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Nagarjuna's Verses from the Center
Space
No trace of space
Is there before
The absence of obstruction
Which describes it.
With no obstruction,
How can there be
Absence of obstruction?
Who distinguishes between them?
Space is not obstruction
Or an absence of it,
Nor is it a description
Or something to describe.
Fluidity and heat,
Energy and gravity
Are just like space.
In seeing things
To be or not to be
Fools fail to see
A world at ease.
Time
If I had a past,
What is now and yet to come
Would have already happened.
Were there no now and future then,
How could now and future
Ever have a past?
Without a past
There is no now and future;
What is now and still to come
Would never happen.
Past, present, future
Are like bottom, middle, top
And one, two, three.
You can’t grasp time
And times you can
Are never time itself.
Why configure time you cannot grasp?
If time depends on things,
How could I ever have
Time apart from things?
Without things how could time persist?
Self
Were mind and matter me,
I would come and go like them.
If I were something else,
They would say nothing about me.
What is mine
When there is no me?
Were self-centeredness eased,
I would not think of me and mine -
There would be no one there
To think them.
What is inside is me,
What is outside is mine -
When these thoughts end,
Compulsion stops,
Repetition ceases,
Freedom dawns.
Fixations spawn thoughts
That provoke compulsive acts -
Emptiness stops fixations.
Buddhas speak of “self”
And also teach “no self”
And also say “there’s nothing
Which is either self or not.”
When things dissolve,
There’s nothing left to say.
The unborn and unceasing
Are already free.
Buddha said: “It is real,”
And “it is unreal,”
And “it is both real and unreal,”
And “it is neither one nor the other.”
It is all at ease,
Unfixatable by fixations,
Incommunicable,
Inconceivable,
Indivisible.
You are not the same as or different from
Conditions on which you depend;
You are neither severed from
Nor forever fused with them -
This is the deathless teaching
Of buddhas who care for the world.
When buddhas don’t appear
And their followers are gone,
The wisdom of awakening
Bursts forth by itself.
Stephen Batchelor is the Director of Studies at Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry. He has translated several books and is the author of Buddhism Without Beliefs and the forthcoming Verses from the Center, to be published May 2000 by Riverhead. Extracts from Stephen Batchelor’s Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime (Riverhead, 2000).
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This morning I sat. Now I go downstairs.
It is refreshing to see discussion and debate that doesn't lead to acrimony, something which is VERY rare in Internet discussions. I found myself, out of habit, constantly expecting the sharp comeback, the ruffled feathers, the accusations and calling of names that is the norm. Congratulations on a very tricky path adroitly navigated! Here's to illumination of the truth rather than reinforcement of the self!
Study and compare Batchelor, Kalapahana & Garfield's translations of Nagarguna's masterpiece verse by verse and in the end we will have greater clarity about emptiness and the middle way.
"Emptiness is experienced as the letting go of fixed ideas about oneself and the world:" Wow, I have been struggling with the concept of emptiness for years. That one line makes so much sense to me. Thanks.
Another way to view Emptiness is to simply combine the aspects of Impermanence (Instability or Constant Change) and Not-Self (Inter-Dependence or Inter-Being) of all phenomena. The original teaching of the Buddha was that all phenomena whatsoever are 'empty of self', but the Mahayana expansion upon that theme is more a combination of these two. It may be easier to first concentrate on the fact that all compounded things are impermanent; nothing lasts. After thoroughly perceiving that all things whatsoever must pass, then move on to the non-abiding of any 'self', that all things arise due to conditions and are interdependent with everything else around them. The understanding of emptiness is difficult without a solid foundational understanding of both of these concepts.
The full and penetrative realization of emptiness is Nirvana, because emptiness (Buddha Nature) is already what all of 'this' is. The mind is only bound up in false views and suffering because it does not know its own true nature, which it shares with all phenomena.
I very much enjoyed this article, thank you!
If more people would focus on Emptiness, there would be fewer obstructions on the path to liberation.
If you could focus on emptiness, it wouldn't be emptiness.
There is no path. How then can there be fewer obstructions?
