Nāgārjuna

Nāgārjuna on the DRL

Classical Indian Authors • Authors of Sanskrit Works

ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་

Wylie	klu sgrub
Romanized Sanskrit	Nāgārjuna

 

Thangka by Shawo Thar, 2003. View full painting on Himalayan Art Resources

 

Himalayan Art Resources

 

Painting by Pema Namdol Thaye Courtesy of Padma Studios

Other names

• འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་
• སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ནཱ་གརྫུ་ན་
• སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་

• 'phags pa klu sgrub
• slob dpon chen po nA gardzu na
• slob dpon klu sgrub

Alternate names

• Ārya Nāgārjuna

Dates

Birth:	ca. 2nd century

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Students

Śavaripa · Āryadeva

Other Biographical info:

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P4954

Wiki Pages

• Nāgārjuna on the DRL
• Nāgārjuna on the LIB
• Nāgārjuna on the RTZ
• Nāgārjuna on the DNZ
• Nāgārjuna on the BNW

Notes

Generally speaking this can refer to, at least, two individuals: the early philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school and a later mahāsiddha counted in Tibetan as one of the rig 'dzin brgyad. In terms of the RTZ, this figure generally refers to the later Nāgārjuna.

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Nāgārjuna was the c. 2nd century founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. He is eulogized in the Tibetan tradition as one of the group of great Indian scholars known as the Six Ornaments, though he is equally renown in the Chinese and other East Asian Buddhist traditions. He was the first major Mahāyāna philosopher and his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā became the standard exposition for the Mahāyāna view of emptiness (śūnyatā) as presented in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras.

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.