"My own feeling is that when Buddha talks about
te suttantā tathāgatabhāsitā gambhīrā gambhiratthā lokuttarā suññatapaṭisaṃyuttā, (SN II, 267)
"these suttas spoken by the Tathāgata are deep, deep in meaning, supramundane, dealing with emptiness"
this is the same as Nāgārjuna's śūnyatā. How could they be different?"
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That was my own feeling when I attended the class on Naagarjuna nd muulamadhyamakaarikaa. My professor was fully convinced of the above. But I never agreed because of a question. If the Buddha and Naagarjuna said the same thing how could Naagarjuna become the 'father of Mahaayaana'? It took me years to unravel it.
The meanings of 'sunyataa' as used by the Buddha, and Naagarjuna were different. If you read Chapter 25 of the Muulamadhyamakaarikaa--nirvaana pariikshaa, then you will realise that Naagarjuna did not understand 'nibbaana'.
As an example, here is verse 19 of chapter 25:
na sa.nsaarasya nirvaanaath kincidasti vishesana,m
na nirvaa,nasya s.nsaaraat kincidasti vishesana.m.
Let me give the idea in English: there is nothing that in nibbaana that can be differentiated from what is in sansara and vice versa. He couldn't find the difference between sa.nsaara and nibbaana!!!!! In effect sansaara = nibbaana in some sense. {I am not familiar with writing Sanskrit is roman characters; please forgive me for the above]
{The above equation is ataman = brahman in a different form.} There is no question that Naagarjuna did not understand nibbaana. No one has ever said, that he was an arahant or even a sotapanna. Thus he couldn't have any clue to nibbaana; leave alone understanding it) Even modern scholars describe him as a Buddhist philosopher.
It is impossible to get to dhamma by thinking--it is atakkaavacaro.
I really don't spend much time on Naagarjuna or any of the later texts. So most of the above is what came to my mind. I might be totally wrong.
Grateful if you would come back with comments.
Thanks for an interesitng discussion,
With mettaa,
D. G. D. C. Wijeratna
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