1 00:00:00,303 --> 00:00:02,016 Nagarjuna's remedy cured the old disease 2 00:00:02,302 --> 00:00:03,596 and planted a new one 3 00:00:03,903 --> 00:00:05,476 last episode ended on a cliffhanger 4 00:00:05,942 --> 00:00:09,076 the logical blade Nagarjuna used to tear down other people's houses 5 00:00:09,182 --> 00:00:10,656 does it itself have intrinsic nature 6 00:00:12,289 --> 00:00:12,763 if it does 7 00:00:13,130 --> 00:00:14,942 then he contradicts dependent origination himself 8 00:00:15,170 --> 00:00:16,182 if it does not 9 00:00:16,209 --> 00:00:19,363 how can he tear down other people's houses with an empty blade 10 00:00:19,849 --> 00:00:20,322 this question 11 00:00:20,770 --> 00:00:22,743 was thrown at him by his opponents face to face 12 00:00:22,889 --> 00:00:24,168 and Nagarjuna's answer 13 00:00:24,170 --> 00:00:28,543 is the most brilliant and most baffling part of all Madhyamaka philosophy 14 00:00:29,054 --> 00:00:29,366 hello 15 00:00:29,613 --> 00:00:30,046 everyone 16 00:00:30,214 --> 00:00:31,226 I am Leo Wang 17 00:00:31,453 --> 00:00:34,027 Nagarjuna's answer is written in the Vigrahavyavartani 18 00:00:34,174 --> 00:00:35,887 the gist can be boiled down to one line 19 00:00:36,333 --> 00:00:38,027 my blade is empty too 20 00:00:38,269 --> 00:00:39,602 his opponents would surely press him 21 00:00:39,669 --> 00:00:41,503 how can an empty blade cut anything 22 00:00:42,150 --> 00:00:42,742 Nagarjuna said 23 00:00:43,110 --> 00:00:44,708 precisely because it is empty 24 00:00:44,709 --> 00:00:45,763 it can cut 25 00:00:46,110 --> 00:00:47,788 when I first read this passage 26 00:00:47,790 --> 00:00:49,323 it felt like a Zen riddle 27 00:00:49,390 --> 00:00:51,083 I circled it for days and got nowhere 28 00:00:51,229 --> 00:00:53,522 then one day I went to the pharmacy for cold medicine 29 00:00:53,550 --> 00:00:54,803 and it suddenly clicked 30 00:00:55,573 --> 00:00:56,566 you go to the hospital 31 00:00:57,014 --> 00:00:58,547 the doctor prescribes you a drug 32 00:00:58,893 --> 00:01:01,826 the drug works by clearing out what your body does not need 33 00:01:02,453 --> 00:01:04,307 the drug itself is also just a chemical 34 00:01:04,573 --> 00:01:06,452 you swallow it and it does its job 35 00:01:06,453 --> 00:01:07,747 then it gets metabolized away 36 00:01:08,134 --> 00:01:11,226 it does not stay inside you and turn into a permanent organ 37 00:01:11,613 --> 00:01:14,827 and you do not need to grant that pill any eternal essence 38 00:01:14,934 --> 00:01:16,267 it still cures you 39 00:01:17,387 --> 00:01:19,280 that is exactly what Nagarjuna meant 40 00:01:19,708 --> 00:01:21,481 his argument is a dose of medicine 41 00:01:21,708 --> 00:01:24,880 meant to clear the surplus assumption out of your thinking 42 00:01:25,068 --> 00:01:26,321 and that assumption is intrinsic nature 43 00:01:26,747 --> 00:01:27,380 the medicine arrives 44 00:01:27,627 --> 00:01:28,261 the illness goes 45 00:01:28,627 --> 00:01:30,520 and the medicine metabolizes away too 46 00:01:30,668 --> 00:01:33,267 if a pill you swallow cannot be metabolized 47 00:01:33,267 --> 00:01:34,866 and stays in your body forever 48 00:01:34,868 --> 00:01:36,061 then it is not medicine anymore 49 00:01:36,187 --> 00:01:37,321 that is a kidney stone 50 00:01:37,814 --> 00:01:40,853 so when opponents say your own theory is empty too 51 00:01:40,853 --> 00:01:42,347 Nagarjuna does not deny it 52 00:01:42,347 --> 00:01:42,886 he says instead 53 00:01:43,094 --> 00:01:43,446 exactly 54 00:01:43,693 --> 00:01:44,773 emptiness