Philosophy

Nagarjuna

c. 150 – c. 250 AD · Indian

Mahayana Buddhism; founder of the Madhyamaka ("Middle Way") school

Nagarjuna is the most important Buddhist philosopher after the Buddha himself, and the founder of the Madhyamaka or "Middle Way" school. Writing in terse Sanskrit verse, he argued that nothing whatever possesses svabhava — intrinsic, independent existence — because everything arises in dependence on something else. That doctrine of emptiness (sunyata), and the two-truths framework that keeps it from collapsing into nihilism, shaped Buddhist thought across Tibet, China, Korea and Japan.

How to spot them

▸Sunyata (emptiness); svabhava (intrinsic nature); the two truths, conventional and ultimate
▸The catuskoti or tetralemma: not X, not not-X, not both, not neither
▸Madhyamaka, later split into Prasangika and Svatantrika branches
▸Honorific "the second Buddha"; Chinese name Longshu; Tibetan Ludrup
▸The legend of the nagas, serpent-spirits who kept the Perfection of Wisdom sutras under the sea

Key works

Twenty-seven chapters of tightly compressed verse denying that anything arises from itself, from another, from both or from neither; its twenty-fourth chapter identifies dependent arising with the central doctrine (c. 200)

Mulamadhyamakakarika, the "Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way" — the founding text of Madhyamaka

A reply to the objection that a thesis denying that anything has a nature must destroy itself; the answer is that the author advances no thesis at all (c. 200)

Vigrahavyavartani, "The Dispeller of Disputes"

A garland of counsel in verse addressed to a south Indian king, running from metaphysics to the running of a compassionate state (c. 200)

Ratnavali, the "Precious Garland", probably written for a Satavahana ruler

Seventy stanzas restating the central doctrine in compressed form and defending it from the charge of nihilism (c. 200)

Sunyatasaptati, the "Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness"

Sixty stanzas of argument concluding that the round of rebirth and its cessation are not two different things (c. 200)

Yuktisastika, "Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning"

A verse letter of practical Buddhist advice sent to a royal correspondent, lost in Sanskrit but preserved in Tibetan and Chinese (c. 200)

Suhrllekha, the "Letter to a Friend"

Key ideas

Emptiness (sunyata): to be empty is to lack svabhava, intrinsic existence — not to be non-existent
Emptiness and dependent origination are the same thing said twice: whatever arises dependently is empty, and vice versa
The two truths: conventional truth (samvrti-satya), in which tables and people are perfectly real, and ultimate truth (paramartha-satya), in which nothing has its own nature; the teaching collapses if the two are confused
The catuskoti or four-cornered negation: a claim, its denial, both together and neither are all rejected
The emptiness of emptiness: emptiness is not a final substratum or a thing in its own right
Samsara and nirvana are not two different realms; there is not the slightest difference between them

Quick-fire facts

•Traditionally associated with south India and with the patronage of a Satavahana king
•Legend says he descended to the realm of the nagas — serpent-spirits — and brought back the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) sutras, hence his name
•He is often called "the second Buddha", and is counted among the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas
•A later tantric author of the same name, sometimes distinguished as Nagarjuna the tantrika, is a separate figure
•Candrakirti and Bhavaviveka disagreed over how to argue his position, producing the Prasangika and Svatantrika branches
•Kumarajiva translated his work into Chinese in the early 5th century, founding the Sanlun ("Three Treatise") school
•Tibetan tradition makes him the source of both the "profound view" lineage and much of the monastic curriculum
•Indian alchemical and medical tradition also attributes works to a Nagarjuna, probably by conflation

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Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Nagarjuna
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Nagarjuna (c. 150—c. 250)