Chapter One
Examination of Conditions.
Plus brief Commentary on the 14 verses in Chapter One.
Dear Readers
There is no assurance you will understand these verses of Nagarjuna nor my commentary.
There is no assurance you will not understand these verses and commentary,
There is no assurance you will understand some parts and not understand other parts.
There is no assurance you will know if you really understand or not understand.
Here are two down to earth references, which may help to make it a little easier to understand some of the verses. Please remember to keep references in mind.
Both references might help or might not help, or both or neither.
- A car.
A car does not have its own existence
A car is made up of it parts.
Its parts do not have their own existence.
The parts are made up of parts, and those parts are made up…
No ‘thing’ has its own existence.
(‘Thing’ in these verses refers to every object, person, state of mind, teachings, suffering, happiness, situation and so on.
2. Suffering or Happiness.
I imagine I cause my own suffering or my own happiness
I imagine another causes me to suffer or makes me happy.
I imagine both myself and another causes me to suffer or makes me happy.
I imagine neither myself nor another cause me to suffer or makes me happy but something outside of self-other.
These views arise dependent on conditions – feelings, moods, thoughts, memories, beliefs, conclusions, history, time and place and grasping after cause and effect.
Nagarjuna, the second century philosopher and sage, wrote probably the finest commentary on teachings of the Buddha. He investigated with ruthless analysis and in exquisite detail the beliefs and views around causation and the compositions that make up life.
Nagarjuna showed the emptiness of clinging to any views, standpoints or positions about the way ‘things’ are.
In his classic text, the Fundamentals of the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamikakarika), he addressed the variety of conceived views and standpoints. He showed that a position cannot stand up to a focussed analysis.
Every view contains contradictions or, at best, consists of a label (s) that obscures the reality. He does not advocate a withdrawal of a view or resistance to express a view or put down all views. He does make explicit that views do not contain an inherent and unquestionable truth. The views arise dependent on the conditions for their arising. There is no inherent truth to a view.
If you can follow the above, please read on.
If you cannot follow the above, please check within yourself. You might have something else to do instead.
I have entered below the 14 verses on his Examination of Conditions that make up the first chapter. Beneath each verse, I have written a very short commentary to indicate ways of looking at each verse. My short commentary on the verse does not constitute a different translation of the original but an aspect or interpretation to support the development of understanding for the reader.
I have employed the much appreciated translation of The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by J.L. Garfield for Oxford University Press. I follow the translation of the verse by Nagarjuna with my brief commentary to contribute to the meaning and exploration.
Chapter One. Examination of Conditions
Verse 1.
Neither from itself,
Nor from another,
Nor from both,
Nor without a cause
Does anything whatever, anywhere arise.
Brief Commentary by Christopher Titmuss on
Verse 1.
For example,
A tree cannot make itself arise. If it could, it would not need ground, water, air and so on.
Something else cannot make a tree arise. If another could, it would keep making trees arise.
Both itself and another cannot make a tree arise.
There is nothing in the tree and in the other, which makes a tree arise?
A tree cannot arise without conditions. If it could, the tree would not need an environment, previous trees or seeds.
This applies to every ‘thing,’ whatever, anywhere arises.
Verse 2
There are only four conditions (for whatever arises)
- efficient condition,
- percept-object condition
- immediate condition,
- dominant condition;
There is no fifth condition.
Commentary on Verse 2
The conditions for something to arise cannot arise from any one of these possibilities.
- A causal (efficient) condition. (e.g. striking a match is the causal condition for its lighting).
- Supporting (percept-object) conditions. (hands, match, box)
- Immediately leading (immediate) up to (bringing match to side of box to rub together match and box.
- All the other surrounding conditions (dominant) such as environment, inwardly and outwardly.
- There is no fifth condition such as fate, chance, destiny, cosmic intervention, a mystery, accident, random, God, or a miracle. We conclude with a metaphysic, such as fate, chance or destiny, when we cannot address the previous four conditions.
While nothing arises from itself nor from another, this does not mean to say that nothing arises. It simply means that nothing can arise from itself or exclusively from some ‘thing’ else or both. If suffering or happiness, for example, arose from itself, it would keep on arising from itself.
If suffering and happiness arose and then stopped, how could suffering arise from non-suffering and happiness arise from non-happiness?
