjunakonda in present day Andhra Pradesh 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 Sanskrit rather than Pāli or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. During his lifetime he was the abbot of Nalanda university in present day Bihar, and a master of the five major branches of learning (grammar, logic and epistemology, the arts, medicine, and spiritual practice) (Ray, 394).

A statue of Nagarjuna, Kullu, India. 2005

From studying his writings, it is clear that Nāgārjuna was conversant with the Abhidharma philosophies, the emerging Mahāyāna tradition, and non-Buddhist schools of thought (Ray, 394). Judging by the contents of the most commonly accepted list of texts he wrote, he was clearly a Māhayānist, but he does not mention any of the tradition's core texts in his most famous work, the Mulamadhyamakakarika. As a result, some western scholars have argued that he may have been a Theravadin. However, the fact that this text focuses on explicating one of the central concepts of Mahāyāna, śūnyatā, as well as his other texts, such as the The Collection of Seventeen Praises (commentaries on the Sutras on the Buddha Nature) definitively demonstrate that he was a follower of the Great Vehicle (Gyamtso, xi). The reason behind his exclusive use of the Tripitaka in this seminal text is likely that the people who would have challenged him the most vigorously would have been Theravadins, who would not accept the premises or authority of the Mahāyāna texts, thus negating their usefulness as a authoritative references. It could also be argued that the text was meant to serve as a logical stepping-stone to Second Turning of the Wheel teachings, by beginning with the premises of the First Turning in order to guide readers to the Second.

Popular legends of his life state that he was able to travel deep into the earth through his meditative powers (siddhi) to the lair of the nāga king, who had been entrusted by the Buddha with the Prajñā Pāramitā Sutras. Seeing that Nāgārjuna was the one prophesied by Gautama who would "give vast and perfect explanations of the Buddha's teachings" (Gyamtso, ix), he gave these texts to him to bring back to the surface. This story is used to explain the first part of his name (the second, arjuna, meaning 'bright', 'shining', or 'silver'), his close association with the Prajñā Pāramitā Sutras, and his depiction in iconography with snakes extending over his head.

Other common stories about Nāgārjuna claim that he was the 14th patriarch of Zen (more likely true), and that he was 700 years old when he was abbot of Nalanda (less likely true).

Philosophy

Nāgārjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy was his eloquent elucidation of the doctrine of śūnyatā, or "emptiness," which he taught as the logical extension of the Buddha's thought, particularly the doctrines of anatman (no-self) and pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination). Typical of his method was the use of reductio ad absurdum (sanskrit "prasanga") to undermine the view that anything has an independent, essential nature (atman or svabhava) (Mitchell, 132). The pivotal chapter 24 of the Mulamadhyamakakarika begins by outlining the objections to the doctrine of emptiness that he anticipated from Theravadin thinkers:

If all these [things] are empty,

Nothing can arise and nothing can disintegrate.

Consequently the Four [Noble] Truths

Will not be there for you.

... And because the [Noble] Truths will be non-existent,

The sublime dharma will also not be there.

If Dharma and Sangha are non-existent,

How can there be a Buddha? (CTAO, 25)

In short, he believed they would accuse him of being nihilistic. However, he explains that it is because of them "not realizing the purpose of emptiness, its nature and the meaning" (Ibid, 26) that they attribute these logical faults to him. Nāgārjuna goes on to explain that the logical conclusion of the Buddha's teaching that all things come into existence dependent on other things as their causes, is that it is not only humans that are empty of ātman or independent existence, but that all things are without any svabhāva, ("self-nature"), and thus are empty of inherent being:

Whatever is dependently arisen

Is explained to be emptiness.

Its existence is imputed in dependence upon something else

And this is the path of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka). (Nagarjuna in Gyamtso, 157)

It is important to clarify that Nāgārjuna's philosophy, far from being nihilistic, is in fact tremendously life-affirming. He argues that if we existed in complete independence from other phenomena and had an unchanging essence, we could not come into being (we require a cause, such as our parents), nor could we ever grow or have new experiences. We would either always be in suffering or always in happiness (or some other state), and that those of us not already buddhas could never become one. The belief in phenomena that are self-existent undermines the entire system of Buddhist thought (such as the Four Noble Truths, which teach that there is suffering, a cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, and a path to realize cessation). Because we are without inherent existence, we can become anything we work toward, even a buddha.

Nāgārjuna was also the first philosopher to propose the two-truths doctrine, which claims that there are two types of truth, the absolute truth (paramārtha satya) of śūnyatā, and the relative truth (saṃvṛti satya) of appearances. This is another key area where we see that Nāgārjuna was not a nihilist. He argued that the world of names and forms (namarupa) does indeed exist, but only as appearances, not as something which is substantially real. In order to understand the true nature of the phenomenal world, we must understand emptiness. Likewise, it is the world of logic and forms that leads us to understand śūnyatā. Furthermore, without forms there is no emptiness, and without emptiness there are no forms. Thus even the two-truths are dependently arisen. Realization of this is said to lead to direct perception of tathata or suchness, which Tibetans refer to as the union of luminosity (appearances) and emptiness. This is the heart of Madhyamaka - the Middle Way between the extremes of nihilism and eternalism.