is empty too 55 00:01:44,773 --> 00:01:46,826 and that is precisely what proves my point 56 00:01:47,213 --> 00:01:48,526 what makes this answer brilliant 57 00:01:48,973 --> 00:01:50,386 it seals off one road 58 00:01:50,654 --> 00:01:52,413 you cannot use you are empty too 59 00:01:52,413 --> 00:01:55,306 to refute someone who already admits he is empty 60 00:01:56,377 --> 00:01:58,669 it is like pointing at a street sweeper and saying 61 00:01:58,817 --> 00:02:01,029 the broom in your hand is dirty too 62 00:02:01,336 --> 00:02:02,050 and the sweeper says 63 00:02:02,496 --> 00:02:02,690 right 64 00:02:03,136 --> 00:02:04,669 the broom is dirty too 65 00:02:04,897 --> 00:02:05,410 once the sweeping is done 66 00:02:05,776 --> 00:02:08,070 just throw the broom out with the trash 67 00:02:08,297 --> 00:02:10,630 I never claimed the broom was clean 68 00:02:11,046 --> 00:02:13,738 but saying emptiness is empty is not enough by itself 69 00:02:14,206 --> 00:02:16,365 Nagarjuna tore down every house 70 00:02:16,366 --> 00:02:17,539 including his own 71 00:02:17,806 --> 00:02:18,479 so where do people live 72 00:02:19,125 --> 00:02:20,539 if everything is empty 73 00:02:20,605 --> 00:02:24,298 including your arguments your methods even emptiness itself 74 00:02:24,526 --> 00:02:26,079 then how does daily life keep running 75 00:02:26,605 --> 00:02:27,879 does cause and effect still hold 76 00:02:28,445 --> 00:02:29,879 does practice still mean anything 77 00:02:30,405 --> 00:02:33,178 you cannot wave it all away with a single word emptiness 78 00:02:33,829 --> 00:02:35,602 of course Nagarjuna thought about this 79 00:02:35,630 --> 00:02:37,029 the solution he offered 80 00:02:37,029 --> 00:02:39,322 was to keep everything is empty as the premise 81 00:02:39,350 --> 00:02:42,162 and split off two levels to house human life 82 00:02:42,549 --> 00:02:45,202 the first level is the everyday world 83 00:02:45,269 --> 00:02:46,102 on this level 84 00:02:46,390 --> 00:02:47,668 a table is a table 85 00:02:47,670 --> 00:02:48,783 cause and effect is cause and effect 86 00:02:49,070 --> 00:02:50,523 practice is practice 87 00:02:50,709 --> 00:02:53,708 we operate with language concepts and logic 88 00:02:53,709 --> 00:02:55,403 and that toolkit really works 89 00:02:55,589 --> 00:02:57,428 you cannot say that because everything is empty 90 00:02:57,429 --> 00:02:58,469 you stop eating 91 00:02:58,469 --> 00:02:59,142 stop going to work 92 00:02:59,269 --> 00:03:00,428 stop taking care of your family 93 00:03:00,429 --> 00:03:01,262 that is not awakening 94 00:03:01,390 --> 00:03:02,322 that is just being foolish 95 00:03:02,986 --> 00:03:05,678 the second level is ultimate reality 96 00:03:05,825 --> 00:03:06,699 on this level 97 00:03:06,986 --> 00:03:09,118 tables cause and effect and practice 98 00:03:09,146 --> 00:03:10,744 and even the word emptiness itself 99 00:03:10,746 --> 00:03:12,718 none of them has a self existing essence 100 00:03:12,866 --> 00:03:14,305 they hold together 101 00:03:14,306 --> 00:03:16,998 because they depend on each other and come together through conditions 102 00:03:17,105 --> 00:03:20,359 not because each one has some hard core propping it up 103 00:03:20,545 --> 00:03:21,518 here is the key part 104 00:03:21,586 --> 00:03:23,385 these two levels are not opposed 105 00:03:23,385 --> 00:03:24,998 it is not that one is true and one is false 106 00:03:25,797 --> 00:03:26,910 Nagarjuna put it very plainly 107 00:03:27,357 --> 00:03:28,596 without relying on conventional truth 108 