If both, which part of itself makes something arise and stop and which part of the other?
It is always worthwhile to bear in mind how our views fall into one or more of the four categories above.
These four conditions have no inherent self existence as they are also dependently arising. If they had inherent existence, the conditions or what arises would not need anything else.
Verse 3
The essence of entities
is not present in the conditions etc.
If there is essence,
There can be no otherness -essence.
does not exist in the conditions.
Commentary on Verse 3
There is nothing in anything to show it is independent of external conditions with its own existence. It would be a tree without needing an environment.
Since there is nothing to show independent self existence, then there is nothing to show an independent other existence of anything whatsoever.
Verse 4
Power to act does not have conditions
There is no power to act without conditions
There are not conditions without power to act
Nor do any have the power to act.
Commentary on Verse 4
The power of an action (to produce an effect) is not made up of conditions. If so, the conditions would always produce an action and an effect.
The power of action is not without conditions. If so, there could be action without needing any conditions to make it possible.
The various conditions cannot make the power of activity
Nor can the absence of conditions make an activity.
Verse 5
These give rise to those
So these are called conditions
As long as those who do not come from these,
Why are these not-conditions
Commentary on Verse 5
They are said to be conditions when something arises dependent on them.
When something has not arisen, why then are they not non-conditions?
The conventional agreement states that causes and conditions make some ‘thing’ arise.
If some ‘thing’ does not arise, then we cannot speak of conditions if it did not arise.
We see conditions as conditions as when something actually arises. Conditions are not conditions in themselves.
Verse 6
For neither an existent nor a non-existent thing
is a condition appropriate.
If a thing is non-existent, how could it have a condition?
If a thing is already existent what would a condition do?
Commentary on Verse 6.
If some ‘thing’ exists by itself, it does not have conditions.
If some ‘thing’ does not exist, it does not have conditions.
We cannot say the conditions are found in some ‘thing’ that exists.
We cannot say they are not found in the effect
Verse 7
When neither existents nor
Non-existents, nor existent non-existents are established
How could one propose a productive cause?
If there were one, it would be pointless.
Commentary on Verse 7
Verse is reference to verse 2.
How can something that really exists independently have a cause?
How can something does not exist, or both exists and non-exists or neither, have a cause?
How can a cause make an effect? How can a non-cause make an effect?
If something independent does not exist, then it does not need a cause.
Verse 8
An existent entity has no object
Since an existent entity is with an object
How could there be a percept-condition.
Commentary on Verse 8
Verse is reference to causal condition in verse 2.
Some ‘thing’ that exists independently does not need a causal condition
If some ‘thing’ does not require a causal condition,
then a causal condition gives no support and has no purpose.
Verse 9
Destruction does not hold when dharmas have not yet originated.
Thus nothing can be called a proximate condition; if it is
destroyed, how can it be a condition?
Commentary on Verse 9
Verse is reference to leading up to (immediate in verse 2
If some ‘thing’ does not arise then it cannot cease.
If the existent ceases, then the condition for it must cease.
If some ‘thing’ is dependent on conditions, then the ‘thing’ has no power nor essence.
Verse 10
If things did not exist
Without essence
The phrase “when this exists, so this will be”
Would not be acceptable.
Commentary on Verse 10
There is no essence to things
So lacking substance, the conditions have no power
We cannot claim that one thing exists so something else will be
We think ‘this’ and ‘that’. If so, one cannot cause the other.
Verse 11
In several or united conditions
The effect cannot be found
How could something not in the conditions
Come from the conditions?
Commentary on Verse 11
We cannot find the effect in the conditions (we cannot find the car in the car parts)
So it is not possible for something (the car) to ‘come from’ the conditions.
Verse 12
However if a non-existent effect
Arises from these conditions
Why does it not arise
From these non-conditions.
Commentary on Verse 12
The conditions lack self existence and so cannot make an effect
So why can’t an effect arise from non-conditions? Asks the questioner.
Verse 13
If the effect’s essence is the conditions
But the conditions do not have their own essence
How can an effect who essence is the conditions
Come from something that is essenceless?
Commentary on Verse 13
There is nothing substantial in the effect, nor any essence in the effect.
There is nothing substantial in the conditions that bring about the effect
The effect cannot consist of conditions
Because the conditions do not consist of anything substantial.