Writings

There are a number of influential texts attributed to Nāgārjuna, although many were likely written by later authors. The only work that all scholars agree is was written by him is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way), which contains the essentials of his thought in twenty-seven short chapters. Works commonly attributed to Nagarjuna are:

• Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way)
• śūnyatāsaptati (Seventy Verses on Emptiness)
• Vigrahavyāvartanī (The End of Disputes)
• Vaidalyaprakaraṇa (Pulverizing the Categories)
• Vyavahārasiddhi (Proof of Convention)
• Yuktiṣāṣṭika (Sixty Verses on Reasoning)
• Catuḥstava (Hymn to the Absolute Reality)
• Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)
• Pratītyasamutpādahṝdayakārika (Constituents of Dependent Arising)
• Sātrasamuccaya
• Bodhicittavivaraṇa (Exposition of the Enlightened Mind)
• Suhṝllekha (To a Good Friend)
• Bodhisaṃbhāra (Requisites of Enlightenment)

There are other works attributed to Nāgārjuna, some of which may be genuine and some not. There is evidence that some were written by a second, later Nāgārjuna who was the author of a number of tantric works which have subsequently been incorrectly attributed to the original Nāgārjuna. The problem of compiling a complete biography is further exacerbated by the phenomena of future authors signing their works in his name as a sign of their reverence for him.

English translations

Other works

Author	Title	Publisher	Notes
Lindtner, C	Nagarjuniana	Motilal, 1987 [1982]	Contains Sanskrit or Tibetan texts and translations of the Shunyatasaptati, Vaidalyaprakarana, Vyavaharasiddhi (fragment), Yuktisastika, Catuhstava and Bodhicittavivarana. A translation only of the Bodhisambharaka. The Sanskrit and Tibetan texts are given for the Vigrahavyavartani. In addition a table of source sutras is given for the Sutrasamuccaya.
Komito, D R	Nagarjuna's "Seventy Stanzas"	Snow Lion, 1987	Translation of the Shunyatasaptati with Tibetan commentary
Bhattacharya, Johnston and Kunst	The Dialectical Method of Nagarjuna	Motilal, 1978	A superb translation of the Vigrahavyavartani
Kawamura, L	Golden Zephyr	Dharma, 1975	Translation of the Suhrlekkha with a Tibetan commentary
Jamieson, R.C.	Nagarjuna's Verses on the Great Vehicle and the Heart of Dependent Origination	D.K., 2001	Translation and edited Tibetan of the Mahayanavimsika and the Pratityasamutpadahrdayakarika, including work on texts from the cave temple at Dunhuang, Gansu, China

External links

• Nagarjuna Seminar
• Overview of traditional biographical accounts
• Mūlamadhyamakakārikā-s of Nāgārjuna: Sanskrit text
• Nāgārjuna: Sanskrit texts (Ratnāvalī, Lokātītastava, Acintyastava, Bodhicittavivaraṇa, Yuktiṣaṣtikākārikā-s, and Vigrahavyāvartanī)
• Nāgārjuna: texts and materials
• Kaccayanagotta Sutta on Access to Insight
• Nārāgjuna vis-à-vis the Āgama-s and Nikāya-s

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Campbell, W. L. Ed. and trans. 1919. The Tree of Wisdom: Being the Tibetan text with English translation of Nāgārjuna's gnomic verse treatise called the Prajñādanda. Calcutta University. Reprint: Sonam T. Kazi, Gangtok. 1975.
• McCagney, Nancy, 1941. Nāgārjuna and the philosophy of openness. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, c 1997.
• Kalupahana, David J. The Philosophy of the Middle Way. SUNY, 1986
• Murty, K. Satchidananda. 1971. Nagarjuna. National Book Trust, New Delhi. 2nd edition: 1978.
• Ramanan, K. Venkata. 1966. Nāgārjuna's Philosophy. Charles E. Tuttle, Vermont and Tokyo. Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi. 1978. (This book gives and excellent and detailed examination of the range and subtelties of Nagarjuna's philosophy.)
• Samdhong Rinpoche, ed. 1977. Madhyamika Dialectic and the Philosophy of Nagarjuna. Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, India.
• Sastri, H. Chatterjee, ed. 1977. The Philosophy of Nāgārjuna as contained in the Ratnāvalī. Part I [ Containing the text and introduction only ]. Saraswat Library, Calcutta.
• Streng, Frederick J. Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1967.
• Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
• Zangpo, Ngorchen Kunga. 1975. The Discipline of The Novice Monk. Including Ācārya Nāgārjuna's The (Discipline) of the Novice Monk of the Āryamūlasaryāstivādīn in Verse, and Vajradhara Ngorchen Kunga Zenpo's Word Explanation of the Abridged Ten Vows, The Concise Novice monks' Training. Translated by Lobsang Dapa et al. Sakya College, Mussoorie, India

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