“I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.
This frightens all children,
And kills fear in the wise.”
Nagarjuna, lived between approximately 150 and 250 AD (CE). The name means ”noble serpent”. He was born into a wealthy Hindu family, but converted to Buddhism. The teachings he revealed over the course of his life are foundational to the Mahayana schools of Buddhism. Mahayana means ”Great Vehicle”.
It would be too long to go into his philosophies but there is an excellent article about Nagarjuna here ~ http://www.iep.utm.edu/nagarjun/
Extract…
Nagarjuna saw in the concept sunya, a concept which connoted in the early Pali Buddhist literature the lack of a stable, inherent existence in persons, but which since the third century BCE had also denoted the newly formulated number “zero,” the interpretive key to the heart of Buddhist teaching, and the undoing of all the metaphysical schools of philosophy which were at the time flourishing around him. Indeed, Nagarjuna’s philosophy can be seen as an attempt to deconstruct all systems of thought which analyzed the world in terms of fixed substances and essences. Things in fact lack essence, according to Nagarjuna, they have no fixed nature, and indeed it is only because of this lack of essential, immutable being that change is possible, that one thing can transform into another. Each thing can only have its existence through its lack (sunyata) of inherent, eternal essence. With this new concept of “emptiness,” “voidness,” “lack” of essence, “zeroness,” this somewhat unlikely prodigy was to help mold the vocabulary and character of Buddhist thought forever.
”Even three times a day to offer
Three hundred cooking pots of food
Does not match a portion of the merit
In one instant of love.” ~ Nagarjuna
Generally just Being. Nothing in particular, no claims to fame. I like gardening and the sea, nature, art in all forms from poetry to films and everything in between, and being in the company of my family.
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