Letting Sitting Happen, from the Ground Up

Introduction The Eight Thoughts of a Great Person are the final chapter of Shobogenzo. And the last of the eight thoughts is in Sanskrit niṣprapañca. Nāgārjuna's writings might be supreme in clarifying what the Buddha really meant by this word niṣprapañca. Niṣprapañca means not objectifying/reifying anything. In light of the teaching that everything that happens is empty of self-existence, niṣprapañca means not spinning things into self-existence. Nāgārjuna is also peerless in his clarification of what the Buddha meant by the fertile phrase pratītya-samutpādaṁ, which describes everything that happens as "dependently arisen" or "conditionally originated" -- that is to say, as happened/happening (samutpāda) grounded in causality (pratītya). So first of all pratītya-samutpāda is a teaching about causality. At the same time, it can be heard as describing what happens when we s