00:03:28,596 --> 00:03:29,769 you cannot reach ultimate truth 109 00:03:29,935 --> 00:03:30,716 which means 110 00:03:30,716 --> 00:03:34,530 you have to find your footing in everyday language and concepts first 111 00:03:34,596 --> 00:03:37,850 only then can you see through them to ultimate reality 112 00:03:38,036 --> 00:03:40,835 trying to bypass daily life and jump straight to ultimate truth 113 00:03:40,835 --> 00:03:41,602 does not work 114 00:03:41,797 --> 00:03:44,929 it is like writing a novel before you learn the alphabet 115 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:48,639 for a detailed philosophical breakdown of these two levels 116 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:52,093 we devoted a whole members only episode to it 117 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,554 today I only want to make one point from a historical angle 118 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,093 why this framework matters 119 00:03:58,441 --> 00:03:59,494 it matters because 120 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:02,494 it shielded Nagarjuna from the deadliest attack 121 00:04:03,003 --> 00:04:05,376 there is a passage in chapter twenty four of the Mulamadhyamakakarika 122 00:04:05,404 --> 00:04:07,656 the most crucial statement in the whole treatise 123 00:04:08,003 --> 00:04:09,637 back then someone attacked Nagarjuna saying 124 00:04:10,124 --> 00:04:11,562 you say everything is empty 125 00:04:11,564 --> 00:04:12,842 then cause and effect is gone 126 00:04:12,844 --> 00:04:13,677 practice is gone 127 00:04:13,964 --> 00:04:15,977 the Buddha the Dharma and the Sangha are gone too 128 00:04:16,043 --> 00:04:17,077 you are not spreading the Dharma 129 00:04:17,364 --> 00:04:18,577 you are destroying it 130 00:04:18,964 --> 00:04:20,963 in the Indian intellectual world of that era 131 00:04:20,963 --> 00:04:23,016 that accusation was devastating 132 00:04:23,244 --> 00:04:26,657 because once a Buddhist scholar was branded a destroyer of the Dharma 133 00:04:26,724 --> 00:04:29,456 he had no standing left anywhere in the Buddhist world 134 00:04:29,604 --> 00:04:31,376 no matter how precise your logic 135 00:04:31,403 --> 00:04:33,696 nobody debates a destroyer of the Dharma 136 00:04:34,569 --> 00:04:36,122 Nagarjuna's counterstrike was a single line 137 00:04:36,569 --> 00:04:37,622 you have it backwards 138 00:04:37,809 --> 00:04:39,242 what his text says is roughly this 139 00:04:39,650 --> 00:04:42,583 it is exactly because nothing has a fixed unchanging essence 140 00:04:42,650 --> 00:04:45,703 that things can arise change and interact 141 00:04:45,809 --> 00:04:46,622 think about it 142 00:04:46,689 --> 00:04:49,728 if a glass of water had an eternal unchanging water essence 143 00:04:49,730 --> 00:04:51,288 it could only ever be water 144 00:04:51,290 --> 00:04:52,283 it could never become ice 145 00:04:52,569 --> 00:04:54,143 and never become steam 146 00:04:54,329 --> 00:04:57,369 precisely because it has no fixed essence called water 147 00:04:57,369 --> 00:04:59,422 it can change as conditions change 148 00:05:00,263 --> 00:05:02,516 so emptiness does not negate everything 149 00:05:02,984 --> 00:05:06,316 emptiness is the precondition that lets everything work 150 00:05:06,703 --> 00:05:07,256 without emptiness 151 00:05:07,663 --> 00:05:09,157 nothing could ever happen 152 00:05:09,504 --> 00:05:11,436 that reversal is beautiful 153 00:05:11,864 --> 00:05:14,917 his opponents attacked emptiness as nihilism 154 00:05:15,143 --> 00:05:16,516 Nagarjuna told them 155 00:05:16,544 --> 00:05:18,997 emptiness is the very opposite of nihilism 156 00:05:19,663 --> 00:05:23,037 the real nihilists are the ones clinging to intrinsic nature 157 00:05:23,424 --> 00:05:25,756 because in a world where nothing can change 158 00:05:25,823 --> 00:05:27,316 everything seems to be there 159 00:05:27,343 --> 00:05:29,357 but nothing can ever actually happen 160 00:05:30,181 --> 00:05:30,693 at this point 161 00:05:30,980 --> 00:05:32,153 let us pause 162 00:05:32,340 --> 00:05:34,653 and return to the calibration question running through this whole series 163 00:05:35,420 --> 00:05:36,540 did Nagarjuna's work 164 00:05:36,540 --> 00:05:39,153 move closer to what the Buddha saw under the bodhi tree 165 00:05:39,340 --> 00:05:40,773 or further away 166 00:05:41,261 --> 00:05:42,434 the answer is clear 167 00:05:42,580 --> 00:05:44,414 Nagarjuna was defending dependent origination 168 00:05:44,741 --> 00:05:46,354 not rewriting it 169 00:05:46,501 --> 00:05:49,474 the Buddha said all things arise from conditions coming together 170 00:05:49,621 --> 00:05:51,474 and nothing exists on its own 171 00:05:51,741 --> 00:05:53,994 later scholars analyzing the Dharma 172 00:05:54,061 --> 00:05:57,994 unknowingly granted independence to the analytical tools themselves 173 00:05:58,140 --> 00:05:59,013 what Nagarjuna did 174 00:05:59,301 --> 00:06:01,474 was scrape that added layer off 175 00:06:01,540 --> 00:06:05,354 letting the Buddha's original insight into dependent origination show again 176 00:06:05,540 --> 00:06:07,580 his blade was never aimed at the Dharma 177 00:06:07,580 --> 00:06:10,674 it was aimed at the rust later generations left on it 178 00:06:11,540 --> 00:06:12,693 in that sense 179 00:06:13,061 --> 00:06:14,859 Madhyamaka was not an innovation 180 00:06:14,861 --> 00:06:16,273 it was a repair 181 00:06:17,089 --> 00:06:18,122 but once the repair was done 182 00:06:18,449 --> 00:06:19,742 new problems showed up 183 00:06:19,889 --> 00:06:22,742 and these were not flaws in the theory itself 184 00:06:22,769 --> 00:06:25,262 they appeared when the theory landed in the real world 185 00:06:25,290 --> 00:06:27,863 creating difficulties Nagarjuna never foresaw 186 00:06:28,209 --> 00:06:28,882 history shows 187 00:06:29,209 --> 00:06:30,903 his remedy cured the old disease 188 00:06:30,930 --> 00:06:33,742 and planted at least two new ones 189 00:06:34,030 --> 00:06:34,742 the first hidden problem 190 00:06:35,030 --> 00:06:35,823 a precise diagnosis 191 00:06:35,989 --> 00:06:37,162 with no prescription 192 00:06:37,629 --> 00:06:40,042 Nagarjuna's reductio method is razor sharp 193 00:06:40,109 --> 00:06:41,263 whatever position you propose 194 00:06:41,429 --> 00:06:43,083 he can dismantle it from the inside 195 00:06:43,270 --> 00:06:45,229 but when a practitioner comes up to him 196 00:06:45,229 --> 00:06:47,349 and says I get it everything is empty 197 00:06:47,350 --> 00:06:48,282 now what 198 00:06:48,390 --> 00:06:50,063 the only direction he can offer is one 199 00:06:50,470 --> 00:06:51,883 keep seeing emptiness 200 00:06:52,865 --> 00:06:55,438 more and more practitioners later found 201 00:06:55,544 --> 00:06:58,757 that between knowing everything is empty and living it 202 00:06:58,784 --> 00:07:00,597 lies an enormous gap 203 00:07:01,305 --> 00:07:02,298 you sit on the cushion 204 00:07:02,625 --> 00:07:03,623 watch the breath 205 00:07:03,625 --> 00:07:04,298 watch your thoughts 206 00:07:04,625 --> 00:07:06,197 and see that