Body

by Nagarjuna

English version by Stephen Batchelor
Original Language Sanskrit

I have no body apart
From parts which form it.
I know no parts
Apart from a "body."

A body with no parts
Would be unformed,
A part of my body apart from my body
Would be absurd.

Were the body here or not,
It would need no parts.
Partless bodies are pointless.
Do not get stuck in the "body."

I cannot say,
"My body is like its parts."
I cannot say,
"It's something else."

Feelings, perceptions,
Drives, minds, things
Are like this body
In every way.

Conflict with emptiness
Is no conflict;
Objections to emptiness,
No objections.

-- from Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime, by Nagarjuna / Translated by Stephen Batchelor

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Recommended Books: Nagarjuna

Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika Nagarjuna's Seventy Stanzas: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend Ocean of Reasoning: A Great Commentary on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika
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Body