Nagarjuna Quotes

#1. Great compassion penetrates into the marrow of the bone. It is the support of all living beings. Like the love of a parent for an only child, the tenderness of the Compassionate One is all-pervasive.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#2. Ultimate serenity is the coming to rest of all ways of taking things, the repose of named things; no truth has been taught by a Buddha for anyone, anywhere.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#3. If wanderers were not themselves the cause, then like the scent and color
of the lotus in the sky, there would be no perception of the universe.

Nagarjuna

#4. 208. "Learn to distinguish what should be done and what not; The clever soul will always select his opportunity." ~

Nagarjuna

#5. The victorious ones have said
That emptiness is the relinquishing of all views.
For whomever emptiness is a view,
That one has achieved nothing.

Nagarjuna

#6. Even offering three hundred bowls of food three times a day does not match the spiritual merit gained in one moment of love.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#7. Because there are no phenomena which are not dependent arisings, there are no phenomena which are not void.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#8. True knowledge is a virtue of the talented, but harmful to those without discernment. Spring water free of impurity, entering the ocean, becomes undrinkable.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#9. The teachings of elegant sayings Should be collected when one can. For the supreme gift of words of wisdom, Any price will be paid.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#10. The logs of wood which move down the river together Are driven apart by every wave. Such inevitable parting Should not be the cause of misery.

Nagarjuna

#11. There is pleasure when a sore is scratched, But to be without sores is more pleasurable still. Just so, there are pleasures in worldly desires, But to be without desires is more pleasurable still.

Nagarjuna

#12. One who kill, own life will be shortened; One who harms, will be injured even more

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#13. The pacification of all cognitive grasping and the pacification of conceptual proliferation are peace.

Nagarjuna

#14. If an astronomer calculates from the sky
he will ascertain the paths of the moon and the stars;
but in his house the womenfolk are at variance,
and he does not perceive their various misconduct.

Nagarjuna

#15. Without hope of reward
Provide help to others.
Bear suffering alone,
And share your pleasures with beggars.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#16. Just as it is known
That an image of one's face is seen
Depending on a mirror
But does not really exist as a face,
So the conception of "I" exists
Dependent on mind and body,
But like the image of a face
The "I" does not at all exist as its own reality.

Nagarjuna

#17. Whatever is dependently co-arisen
That is explained to be emptiness.
That, being a dependent designation
Is itself the Middle Way.

Nagarjuna

#18. That which arises dependent on something is not in the least that thing, neither is it different from it. Therefore, it is neither permanent or nothing.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#19. Although you may spend your life killing, you will not exhaust all your foes. But if you quell your own anger, your real enemy will be slain.

Nagarjuna

#20. He who does not attempt to make peace / When small discords arise, / Is like the bee's hive which leaks drops of honey / Soon, the whole hive collapses.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#21. My acts are irrevocable
Because they have no essence ...
Where are the doers of deeds
Absent among their conditions?
Imagine a magician
Who creates a creature
Who creates other creatures.
Acts I perform are creatures
Who create others.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#22. Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

Nagarjuna

#23. In peace there is profundity from which the highest respect arises from respect comes power and command therefore observe peace.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#24. So, to praise others for their virtues can but encourage one's own efforts.

Nagarjuna

#25. Since all is empty, all is possible.

Nagarjuna

#26. The misery which follows pleasure is the pleasure which follows misery. The pleasure and misery of mankind revolve like a wheel.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#27. All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

Nagarjuna

#28. A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What person is there other than these?

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#29. Someone who has acted carelessly,
But later becomes careful and attentive,
Is as beautiful as the bright moon
emerging from the clouds.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#30. I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.
This frightens all children,
And kills fear in the wise.

Nagarjuna

#31. A highly learned man has two sources of happiness: either he abandons all earthly interests, or else he possesses much which could be abandoned.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#32. If you desire ease, forsake learning.

Nagarjuna

#33. The Buddha taught some people the teachings of duality that help them avoid sin and acquire spiritual merit. To others he taught non-duality, that some find profoundly frightening.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

#34. 17. Error does not develop In one who is in error. Error does not develop In one who is not in error. 18. Error does not develop In one in whom error is arising. In whom does error develop? Examine this on your own!

Nagarjuna