The Bliss of The Void
Nagarjuna’s Middle Path makes us realise how empty all our pursuits are. Many erudite scholars have written many commentaries about his Madhyamika philosophy. However, in the end, his middle path can still be cryptic.
A Buddhist Parable about Metaphysical Questions
The following parable with which Buddha admonished his disciple Malunkyaputtha who asked some metaphysical questions about Buddhahood summarises the Buddhist view of such questions. Buddha essentially answered the monk as follows:
“If a person who was wounded with a poisoned arrow were to say a surgeon attending “Before you take out this arrow, I need to know all details of the shooter, nature of the bow and arrow, etc.”, that person would die before these were ever known by him.”
Thus, Buddha pointed out that if someone wishes to find answers from Him to metaphysical questions such as the eternity or non-eternity of the cosmos and Buddha’s existence or non-existence after His death before entering the path of monkhood, that person would die before He answered those questions as these questions do not serve the purpose of elimination of suffering [2]. He emphatically said what he declared was declared and what he did not declare was undeclared. However, several centuries after Buddha’s passing many of his followers engaged themselves in…
