- Apr 30, 2013
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Thanks Quid.
That seems like an accurate portrayal, with the goal being the non-existence of all minds and things. In fact the Madhyamaka school in particular has often been accused of a kind of nihilism.
"Merrily, Merrily, Merilly, Merilly, life is but a dream."
Apparently Madhyamaka is a kind of practical Buddhist philosophy in the sense that it is meant to remove anything that the mind might become attached to
Yes.
Thus everything is ontologically empty--Nothingness--even concepts and even the Madhyamaka philosophy itself. So it's not a body of speculative knowledge so much as a tool to guide the mind to enlightenment, almost like a macrocosmic koan.
Yes. When I studied under Thitch Nhat Hanh's denomination, one of the teachings was as a precept that even Buddhist doctrine itself is provisional, and that rigid ideas were a kind of idolatry, and that truth was found in life. I think there's some truth in that (no pun intended) still.
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