It is toward the reality of emptiness to focus, not upon the concept. This is why we observe the arising and passing of phenomena; this is why we meditate. Go beyond thinking, especially if you think you're good at thinking. The real hindrance is never looking, always remaining bound up in the ceaseless chatter and desire-fulfillment of the mind. Train the mind, hold it in check and do not let it wander, and then watch. Just watch!
I think it is toward the absence of pedantic preaching that one should strive
Aversion arises within the clinging mind, neither self nor other. We have to recognize that the habitual tendencies of the mind, its likes and dislikes, are not who/what we really are. Only then can we set them down, rather than acting upon them and generating further unwholesome results. Mindfulness is our greatest treasure. With mindfulness established, we can reflect upon our sensations and restrain the mind from acting with unwholesome intent. Having restraint in this way gives rise to tranquility and can lead to insight, by showing that all thoughts and feelings arise and pass on their own due to conditions (and are not who/what we are).
~~
If you believe yourself to be separate from the 'preaching', this is like kicking a fire hydrant and believing the pain arises independently. Kicking the hydrant and then not learning from the pain, over and over, is insanity. We constantly nurture the conditions for our own suffering, failing to penetrate the Four Noble Truths and the empty nature of all phenomena (including all that we think of as our self). You don't have to be very smart to understand, but you do have to at least try.
Come now gentlemen your love is all I crave...let us not live in a circus....as we are heading to our grave!
And death itself is empty (meaningless outside the context of the ongoing cycle of existence) as well as impermanent.
As Gertrude Stein writes, "There is no there there." There is neither path nor obstructions to the past (save for memories). What's done is done. It has no relevance to your present and future. It is empty, nil. But there is definitely a path towards your future. And indeed there will be more and greater obstructions to it. Maintain your faith, hope and courage, fellow bodhisattva, and you will soon arrive at something even greater than the past or the present.
The mind of the past is ungraspable;
the mind of the future is ungraspable;
the mind of the present is ungraspable. -Diamond Sutra
And yet it is the same "mind" (i.e. your life). -Dominic Gomez
Perhaps it is the same mind, perhaps not. The analogies of a candle flame and stepping into the same river twice suggest it is not.
What I was saying is that there is no path and there are no obstacles. However, that doesn't prevent us from seeing a path and obstacles (to a putative goal).
Surface conditions may change (smooth flowing to rapids) but it is still the river. Your life changes even moment by moment but you are still celticpassage.
I think not.
That's the whole point behind no-self.
Something may persist we can't say what, but it certainly isn't me.
Nevertheless, the specific point was about obstacles on 'the path'
"No self" means your present condition in this life is not permanent. It's not who and what you really are. Your eternal self is Buddha, and you are currently standing in a river that's constantly swishing and changing around your ankles.
I disagree.
Of course my present condition in this life isn't permanent, that is unremarkable.
It isn't the same person stepping into the same river twice, and the candle flame analogy is meant to highlight that there is no underlying self just as it isn't the same flame. If the purpose of the analogy were to illustrate obvious surface changes, the analogy would be pointless.
I also don't think Buddhism teaches that there's an eternal self.
Perhaps you can direct me to the relevant Buddhist teaching which clearly states this?
However, I do think that Buddhism teaches that there is no path, and nowhere to go. There is no past, present, or future (as per the Diamond Sutra above).
We're a bit off topic, but the Lotus Sutra teaches the eternity and universality of the enlightened self, aka Buddha. But your present condition (your temporal self) isn't permanent because it IS empty, i.e. inconsequential if taken as being isolated from surrounding phenomena. But we do not live in a vacuum. As conditioned by other people, places and things, this smaller self of yours DOES have substance, or meaning. Be kinder to your self, celticpassage. :-)
I think 'eternal self' can be very easily misconstrued, don't you DG? It can reinforce ideas of duality, or that any amount of this 'substance' is actually what we are. If this were so, we'd never be able to grow from a fertilized egg into an adult. Any ideas of self or other need to drop from the mind. We could say that Buddha Nature or Emptiness is that which is constant (eternal), but Buddha Nature has no 'self' or 'other', no birth or death.
Oh and eternal self is another way of putting the soul in other religions. That certainly doesn't help!
