Emptiness wrongly grasped destroys the slow-witted, like a snake wrongly seized or a spell wrongly cast.
apakarSati shuunyataa durdRSTaa vipascitam / sarpo yathaa durgRhiito vidyaa vaa duSpraSaadhitaa
Philosophers
Nagarjuna
A second-century South Indian monk who founded the Madhyamaka school by systematizing the doctrine of emptiness. His Mulamadhyamakakarika is among Buddhism's key texts. Tibetans call him the Second Buddha.
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Nagarjuna's Other Quotes
Neither ceasing nor arising, neither annihilated nor eternal, neither one nor many, neither coming nor going.
What is dependently originated, that we declare to be emptiness. It is a dependent designation; it is itself the middle way.
Emptiness is declared by the Buddhas to be the exit from all views. But those who hold emptiness as a view are called incurable.
For whom emptiness works, everything works. For whom emptiness does not work, nothing works.
Those who understand that things arise dependently know them to be empty.
Related Quotes
Neither ceasing nor arising, neither annihilated nor eternal, neither one nor many, neither coming nor going.
-- Nagarjuna
What is dependently originated, that we declare to be emptiness. It is a dependent designation; it is itself the middle way.
-- Nagarjuna
Emptiness is declared by the Buddhas to be the exit from all views. But those who hold emptiness as a view are called incurable.
-- Nagarjuna
For whom emptiness works, everything works. For whom emptiness does not work, nothing works.
-- Nagarjuna
Those who understand that things arise dependently know them to be empty.
-- Nagarjuna
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible for a better solution.
-- René Descartes