they are all empty 207 00:07:06,664 --> 00:07:07,217 and then what 208 00:07:08,065 --> 00:07:08,738 the moment you get up 209 00:07:09,024 --> 00:07:10,983 the lady at the market overcharges you five bucks 210 00:07:10,984 --> 00:07:12,318 and you still get angry 211 00:07:12,904 --> 00:07:14,597 you know anger is empty 212 00:07:14,664 --> 00:07:17,358 but knowing that does not make the anger go away 213 00:07:17,775 --> 00:07:20,008 how exactly do my greed anger and delusion arise 214 00:07:20,416 --> 00:07:21,688 what pathway do they run through 215 00:07:22,176 --> 00:07:24,289 at which link can I start taking them apart 216 00:07:24,895 --> 00:07:26,289 these operational questions 217 00:07:26,816 --> 00:07:28,148 Nagarjuna never unpacked 218 00:07:28,455 --> 00:07:29,748 not because he did not care 219 00:07:30,015 --> 00:07:30,974 but because he believed 220 00:07:30,976 --> 00:07:33,349 that once you truly understand emptiness deeply 221 00:07:33,575 --> 00:07:35,948 real practice follows naturally 222 00:07:36,496 --> 00:07:38,308 but for the vast majority of people 223 00:07:38,416 --> 00:07:41,508 truly understanding emptiness is the hardest step of all 224 00:07:41,736 --> 00:07:44,549 tell a drowning man that water is actually empty 225 00:07:44,616 --> 00:07:45,815 he agrees in theory 226 00:07:45,816 --> 00:07:47,268 and he is still choking on it 227 00:07:47,872 --> 00:07:48,625 the second hidden problem 228 00:07:48,952 --> 00:07:50,006 the abuse of emptiness 229 00:07:50,192 --> 00:07:51,386 Nagarjuna stressed again and again 230 00:07:51,713 --> 00:07:53,165 that emptiness is not nothingness 231 00:07:53,312 --> 00:07:54,485 but after he was gone 232 00:07:54,512 --> 00:07:57,006 not everyone held that line 233 00:07:57,273 --> 00:08:00,086 some people used everything is empty as a shield 234 00:08:00,273 --> 00:08:01,466 if everything is empty 235 00:08:01,793 --> 00:08:03,026 why take practice seriously 236 00:08:03,432 --> 00:08:04,225 good and evil are empty 237 00:08:04,552 --> 00:08:05,826 so why care about cause and effect 238 00:08:07,056 --> 00:08:07,729 this way of reading it 239 00:08:07,976 --> 00:08:10,109 was later called wrongly grasped emptiness by the commentators 240 00:08:10,296 --> 00:08:12,829 and it is exactly the misreading Nagarjuna feared most 241 00:08:13,137 --> 00:08:14,450 he even gave an explicit warning 242 00:08:14,897 --> 00:08:15,909 this thing called emptiness 243 00:08:16,176 --> 00:08:17,690 understood correctly it is the antidote 244 00:08:18,056 --> 00:08:19,750 understood wrongly it is poison 245 00:08:20,096 --> 00:08:22,895 like someone who cannot handle snakes insisting on grabbing a viper 246 00:08:22,897 --> 00:08:24,310 and getting bitten to death 247 00:08:24,536 --> 00:08:27,630 but he could not stand beside everyone forever as their gatekeeper 248 00:08:28,428 --> 00:08:30,522 others went to the opposite extreme 249 00:08:31,029 --> 00:08:32,027 talking about emptiness 250 00:08:32,029 --> 00:08:34,721 while quietly turning emptiness into another intrinsic nature 251 00:08:35,188 --> 00:08:36,548 they grip emptiness and will not let go 252 00:08:36,548 --> 00:08:38,827 like a man who throws away all his luggage 253 00:08:38,829 --> 00:08:42,201 but clutches the note that says bring nothing 254 00:08:42,949 --> 00:08:44,147 while Nagarjuna was alive 255 00:08:44,148 --> 00:08:46,921 he could seal off these wrong turns one by one with logic 256 00:08:47,148 --> 00:08:47,961 once he was gone 257 00:08:47,988 --> 00:08:51,522 they sprouted