Mahayanavimsaka: Twenty Mahayana Verses: Nagarjuna

Mahayanavimsaka:
Twenty Mahayana
Verses
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna
Mahayanavimsaka:
Twenty Mahayana Verses
Translated into English by the Anagarika Kunzang Tenzin
Illustrated by Serge Prengel
Translation:
Copyright © 1973 The Anagarika Kunzang Tenzin
All rights reserved
This e-book:
Copyright © 2008 Serge Prengel - All rights reserved
Published by Active Pause ® - New York, NY
Nāgārjuna is considered by many to be the "First Patriarch" of Buddhism - -
one of the most important contributors to the Buddhist tradition as the
founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Of particular importance is his work on śūnyatā, or "emptiness."
"Emptiness" refers to the concept that everything is “empty” of independent

substance - - in other words, things (including events and people) are
interdependent.
This approach invites us to go beyond the illusions of our perceptions. We

now see the world as a web of relationships, instead of objects and beings
that exist independently of anything else. We see processes, instead of
things that don’t change.
This text is presented here in an illustrated version to help you pace your
reading, one verse at a time.
1
I bow down to the all-powerful Buddha

Whose mind is free of attachment,
Who in his compassion and wisdom
Has taught the inexpressible.
2
In truth there is no birth—

Then surely no cessation or liberation;
The Buddha is like the sky
And all beings have that nature.
3
Neither Samsara nor Nirvana exist,

But all is a complex continuum
With an intrinsic face of void,
The object of ultimate awareness.
4
The nature of all things

Appears like a reflection,
Pure and naturally quiescent,
With a non-dual identity of suchness.
5
The common mind imagines a self

Where there is nothing at all,
And it conceives of emotional states—
Happiness, suffering, and equanimity.
6
The six states of being in Samsara,

The happiness of Heaven,
The suffering of Hell,
Are all false creations, figments of mind.
7
Likewise the ideas of bad action causing suffering,

Old age, disease and death,
And the idea that virtue leads to happiness,
Are mere ideas, unreal notions.
8
Like an artist frightened

By the devil he paints,
The sufferer in Samsara
Is terrified by his own imagination.
9
Like a man caught in quicksands

Thrashing and struggling about,
So beings drown
In the mess of their own thoughts.
10
Mistaking fantasy for reality

Causes an experience of suffering;
Mind is poisoned by interpretation
Of consciousness of form.
11
Dissolving figment and fantasy

With a mind of compassionate insight,
Remain in perfect awareness
In order to help all beings.
12
So acquiring conventional virtue

Freed from the web of interpretive thought,
Unsurpassable understanding is gained
As Buddha, friend to the world.
13
Knowing the relativity of all,

The ultimate truth is always seen;
Dismissing the idea of beginning, middle and end
The flow is seen as Emptiness.
14
So all Samsara and Nirvana is seen as it is—

Empty and insubstantial,
Naked and changeless,
Eternally quiescent and illumined.
15
As the figments of a dream

Dissolve upon waking,
So the confusion of Samsara
Fades away in enlightenment.
16
Idealizing things of no substance

As eternal, substantial and satisfying,
Shrouding them in a fog of desire
The round of existence arises.
17
The nature of beings is unborn

Yet commonly beings are conceived to exist;
Both beings and their ideas
Are false beliefs.
18
It is nothing but an artifice of mind

This birth into an illusory becoming,
Into a world of good and evil action
With good or bad rebirth to follow.
19
When the wheel of mind ceases to turn

All things come to an end.
So there is nothing inherently substantial
And all things are utterly pure.
20
This great ocean of Samsara,

Full of delusive thought,
Can be crossed in the boat Universal Approach.
Who can reach the other side without it?
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Mahayanavimsaka:

Illustrated by Serge Prengel

Of particular importance is his work on śūnyatā, or "emptiness."

"Emptiness" refers to the concept that everything is “empty” of independent

This approach invites us to go beyond the illusions of our perceptions. We

I bow down to the all-powerful Buddha

In truth there is no birth—

Neither Samsara nor Nirvana exist,

The nature of all things

The common mind imagines a self

The six states of being in Samsara,

Likewise the ideas of bad action causing suffering,

Like an artist frightened

Like a man caught in quicksands

Mistaking fantasy for reality

Dissolving figment and fantasy

So acquiring conventional virtue

Knowing the relativity of all,

So all Samsara and Nirvana is seen as it is—

As the figments of a dream

Idealizing things of no substance

The nature of beings is unborn

It is nothing but an artifice of mind

When the wheel of mind ceases to turn

This great ocean of Samsara,

Blog / Podcast: http://pausefully.com

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