"One of the chief causes of bondage is, not so much the faculty of
conceptualization, but rather the propensity to grasp onto the products of that
faculty. The rational nature, like the dispositions Nagarjuna discussed in
section seven of the karika, has a value. Concepts are an important and
necessary tool to be used in ordering one’s world and acting within it. The
problem is that rational creatures, be they humans or Gods, tend to ascribe
excessive validity to these concepts. This is done for two reasons. One is
ignorance: the rational creature does not know or ignores the fact that his or
her mental nature is only a tool and has limited applicability. The other, and
perhaps foundational, reason that sentient creatures cling to the mental
processes is desire. Desiring pleasure, the mind reifies the apparently
pleasurable things in the hope of thereby possessing them and preventing them
from ceasing. Fearing death, the individual reifies the apparent existence of
life itself and thereby acts with excessive and unjustified selfishness. The
Buddha taught that these two tendencies, desire and the faith in the results of
mentation, are, indirectly, the cause of bondage. “Desire, know I thy root,” he
is reported to have said. “From conception thou springest; No more shall I
indulge in conception; I will have no desire any more.”"
(Winters, Jonah, 'Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna’s Middle Way')
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