like weeds through the cracks in the foundation 258 00:08:51,914 --> 00:08:54,807 the Madhyamaka school later split into two branches 259 00:08:55,193 --> 00:08:55,866 one branch held 260 00:08:56,193 --> 00:08:57,713 that when you argue for emptiness 261 00:08:57,713 --> 00:09:00,207 you need to posit a provisional premise first 262 00:09:00,353 --> 00:09:02,567 even if that premise is only a convenience 263 00:09:02,713 --> 00:09:05,886 otherwise the other side has no idea what you are arguing 264 00:09:06,154 --> 00:09:09,087 the other branch stuck to Nagarjuna's pure reductio 265 00:09:09,193 --> 00:09:10,607 positing nothing at all 266 00:09:10,634 --> 00:09:13,246 and borrowing only the opponent's own logic to overturn him 267 00:09:13,713 --> 00:09:14,506 in their view 268 00:09:14,833 --> 00:09:16,632 the moment you posit a premise of your own 269 00:09:16,634 --> 00:09:18,126 you have already drifted away from emptiness 270 00:09:18,593 --> 00:09:20,807 that debate ran for centuries 271 00:09:20,873 --> 00:09:22,567 and it is still not fully settled 272 00:09:22,914 --> 00:09:23,953 in a way 273 00:09:23,953 --> 00:09:25,786 this is the price of Nagarjuna's method 274 00:09:26,314 --> 00:09:27,807 a blade this sharp 275 00:09:27,914 --> 00:09:30,207 also cuts the hand that holds it 276 00:09:30,896 --> 00:09:32,669 but for the history of Buddhist thought 277 00:09:32,697 --> 00:09:34,856 something mattered more than this internal quarrel 278 00:09:34,857 --> 00:09:37,270 the deeper problem it exposed 279 00:09:37,697 --> 00:09:40,150 Nagarjuna proved that no phenomenon has intrinsic nature 280 00:09:40,337 --> 00:09:40,530 fine 281 00:09:40,776 --> 00:09:41,589 accepted 282 00:09:41,697 --> 00:09:42,049 but 283 00:09:42,296 --> 00:09:44,229 if no phenomenon has intrinsic nature 284 00:09:44,337 --> 00:09:45,569 then explain one thing for me 285 00:09:45,977 --> 00:09:48,410 why is every person's life so different 286 00:09:48,977 --> 00:09:50,329 your greed and my anger 287 00:09:50,656 --> 00:09:51,990 are both empty 288 00:09:52,097 --> 00:09:55,770 so why do they show up and operate in such wildly different ways 289 00:09:56,337 --> 00:09:59,089 why is one person born hot tempered and another born gentle 290 00:09:59,536 --> 00:10:00,729 why can the same experience 291 00:10:01,016 --> 00:10:02,216 leave one person seeing through it 292 00:10:02,217 --> 00:10:03,729 and another stuck in delusion for life 293 00:10:04,787 --> 00:10:05,760 put it another way 294 00:10:06,148 --> 00:10:09,480 Nagarjuna proved the foundation should hold no intrinsic nature 295 00:10:09,748 --> 00:10:10,620 but he never answered 296 00:10:10,988 --> 00:10:13,380 what the building itself is made of 297 00:10:13,868 --> 00:10:15,301 you say the bricks should have no intrinsic nature 298 00:10:15,707 --> 00:10:16,147 fine 299 00:10:16,148 --> 00:10:17,880 then there has to be some other material 300 00:10:18,354 --> 00:10:19,147 everything is empty 301 00:10:19,514 --> 00:10:20,753 but in an empty world 302 00:10:20,754 --> 00:10:22,667 why do so many different things grow 303 00:10:23,394 --> 00:10:24,427 where does difference come from 304 00:10:24,994 --> 00:10:26,226 what carries experience 305 00:10:26,713 --> 00:10:27,907 where does memory live 306 00:10:28,553 --> 00:10:29,366 to these questions 307 00:10:29,553 --> 00:10:33,167 Madhyamaka has no answer that satisfies everyone 308 00:10:34,015 --> 00:10:34,448 and so 309 00:10:34,816 --> 00:10:36,749 a century or two after Nagarjuna 310 00:10:36,775 --> 