Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Buddhist

2nd Century

About Nagarjuna

Timeline (150? - 250?)

Nagarjuna, Nagarjuna poetry, Buddhist, Buddhist poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

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English version by
Stephen Batchelor

Original Language
Sanskrit

Body

Themes

Womb

Recommended Books

	The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika, by Nagarjuna / Translated by Jay L. Garfield
	Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism in Early Indian Culture, by Joseph Walser
	Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend, by Nagarjuna / Translated by Padmakara Translation Group
	Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness, by Nagarjuna / Translated by David Ross Komito
	Ngarjuna's Philosophy: As Presented in the Maha-Prajnaparamita-Sastra, by K. Venkata Ramanan

More >>

I have no body apart
From parts which form it.
I know no parts
Apart from a "body."

A body with no parts
Would be unformed,
A part of my body apart from my body
Would be absurd.

Were the body here or not,
It would need no parts.
Partless bodies are pointless.
Do not get stuck in the "body."

I cannot say,
"My body is like its parts."
I cannot say,
"It's something else."

Feelings, perceptions,
Drives, minds, things
Are like this body
In every way.

Conflict with emptiness
Is no conflict;
Objections to emptiness,
No objections.

-- from Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime, by Nagarjuna / Translated by Stephen Batchelor

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Nagarjuna

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World