Nagarjuna's Concept of Emptiness versus Buddhist Philosophical Teaching - Essay Example

Nagarjuna's Concept of Emptiness versus Buddhist Philosophical Teaching Nagarjuna theory of emptiness has fundamental disparity between the way the world is perceived which includes the existence of humans and the way things are; there are entities that are self-enclosed, discrete, enduring or definable. Looking at our selfhood conception, people have a tendency of believing the presence of our human being and this characterizes our individuality and identity as being an ego that is discrete and independent from mental and physical elements necessary for our existence. The beliefs of emptiness is not just an ultimate error but the foundation for attachments that humans have, besides this, it is responsible for the adhering to and development of numerous prejudices. On the other hand, Buddhist philosophical teaching has narrations which are a style of representing a topic and not its theme; this is the core of Buddhist art. The representation becomes a narrative when its representation unfolds as a chain of events or at times it becomes a story that consists of various episodes; the representation revolves around an action that progress into time and later into space. Nagarjuna's concept of emptiness has the notion of intrinsic and independent existence that is often incompatible with causation because causation signifies contingency and dependence; therefore, something that poses independence is usually immutable and self-enclosed. Everything is composed of events that are dependently related and have phenomena that are continuous interacting with an essence that is not fixed or immutable hence they have a relation that is constantly changing. Both occasions and possessions are bare and do not possess permanent essence, realities that are intrinsic or an absolute being that make them afford impartiality. Infirmity takes place when there is grasping of autonomous existence; this eventually leads to a series of actions that are destructive, sufferings, and reactions. In addition to this, the theory of Nagarjuna emptiness has profound ethical and psychological implications (Olson, 45). For instance, ideologies responsible for dividing humanity come from the tendency of people to perceive things to be inherently divided and disconnected; this misconception brings about the belief that the divisions are essentially independent and self-existent. On the other hand, Buddhism narration involved ancient classics and the story and all related action unfolds out of disclosure; they often evolve from a chain of stories that are not linked together. Discourse and introduction of the story initiates moral in the story and supports it, same applies to the other story and the other except for the case of visual narration which is somewhat different. In visual narration, moral is deducted but does not come at the beginning of the narration; likewise, it has the discourse technique but it is not on the ground to take off. The narrator is required to be precise when selecting episodes that are able to reveal the whole story; moreover, the narrator has to know how to portray actors, represent spaces in the story and shape the time during which the story unfolds (Edelglass, 602). Literary narratives have stories that manipulate time and space; for instance, in a sentence that talks about two people who met in France after five years and they both had grown beards has time and space appearing in the narrative body. It is said that in one of his first sermons, the Buddha made a prescription of a middle path between the characters of self indulgence and self mortification, stating that there had to be a balance between the two. Nagarjuna, who came in a later period, made a citation of the same but while this was the case, he went even further by stating that there was a middle way between existence and non-existence and also between what is permanent and what is not. According to this philosopher, the development of ignorance among individuals tends to be the source of all the suffering that they experience and this is because of the fact that they believe in their own selves and this ensures that their lives are based only on permanence. This can be rendered as self nature and it is the belief that all things exist at three levels, namely autonomously, independently, and permanently. The fact that many individuals hold on to this belief means that they end up succumbing to the existence of permanence, a belief can be considered to be wrong. In addition, it is also considered to be wrong for individuals to believe that nothing exists because this is the extreme nature of annihilation. Therefore, according to Nagarjuna, the ideal form of reality is emptiness, which he considers to be the true nature of reality, but he defines this not as the lack of existence, but as the absence of fundamental existence (Olson, 46). Nagarjuna developed his concept of emptiness not only through a study of the teachings of the Buddha, but also the Four Noble Truths, as well as Nirvana, and the conclusion that he comes up with is that none of these has the permanence that is normally ascribed to them. The approach taken by Nagarjuna is the consideration of the diverse ways through which a certain being could exist and then to display that none of these ways of existence is reasonable or acceptable because of the meaninglessness that would be concerned with such reasoning. An example of Nagarjuna’s reasoning is based on the chapter on motion, where he questions whether gatam, or going, can be found on the path that has already been used, the path that is in the process of being used, or the path that is yet to be used. After considering this concept, he comes to the conclusion that gatam is absent in all of these instances and as a result, the act of gatam cannot be found. He therefore comes to the conclusion that the absence of gatam is an example of the emptiness of motion, but while this is the case, he does not mean that motion does not exist, but that it does not exist in the way that many individuals often assume. The adoption of this concept has allowed Nagarjuna to avoid accusations of nihilism, an accusation which many of his latter followers would end up facing over the centuries. Works Cited Edelglass, William. "Emptiness Appraised: A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's Philosophy." Philosophy East and West 53.4 (2003): 602-5. Olson, Carl. The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative Historical Introduction. New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers University Press. Read More