00:10:38,389 two brothers appeared in India 311 00:10:38,576 --> 00:10:39,828 the elder was Asanga 312 00:10:39,895 --> 00:10:42,428 the first of the two to turn to the Mahayana 313 00:10:42,456 --> 00:10:45,228 said to have received teachings from Maitreya in meditation 314 00:10:45,535 --> 00:10:46,448 the younger was Vasubandhu 315 00:10:46,816 --> 00:10:48,909 a great scholar of the Sarvastivada 316 00:10:49,015 --> 00:10:50,728 who wrote the famous Abhidharmakosha 317 00:10:51,135 --> 00:10:53,629 a systematic summary of the Sarvastivada system 318 00:10:54,056 --> 00:10:55,534 the younger brother looked down on the Mahayana 319 00:10:55,535 --> 00:10:57,255 thinking it was invented by later generations 320 00:10:57,255 --> 00:10:58,389 and not spoken by the Buddha 321 00:10:58,856 --> 00:11:01,068 the story goes that the elder had him read a sutra 322 00:11:01,375 --> 00:11:02,308 and when he finished 323 00:11:02,415 --> 00:11:05,588 he realized everything he had written was waste paper 324 00:11:05,696 --> 00:11:07,308 he nearly cut out his own tongue 325 00:11:07,736 --> 00:11:08,728 his brother stopped him and said 326 00:11:09,175 --> 00:11:11,828 you used that tongue to slander the Mahayana 327 00:11:11,895 --> 00:11:14,509 now use the same tongue to spread it 328 00:11:15,149 --> 00:11:17,601 these two brothers did what Nagarjuna never did 329 00:11:17,989 --> 00:11:19,587 they stopped tearing houses down 330 00:11:19,588 --> 00:11:22,082 and redesigned the building materials instead 331 00:11:22,389 --> 00:11:24,601 materials that do not violate dependent origination 332 00:11:24,668 --> 00:11:27,302 and can answer the question Nagarjuna left hanging 333 00:11:27,989 --> 00:11:28,861 in an empty world 334 00:11:29,188 --> 00:11:30,861 how does difference grow 335 00:11:31,389 --> 00:11:33,021 what carries experience 336 00:11:33,468 --> 00:11:35,902 and how exactly do you walk the path step by step 337 00:11:36,629 --> 00:11:38,521 their names were Asanga and Vasubandhu 338 00:11:38,828 --> 00:11:39,942 the system they founded 339 00:11:40,149 --> 00:11:41,562 came to be called Yogacara 340 00:11:42,614 --> 00:11:45,866 and this is a pattern that keeps repeating in Buddhist thought 341 00:11:46,173 --> 00:11:47,653 every great answer 342 00:11:47,654 --> 00:11:50,346 becomes the starting point of a bigger question 343 00:11:50,654 --> 00:11:51,966 Nagarjuna cleared the foundation 344 00:11:52,293 --> 00:11:53,947 and left an empty lot 345 00:11:54,134 --> 00:11:55,293 a century or two later 346 00:11:55,293 --> 00:12:00,067 someone began drawing new blueprints and building on that empty lot 347 00:12:00,654 --> 00:12:01,167 next episode 348 00:12:01,494 --> 00:12:03,746 we tell the story of Asanga and Vasubandhu 349 00:12:03,974 --> 00:12:04,646 two brothers 350 00:12:04,894 --> 00:12:06,307 one complete turn 351 00:12:06,453 --> 00:12:10,266 and a vast system growing back out of the ruins of emptiness 352 00:12:10,561 --> 00:12:12,033 have you ever been through something like this 353 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:13,954 an insight you once figured out 354 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:15,280 and long afterward 355 00:12:15,281 --> 00:12:17,493 you find that it solved the old problem 356 00:12:17,521 --> 00:12:19,234 but quietly created a new confusion 357 00:12:19,761 --> 00:12:21,334 share it in the comments 358 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:22,153 I am Leo Wang 359 00:12:22,401 --> 00:12:23,574 see you next episode