Bouddha encounter

[Jonathan Bricklin]

Jaldhar Vyas writes:


>Those people who say the idea that Buddhism teaches nihilism is just Hindu
>propaganda are dead wrong.  That's exactly what the bhikshu is telling
>you.  And those who say it is a later development and not the Buddhas
>"real" teaching are also wrong as apparently this Hinayanist doesn't seem
>to have a problem with a "Mahayana" teaching.



He might if he read it more closely.  Nagarjuna taught the emptiness of
everything--including emptiness.
Or so argues Jay Garfield in a new commentary published by Oxford
University Press.  At any rate, the exact meaning and use  of sunya for
Nagarjuna and the Buddha is a more open question than you have presented it
here.  Newcomers to this list might want to check out a good debate on the
topic that occurred in the fall of 97.  Those who have access to a
University Library might want to take a look at Garfield's article:
"Dependent Arising and the Emptiness of Emptiness:  Why did Nagarjuna start
with causation" in the April 94 issue of Philosophy East West."



Jonathan Bricklin
Brickmar at earthcom.net

----------------
"Nor ever [it] was, nor will [it] be, since now [it] is all together, one,
continuous,"
Parmenides