The idea that everything we are has always existed, and always will, is a good one and does help one detach... if that's the idea. It's just the words 'eternal self' that are full of potential for being misunderstood. Even 'true self' can lead to some of the same problems, there still being the possibility of self/other duality. A lot of times phrases such as True Nature or Original Face are used, pointing directly to Emptiness.
Well, actually, that sounds more like your paraphrase and not what is actually said.
Perhaps you can point out where it states those things in the lotus sutra, and preferably where the same thing is taught in at least one other source such as another sutra or supporting statements from recognized Buddhist scholars: We wouldn't want to consider only a restricted range of view.
[celticpassage:] "However, I do think that Buddhism teaches that there is no path"...
How is that? Where does Buddhism teach this? It is likely you took this out of context, and definitely have misunderstood. The Noble Eightfold Path is the Buddha's teaching, the very foundation of all forms of Buddhism. It may be an abstraction, a 'tool' or 'method' used to liberate the mind, but if you cling to the view that there is no Path, you have no way of achieving that liberation. This path may be nothing but a method, but it brings about the necessary change. That is its purpose, why the Buddha taught it. He didn't teach the Path as being some aspect of reality, but rather as the most direct Way to bring the mind into accord with reality (Emptiness) itself. The Noble Eightfold Path is the teaching of an enlightened mind for worldlings to go beyond the world.
Keep on keepin' on DG. =) I love how a simple statement about how I liked the article turned into all of this discussion. Isn't it grand?
Another metaphor would be to say that we are a river that has formed within the vast ocean, neither separate from that ocean nor an unchanging or permanent 'thing' or 'being'. This so-called river is never other than the ocean (what we are is not other than the Ocean of Dharma/Emptiness/Buddha-Nature). Mind arises due to conditions, but those conditions are not necessarily conducive to clear knowing of reality as it is, and so mind discriminates between self and other and sees its 'self' as something separate and/or permanent. Craving (for or for-not) arises based on ignorance and so gives rise to suffering.
Don't worry about people who say there is no path or no suffering (or no obstructions); not that you seem worried! The Buddha taught us to recognize suffering and to walk the path, overcoming obstructions. That's where effective change takes place. We begin by taking refuge, by realizing that our worldly ways are not the 'way' to wisdom and that the mind must be tamed. The path is no more than an effective course of change from 'clinging' to 'letting go', powered by our personal effort and by karma (skillful intentions overcome the defilements). Obstructions are only that which stand in the way of this change, and include not seeing the Noble Eightfold Path as a 'corrective course' leading to the Other Shore. Or a medicine to cure our ills.
[Some of us don't want to take the medicine, but would rather debate what the medicine really 'means' and how it works until we're blue in the face. Better to take the medicine as prescribed (walk the Path to change delusion into wisdom), and then see if we still feel like debating! We will have begun seeing things as they are and letting go; the method will make sense to us because it will have had an effect upon our lives. This is why the Buddha warned us with the story of a man shot with an arrow who refuses to accept treatment until he knows every single detail to his satisfaction... he'll die before he knows it all! The same with us if we only intellectually debate the teachings instead of following them... *doing* the practice. Our own inclinations invariably lead us further and further into self-centeredness. Until we can admit that we need help, we can not even truly take refuge in the Buddha, his teachings, and those who have transmitted those teachings (which is really the first step, the prerequisite, to following the Path in earnest). It's just like Alcoholics Anonymous, but we are Deluded Cravers Anonymous... we have to admit that we have a problem first!]
"Keep on keepin' on": It's called turning the wheel of the Law. ;-) And the sutras are simply a compilation of Shakyamuni's many discussions with reglar folks like you and me.
It's been a refreshing talk. =) The sutras/suttas are great if you can understand the archaic turn of phrase. There are also modern teachers, such as Ajahn Chah from the Thai Forest Tradition, that speak in a more 'regular folk' way. Thich Nhat Hanh is another. Really the message can be put in any number of ways, and practice takes on different forms, but the 'essence' is always the same because it's pointing toward the same Reality. It's very fortunate that the Dharma is always right here, in every moment and every experience, so that we can see for ourselves.