06-22-2010, 12:01 AM
Gonzo wrote:What? I tried reading this and other things Nagarjuna supposedly said, and I wondered if it wasn't a joke. I have no idea what he's talking about and I certainly do not understand anything he says.
Yes, some background would be helpful, again, Lex told me and so I'm working from memory...but Nagarjuna prepared the Fundamentals text for another school of Buddists who were entrenched in essentialism. This text was intended as an assault on that errant logic. Same as with the question on infinity and the finite. Questioning the logic the "holds everything together" in a nice tidy package. Taking each piece apart one by one to show the facade--the tightly woven appearance of things, for what it is. To do this he leaves no stone unturned, that's why you see so many statements and seeming contradictions, etc. He is exhausting the mind's tendency to "take hold" and fixate on "something".
Its really only a starting point. And its an exercise on logic but it does deliver you to a new understanding if you work with it for a while. At first I found it tedious too. But I did not find anything in there I could deny was true.
Yes, some background would be helpful, again, Lex told me and so I'm working from memory...but Nagarjuna prepared the Fundamentals text for another school of Buddists who were entrenched in essentialism. This text was intended as an assault on that errant logic. Same as with the question on infinity and the finite. Questioning the logic the "holds everything together" in a nice tidy package. Taking each piece apart one by one to show the facade--the tightly woven appearance of things, for what it is. To do this he leaves no stone unturned, that's why you see so many statements and seeming contradictions, etc. He is exhausting the mind's tendency to "take hold" and fixate on "something".
Its really only a starting point. And its an exercise on logic but it does deliver you to a new understanding if you work with it for a while. At first I found it tedious too. But I did not find anything in there I could deny was true.