Thread by @owenbroadcast

nagarjuna articulating the doctrine of interdependent origination in second century northern india (colorized):

https://twitter.com/moontriumphs/status/1447361046704898053

if you want to sound really cool this is called sunyata by the way, but the S is a SH sound like in upanisads. basically its the idea that things are inherently empty of self nature in the specific sense that they arise as a result of other things that are external to themselves

while it is true, and i cant say what its like studying this in a proper cohesive context, ie within a lineage of esoteric buddhism, for me the missing piece is slightly platonic - in that, yes, a whale arises as a result of many other factories external to the whale. thats true

so the whale is inseparable from a net of other causes that are paradoxically external to what we would view as its self, HOWEVER “the whale” still exists and we can observe that “whales” are a thing that DO have an intrinsic nature despite the physical interdependent origination

so that puts us in kind of a weird place where the non physical essence of what a whale is actually exists but its physical manifestation is locked into this constant ebb and flow of things becoming other things. to me this naturally segues into a mind of God type situation ...

which nagarjuna i suppose could conveniently not deal with as thats not really part of the framework of buddhism (a creator). actually i was working on a comic about this specific problem but ive been driving like three hours a day taking my wife to natal-baby appointments

thats actually what im doing now. im just sitting in this car (my car, i own its spiritual essence embodied in its momentary physicality) under this billboard of a dog, and all the appointments are just long enough for me to stare into the sky but not long enough for me to work

what are you guys doing