Madhyamika and Prajnaparamita

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What does Madhyamika mean?
School of the middle way.
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Who is most widely associated with the Madhyamika teachings?
Nagarjuna
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What do we know about Nagarjuna's life?
We don't know much about Nagarjuna. The majority of stories about his life come from myths and legends.
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What did Nagarjuna found?
The Wisdom Sutras. (Prajnaparamita).
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What are two examples of the Wisdom Sutras?
The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra.
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What does the legend say about the Wisdom Sutras?
They are the words of the Buddha that were lost centuries ago. His words were kept safe by the nagas - serpent like creatures who lived deep under the sea. They invited Nagarjuna to visit them and he took these words to the real world.
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What can the legend be metaphorical of?
The deep and profound levels of meditation that Nagarjuna needed in order to formulate his philosophy.
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What does ''naga'' mean in English?
Snake
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What is the main message in the Heart Sutra?
Wisdom should not be attached to other concepts.
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What is taught in the Heart Sutra?
Shunyata - emptiness. Avalokitshvara teaches Shariputra that the key to wisdom is understanding shunyata. Even the five skandhas are empty.
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What is Nagarjuna's main contribution to Buddhism?
His systematisation of the teachings of the sutras.
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What does shunyata mean?
Emptiness
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What is shunyata basically a deeper teaching of?
The concept of anatta - there is no self just interdependent things which we rely on (five skanhas).
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What did Nagarjuna say about phenomena (dharmas)?
They have no intrinsic existence in themselves, i.e they can't exist on their own because they're made up/a result of lots o other things.
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What is a dharma?
A phenomena - an irreducible, single incident of perception.
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Give an example of a dharma:
Seeing the colour red - cannot be reduced any further.
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Give an example of something that is NOT a dharma:
Perceiving a delicious pastry - can be broken down into something smaller, i.e smelling the pastry, seeing the colours and my desire to eat it.
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What is the Hinayana view of dharmas?
Aids us in non-attachment to things (i.e if I think ''that experience was just hatred type 37b'', I'm less likely to get attached to it). Life = dharmas then we can detach ourselves. Dharmas must exist, because without them - nothing would.
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What is the Mahayana view of dharmas?
Dharma neither exist nor they don't exist. We can't say they exist/don't exist based on our own perceptions. To say they exist = ignoring anatta. To say they don't = saying nothing exists.
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What should we take dharma as being?
Just empty of being (svabhava). Dharma = shunyata.
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What are the two truths?
The relative truth and the absolute/ultimate truth.
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Are they interdependent?
Yes - they rely on one another.
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What is relative truth?
Perceiving appearances of phenomena, i.e. breaking things down into what they ''are''. I.e my cat is made up of fur and whiskers etc. This is the conventional world that we see and can recognise that things exist interdependently.
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What is absolute truth?
Says that there are no appearances or phenomena. Things can't be broken down because they're empty of self and substance because everything is interdependent. Takes phenomena as being a thought in the mind but not a thing in itself. = Shunyata.
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Are they both truth or is just one of them truth?
They are both truth since they are interdependent on one another. Relative truth is like being aware that things can be broke down and absolute truth just says that actually, it's because of this that they aren't real - they're empty of self.
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What does the Madhyamika say about nirvana and samsara?
They are the same thing.
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How do we know this?
Nirvana exists BECAUSE OF samsara and samsara exists for nirvana.
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What's a good analogy to describe this?
A man and his shadow. The shadow exists because of the man and the man must exist because of his shadow. You cannot separate the man from his shadow.
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Why are samsara and nirvana the same?
Because they are neither similar nor different. Nirvana is ultimate truth and samsara is its reflection.
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How does this relate to shunyata?
Both are empty of being - you cannot break them down any further so they must be the same. You cannot have one without the other.
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Card 2

Front

Who is most widely associated with the Madhyamika teachings?

Back

Nagarjuna

Card 3

Front

What do we know about Nagarjuna's life?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What did Nagarjuna found?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What are two examples of the Wisdom Sutras?

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Preview of the front of card 5
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