And Nagarjuna Drew His Sword of Wisdom
During our 2009-2010 Winter Retreat, Ven. Thich Thien Son gave 9 days of teachings on the teachings and life of the famous Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna, who lived between 150-250 CE. Like none other, Nagarjuna solidified and revitalized Buddhism in many areas with new impulses.
Thanks to his solid foundation in the Buddhist scriptures, especially the Abhidhamma, his studies in the consciousness-only school, as well as his deep insight into the Indian psychology and philosophy of the Vedas and Upanishads, he used his sharp intellect to give Mahayana Buddhism a new and sustainable direction. His teachings are the cornerstone of the so-called Middle-Way (Madhyamika) School, which still influences Tibetan and Zen Buddhism.
The two main concepts encountered again and again in Nagarjuna’s texts are: emptiness (shunyata) and duality.
Duality determines our everyday life: day and night, happiness and suffering, and poor and rich are just some examples of dualistic pairs.
Why do we need this constant and pervasive duality?
We need it in order to distance ourselves from each other. Only by being different can we express and define ourselves. Our self feeling crucially hinges on whether we are better or worse than our peers. Given the impression that someone is just like us, we will not rest until we find some feature to distinguish ourselves from one another.
Equality has a dangerous affect on our ego. The underlying fear of losing one’s self in a nondescript mass occurs at the surface of our consciousness. For example, “Yes, we are both therapists, but my clients are much more difficult than yours.” Only in the division do we feel our alleged identity and individuality. We can position ourselves. The illusion of uniqueness gives us a sense of security and a right to existence.
So, are we all equal, and simply don’t realize it? Nagarjuna would say: We are not all alike nor do we differ from each other. An example is: you plant a mango seed. Eventually, a tree grows and a ripe, juicy mango appears on the vine. Is the mango the same as the seed? Is it different? We can understand that the seed and the fruit are not identical, but they are also not completely different.
The seed is the precondition for the fruit. This leads us to another widespread law in Buddhism: things arise in mutual dependence. In other words, every occurrence is conditioned. Cause and effect determine the dynamics of our being.
What does this mean for our daily lives?
As long as we adhere to certain beliefs and concepts, we create the conditions for the emergence of the dualistic opposite pole. That is, if we constantly ask our man, “Do you love me?” We produce a result described by Nagarjuna’s law of duality, that is, the energy of the opposite pole. The more we yearn for love, the more we produce the partner’s desire for separation from us, via hatred and anger. Because, love and hate are the dualistic expression of the same energy. Both forms of expression are about the connection - in the case of love, she seeks it, and in the case of hate, it is rejected.
How can we get out of this duality and let her go?
The pivot point of our self-created duality is assumption. Our head is full of assumptions about the world and the nature of things. With assumptions, we define our existence. An example: if we define our relationship with friends by the fact that we are useful to them, then if we are not useful to them, that would jeopardize our friendships.
The process of letting go only works if we let go of our assumptions on the spiritual as well as the physical level. For example, someone wants to separate from his partner. He realized the relationship is not good for him, because he only felt controlled. His head tells him, “I want to end the relationship.” On the physical level, however, there is the longing - for companionship and security. As long as we stick to our assumptions on the material level, we will not be able to let go completely.
Consequently, our assumptions trigger intense feelings of fear and resistance from within us. But, herein lies our big chance - if we can identify and change our beliefs with intellectual training, we can liberate ourselves from our inner prison. We are suddenly in a position to not only see the dirt in front of us on the road, but the blooming flowers along the roadside. Our field of vision in magnified many times over.
Emptiness, then, according to Nagarjuna, is to be free of solid assumptions. Because only then can we practice openness and impartiality in every moment of our life. If we are open and have trained our six senses, we see things as they really are, beyond duality: empty of self-adhesive substance that is transitory, and therefore, changeable.
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