cardemaister wrote: > Anyone know where one could find them on the Net? > Erik - Yes, you can find Nagarjuna's negations on the net and in various books about Indian philosophy. There are actually eight negations proposed by Nagarjuna (circa 200 AD).
Well, I don't know where Judy got the impression that Nagarjuna had anything to say about the Indian term 'Brahman', since Nagarjuna was a Middle Way Buddhist writing before the advent of Adwaita; from Ken Wilber, I guess. She failed to credit her citation. Whoops! I pointed this out on several occasions: The concept of 'Brahman' is an illusion according to Nagarjuna; a mere metaphysical construct, not an object of cognition. Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental From: willytex Date: 16 Feb 2005 14:02:14 -0800 Subject: Re: Nagarjuna's Four Negations http://tinyurl.com/2c3hyf It would be more likely that Shankara (circa 788 AD) read the works of Nagarjuna and presented himself as a quasi-Buddhist in order to gain adherents to Adwaita. It is interesting to note that Shankara put on the ochre robe in imitation of the Buddhist sramanas, during the time in Indian history that Buddhism was flourishing all over India. jstein wrote: > Here's Nagarjuna's Four Negations: > > Brahman is not the relative. > Brahman is not the Absolute. > Brahman is not the relative and the Absolute. > Brahman is not neither the relative nor the Absolute. > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/141175 The Negations of Nagarjuna: "From the absolute standpoint there is neither destruction nor production, neither nihilism nor eternalism, neither unity nor plurality, neither coming in or going out" (Sharma 90). The four negations summary in a nutshell: Things are not produced - a thing cannot arise out of itself. Motion is impossible - things do not move hither and thither. There is no change - things do not change into other things. Action and its results are unreal - matter is an illusion, an appearance only, just like the horns of hare, a dream, defective vision, or a barren woman's son. Source: 'Madhyamika Karika' By Nagarajuna p. 11 Cited in: 'A Crtitical Survey of Indian Philosophy' By Chanradhar Sharma, M.A., D.Phil., L.B., Shastri 'Muula Madhyamaka Kaarikaa' Translation by Professor Richard Hayes http://www.geocities.com/jiji_muge/mmk.html