The conditions do not consist of themselves and so have no substance, no essence.
Verse 14
Therefore, neither with conditions as their essence
No with non-conditions as their essence
Are there any effects.
If there are no such effects,
How could conditions or non-conditions be evident?
Commentary on Verse 14
An effect does not come from conditions as it cannot be found in them.
An effect does not come from non-conditions.
If so, the effect would not need conditions.
That means there is no such thing as an effect
That means there is no evidence to show conditions and non-conditions.
In Summary
Nagarjuna made clear the emptiness of particular beliefs around causation.
He did not posit the sameness or identity of cause with effect.
He did not posit difference and non-identity of cause and effect.
He did not posit that they were the same and different.
He did not claim cause and effect are not the same nor different.
There is nothing to hold onto.
Yes, it is important as well as to appreciate that the teachings do not result in a nihilistic view having rejected any reifications of a standpoint.
Nagarjuna acknowledged the conventional world of causes and conditions that bring about what arises. He gave acknowledgement to dependent arising and passing and the processes of becoming in the field of time. He pointed out the limitations of the view focussed on self, other, both or neither.
If you understand these teachings on the emptiness of self, your thought processes will undergo a fundamental change in the way you see every ‘thing,’ ‘everyone’ and every construction and institution that humans have made up and established.
The first chapter sets the tone of enquiry for the following 17 chapters.
The Refutation of Views
In the space of 28 short chapters, Nagarjuna dissolved any kind of substance or reality to a belief, claim or view. He provided a sequence of verses, often running from two to four lines, which reveal a systematic refutation of the range of our perceptions and standpoints.
He revealed our sense perceptions offer a limited view of life leading to unclear perceptions and distorted views, sometimes foolish and dangerous.
If you get to understand these teachings on non-clinging to views, on the emptiness of views, you will find inner peace and the language to express in creative and rich ways what matters free from self-other blame and clinging to notions of a ‘thing.’ Owing to clinging to any ‘thing’ or anybody, there is suffering.
Nagarjuna challenged the mind with its numerous conceptions and conclusions. His teachings are not an easy read. His chapters include an examination of conditions, action, senses, fuel and fire, suffering and the self.
We can understand his teachings through regular reflection, meditation and insights into his inquiry into the fundamentals of perceptions. Readers will almost certainly need to dive deeply into the emptiness of self existence of anything to understand Nagarjuna’s teaching about the nature of reality. It will take further reflection to see how the verses apply to situations in daily life
Nagarjuna does not teach a noble silence as some kind of finality. He does not claim that words or language obscures truth. We do not have to pass over into silence despite the limits of language. Those who understanding the emptiness of clinging can find the language free from self-other deception, and the conflicts and suffering that arise through holding to such views.
He pointed out that the realization of the emptiness of views shows in a wisdom free from a biased, jaundiced deception and free from fence-sitting.
We can benefit deeply from these verses by making a mindful read of each verse and allowing our mind to dwell on the subtle details pointing out the emptiness of the construction of views. We might read the verses out loud or read very slowly to give the mind the opportunity to absorb the depth of meaning in the verses.
Be willing to spend plenty of time on the Fundamentals of the Middle Way to enable a deep comprehension of the emptiness of clinging to emerge. It is hard to dispute the analysis of Nagarjuna and the subsequent liberation of the mind from fixations.
May all beings see into causation
May all beings see into clinging to views
May all beings know the emptiness of self existence.
Verses and commentary on Chapter 2 at a future date.
For Further Enquiry
We will give much of a morning session to exploring the first chapter of Nagarjuna’s Fundamentals of the Middle Way in Germany, October 2016. There is a five-day silent retreat prior for those who wish to join the silent retreat or Dharma Enquiry or both.
All are welcome
GERMANY
Wednesday October 12, 18.00 to Sunday October 16, 2016, 13.00 Dharma Enquiry With Christopher Meditation and Enquiry This course explores meditation and inquiry into daily life issues based on the Buddha’s teachings. The course includes an exchange of experiences between groups of two people up to several people. There are regular full group meetings. We also look at the relevance of a major discourse of the Buddha, teachings of Nagaruna for practice and insight. There is meditation practice and extended silent periods. The course is open to all.
christopher@insightmeditation.org