Category Archives: Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross

Comparisons and Contrasts


Don Mak

The outstanding feature between these major thinkers from diverse spiritual traditions is how they both employ the negative-way to drive-home their Weltanschauung. Nāgārjuna downplayed conventionalities in their reliance upon other dependent structures thereby betraying their lack-of-self-substantiating truth rendering them void and essenceless.  The nada as found in John of the Cross also bespeaks the limits of human faculties (Intellect, Memory, Will) that, in the face of the Unborn and Absolute, are just true defections devoid of that Self-same substantiation. read more

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Nada and Silence in John of the Cross

We have extensively covered the rich apothatic spirituality of John of the Cross in a prior series. Our focus now is on the significance of this Nadayana and its twin sister, Silence. John’s negative path is a cradle of nothingness in that no-thing can withstand the awesome splendor of the Unborn Absolute: read more

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Nāgārjuna and the Two Truths

Nāgārjuna is perhaps the most celebrated philosopher-sage of Mahayana/Mādhyamika Buddhism. Despite the enormous popularity very little is actually known concerning his Biographical details apart from the generally-held belief that he lived during the 2nd century CE. While rooted in rich mythical soil, his name is in reference to the “Nagas” from whom he received the Prajnaparamita teachings. The Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, which the Buddha had especially entrusted to the Nagas for safekeeping, was handed over to Nāgārjuna who later propagated the teachings. In the west, he is best known for his teachings on emptiness, (śūnyatā), which he espoused during his formation of the Mādhyamika School. For our purposes in this series, his own nuanced views on śūnyatā follows most closely from the doctrine of Dependent-Origination which states that nothing within the created-order has an intrinsic-existence of its own. Indeed, the term śūnyatā has an “entirely different nuance in the Mādhyamika thought from that of other Buddhist schools and traditions.” read more

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The Way of Negation

Apophaticism is employed as a Way of Nothingness, not in a morose and nihilistic fashion, but simply as a vehicle that points to what is ineffable. In Christian parlance it bespeaks the unknowable qualities of the Godhead; the best way to come to this understanding is to UN-know all nominal paradigms and thus come to the Absolute under Its own terms—THAT which is devoid and self-empty of all knowable constructs. In Buddhism this Way is engaged as śūnyatā, also one of self-emptying but not in the Christian sense in the “theistic understanding of the ineffability of God”: read more

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Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross

Our offering for this autumn season is a series based on the Negative-Way as found in the notion of Nothingness. Two proponents of this Way are Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross. From the Mādhyamika thrust of Nāgārjuna it is considered as śūnyatā, and from the mystic-pen of the Discalced Carmelite John of the Cross it is coined as nada. Thus we have emptiness clearly exhibited in two diverse spiritual traditions yet containing a kernel of comparability, although singularly expounded in each. Our main resource for this series is a marvelous text written by C.D. Sebastian entitled, The Cloud of Nothingness: The Negative Way in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross. Professor Sebastian initiates his study with two prominent quotes: read more

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