The Middle, in Root Verses (mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā) by Nāgārjuna

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 sit in lotus like a dragon that found water -- a springing up all together (samutpāda), from the bottom up, having gone back to the source (pratītya).

So these Dedicatory Verses, along with MMK chapter 26, form a bridge

between the Eight Thoughts and bhāvana, the practice of letting happen to which the Rāhula Sutta is devoted.

The Middle, in Root Verse (mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā) 

by Nāgārjuna

Dedicatory Verses

a-nirodham an-utpādam an-ucchedam a-śāśvatam  |

an-ekārtham a-nānārtham an-āgamam a-nirgamam ||

Beyond death and birth; 

Beyond annihilation and eternity; 

Beyond identity and difference; 

Beyond coming and going away,

yaḥ pratītya-samutpādaṁ prapañcopaśamaṁ śivam |

deśayām āsa saṁbuddhas taṁ vande vadatāṁ varam ||

The fully awakened Buddha taught, 

as a causally grounded springing up

-- an integral happening -- 

the bliss of melting away of othering.

I praise him, best of speakers.

dvādaśāṅga-parīkṣā nāma ṣaḍ-viṁśatitamaṁ prakaraṇam |

Chapter 26: Exploration of the Twelve Links 

(in arising of suffering, as a causually grounded happening)

punar-bhavāya saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |

abhisaṁskurute yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||26.1||

On the way to another state of being,

One held back by denial, in three ways, 

Repeatedly fabricates fabricated realities, 

and by these doings does enter a painful destination.

vijñānaṁ saṁniviśate saṁskāra-pratyayaṁ gatau |

saṁniviṣṭe 'tha vijñāne nāma-rūpaṁ niṣicyate ||26.2||

Into the painful realm, conditioned by the fabricating,

settles divided consciousness. 

Then, where divided consciousness has set in,

psycho-physicality is instilled.

niṣikte nāma-rūpe tu ṣaḍāyatana-saṁbhavaḥ |

ṣaḍāyatanam āgamya saṁsparśaḥ saṁpravartate ||26.3||

But where psycho-physicality is instilled, 

there is the coming into being of six sense spheres. 

Six sense spheres having arrived, 

there occurs contact.

cakṣuḥ pratītya rūpaṁ ca samanvāhāram eva ca |

nāma-rūpaṁ pratītyaivaṁ vijñānaṁ saṁpravartate ||26.4||

Depending on eye, on physical form, 

and on the bringing of the two together 

– depending in other words on psycho-physicality – 

divided consciousness occurs.

saṁnipātas trayāṇāṁ yo rūpa-vijñāna-cakṣuṣām |

sparśaḥ sa tasmāt sparśāc ca vedanā saṁpravartate ||26.5||

Whatever conjunction there is of the three 

-- physical form, consciousness and eye -- 

that is contact; and from that contact 

there occurs feeling. 

vedanā-pratyayā tṛṣṇā vedanārthaṁ hi tṛṣyate |

tṛṣyamāṇa upādānam upādatte catur-vidham ||26.6||

Conditioned by feeling, there is thirsting 

– for the object of feeling is thirsted after. 

While thirsting is going on, 

clinging takes hold in the four ways.

upādāne sati bhava upādātuḥ pravartate |

syādd hi yady anupādāno mucyeta na bhaved bhavaḥ ||26.7||

Where there is clinging, 

becoming arises in the clinger, 

for if free of clinging he would be liberated, 

and becoming would not come into being. 

pañca skandhāḥ sa ca bhavo bhavāj jātiḥ pravartate |

jarā-maraṇa-duḥkhādi śokāḥ saparidevanāḥ ||26.8||

The five aggregates are just being. 

Grounded in being, rebirth happens. 

The suffering and suchlike of ageing and death 

– sorrows, accompanied by bewailing and complaining;

daurmanasyam upāyāsā jāter etat pravartate |

kevalasyaivam etasya duḥkha-skandhasya saṁbhavaḥ ||26.9||

downheartedness, troubles – 

because of rebirth, all this happens. 

In this way there is the coming into being 

of this whole aggregate of suffering. 

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||26.10||

Thus does one in denial, rooted in cyclic existence,

fabricate fabricated realities. 

The one in denial is thus the doer; 

one who witnesses, thanks to realising reality, is not. 

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||26.11||

Where denial is being stopped,

fabrications do not happen. 

But stopping of denial is, 

in light of all the above, through a letting happen. 

tasya tasya nirodhena tat-tan nābhipravartate |

duḥkha-skandhaḥ kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyag nirudhyate ||26.12||

With the stopping of each, 

the others no longer carry on. 

This whole aggregate of suffering 

in this way is well and truly stopped.