A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna written by Choney Lama, Drakpa Shedrup (1675-1748) translated by Geshe Michael Roach A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Copyright ©2018 by Geshe Michael Roach. All rights reserved. Sections may be reproduced with the author’s permission. Please contact: [email protected] Volume 111 of the Diamond Cutter Classics Series Diamond Cutter Press 6490 Arizona Route 179A Sedona, AZ 86351 USA 2 A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................ @ A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness .......................................................................... 11 Bowing down, and promising ........................................................................................12 How did Arya Nagarjuna give his commentaries? .....................................................15 Why call this book “Wisdom”? .......................................................................................18 The Tibetan translator bows down .................................................................................20 Chapter 1: An Investigation of Conditions ....................................................... 22 Praising the teacher, for dependence .............................................................................23 The eight impossibles .......................................................................................................26 Two self-natures that were never there .........................................................................31 What does each chapter teach? .......................................................................................34 Nothing ever grows ..........................................................................................................40 Choosing the right negation ............................................................................................48 The logic behind the denial .............................................................................................51 Can things grow from something else? .........................................................................54 Can things grow by themselves? ....................................................................................56 3 A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Can things even be something else? ...............................................................................61 What is a condition for something to grow? .................................................................67 If it has results, is it a condition? .....................................................................................73 Conditions for what? .......................................................................................................75 Denying that a causal condition has any qualities of its own ...................................................................................77 Denying that an object condition has any qualities of its own ....................................................................................80 Denying that a condition for what comes immediately after has any qualities of its own ...................................................................................83 Denying that a dominant condition has any qualities of its own ...................................................................................86 Concluding remarks on results that never grow ..........................................................88 Concluding remarks on causes with no nature ............................................................92 Connecting the chapter to scripture ...............................................................................96 The name of the chapter ...................................................................................................98 Chapter 2: An Investigation of Going & Coming .......................................... 100 Cancelling three parts to a path ....................................................................................101 Cancelling stepping ........................................................................................................106 Can words have a meaning of their own? ...................................................................108 4 A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Can meanings have a word of their own? ...................................................................110 Can multiple words have single meanings? ...............................................................113 Does going make a goer? ...............................................................................................117 None of three “possibilities” ........................................................................................119 Does going involve a goer? ............................................................................................121 Do goers involve a going? .............................................................................................124 Neither both goer & going .............................................................................................125 Going is impossible .........................................................................................................127 Is there anywhere on a path to go on? .........................................................................130 Is there any path with parts? .........................................................................................133 Can we stand still? ..........................................................................................................135 Can we turn back? ..........................................................................................................138 When staying is going ....................................................................................................140 Goer & going: one or separate? ....................................................................................142 Could there not be any going before? ..........................................................................146 Could there be any going before? .................................................................................149 Summary on three variations ........................................................................................150 Is there anything about going we could ever find? ...................................................153 Connections to the scriptures ........................................................................................154 5 A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna The title of the chapter ....................................................................................................155 Chapter 3: An Investigation of the Powers ..................................................... 157 A structure for discussing how nothing is itself .........................................................158 Are senses & their objects themselves? ........................................................................159 But the eye cannot see itself ...........................................................................................161 Why fire doesn’t work ....................................................................................................164 A summary on seeing .....................................................................................................167 Is the eye connected to seeing? .....................................................................................169 Understanding seers with seeing .................................................................................171 Seers after seeing .............................................................................................................173 No seeing, nothing seen .................................................................................................175 Applying it to the other senses .....................................................................................178 A clarification of terms ...................................................................................................180 Scriptural sources ............................................................................................................180 The chapter’s name .........................................................................................................181 Chapter 4: An Investigation of the Parts to a Person .................................... 182 Can causes be separate from results? ...........................................................................183 Causes & results, without ..............................................................................................185 6 A Ship on the Sea of Emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Neither there or not ........................................................................................................188 Neither similar nor not ...................................................................................................191 And the rest of the parts .................................................................................................192 Using what’s proven, to prove ......................................................................................194