All under heaven

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I am reading and studying Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamikakarika (Root Stanzas of Middle Way) using Jay Garfield's book The Fundamental Wisdom of Middle Way. Growing up as a Tibetan, reverence for Nagarjuna and the profound wisdom of Middle way he propounded comes naturally. But reading and engaging with his works is done almost never. I am not a practicing buddhist anymore but I still value a good philosopher and Nagarjuna in my brief encounter with him is a mind of no compete.

But Je Tsongkhapa was right. Middle way or the idea of Sunyata, that all phenomena are devoid of inherent existence, or the view of dependent origination, that all phenomena are dependently originated, viewed as one in the same as taught by Buddha, and then explained and enriched by Nagarjuna, is a very difficult subject. I have found the infinite wisdom of ChatGPT to be a good dialectical partner to truly distill my understanding.

Even so, on top of intellectually understanding the argument, they require 'practice' as a supplementary task so that these ideas are not ultimately sterile within a person. I still don't buy the soteriology of these ideas but as with all other philosophies and ideas that I read, this one has an allure for me.