Nagarjuna

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Nāgārjuna (c.150–250). The founder of the Mādhyamaka school of Buddhism and author of the Mūla-Mādhyamaka-Kārikā and other important works. As a philosopher he has few equals in the history of Buddhism, yet the details of his life are obscure and surrounded by mythological accretions.

He is regarded by many Buddhists of the Mahāyāna tradition as a ‘Second Buddha’, and his philosophy of emptiness (śūnyatā) was of enduring significance for later Buddhist thought.

Nāgārjuna reached this position through a dialectic of oppositions. The initiating recognition of anātman (no Self in the human appearance) still left an awareness that the human appearance sustains activities with characteristic natures (dharma natures). Nāgārjuna argued that these too are empty of self (dharmanairātmya), and are not independent constituents of appearance: they depend on each other and have no more reality than their interdependence. All dharmas are māyā (dreamlike appearance).

However, appearances have at least that much existence—they appear to be. Thus Nāgārjuna charts the Middle Way between substance and solipsism. The ‘thusness’ (tathatā) of what is cannot be described but only realized, as undifferentiated in nature. Therefore even nirvāna and saṃsāra have the same nature (‘there is not the slightest difference between the two’)—they are not other than each other, since all is empty of self. In that sense, all oppositions between nirvāna and saṃsāra, heaven and earth, icon and index, disappear.

The purpose of a wise life, therefore, is not to strive to attain some goal or target (heaven, enlightenment), but to uncover and discover what one already is, and has been all the time: the buddha-nature which is the same nature of oneself and all appearance (see BUDDHATĀ; BUSSHO; TATHĀGATA.

Nāgārjuna. A major figure in the rise of philosophical Mahāyāna, deemed to be the founder of the Madhyamaka school. Little is known of his life although it is generally accepted that he lived during the late 2nd century ce and was active primarily in south India. The accounts of his life agree that he was born as a Brahmin in south India and entered the Buddhist Order (Saṃgha) as a young man. It is reported that he was presented with the texts of the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtras by the king of the Nāgas, a mythical race of serpents with magic powers. Nāgārjuna is reputed to have been friendly with a Śātavāhana ruler who built a monastery (vihāra) for him in Śrīparvata. This was probably King Gautamīputra, for whom Nāgārjuna composed his ‘Friendly Epistle’ (Suhṛllekha). The details of his death are obscure: he is reported to have either ended his own life or allowed himself to meet death at the hands of another. He is regarded by many Buddhists of the Mahāyāna tradition as a ‘Second Buddha,’ and his philosophy of emptiness (śūnyatā) was of enduring significance for later Buddhist thought. Although over a hundred works are attributed to him, many of these are pseudo-epigraphical, but included among his authentic works are the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā, the Śūnyatā-saptati, the Vigraha-vyāvartanī, the Yukti-ṣaṣtikā, the Catuḥstava, the Ratnāvalī, and the Suhṛllekha.

Nagarjuna see Madhyamika .