Can we get back to the main line of reasoning? That everything is illusion?
All philosophical and religious positions revolve around only 2 views: Existence and Nonexistence.
However its all illusion, like a dream. Phenomena don't arise in the first place.
Nagarjuna in ''MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ'' 21.12. states: "An existent does not arise from an existent; neither does an existent arise from a non-existent. A non-existent does not arise from a non-existent; neither does a non-existent arise from an existent."
http://books.google.com/books?id=38WJRwP3nLgC&pg=PA297&dq=Mulamadhyamakakarika+of+Nagarjuna+An+existent+does+not+arise+from+an+existent;+neither+does+an+existent+arise+from+a+non-existent.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fnGiUtuWMPPMsQSzkIDwCA&ved=0CDgQuwUwAQ#v=onepage&q=Mulamadhyamakakarika%20of%20Nagarjuna%20An%20existent%20does%20not%20arise%20from%20an%20existent%3B%20neither%20does%20an%20existent%20arise%20from%20a%20non-existent.&f=false
Here are some quotations from 2 top books, Nagarjuna's Reason Sixty and Center of the Sunlit Sky:
"Nagarjuna taught , "bereft of beginning, middle, and end," meaning that the world is free from creation, duration, and destruction."
-Candrakirti
"Once one asserts things, one will succumb to the view of seeing such by imagining their beginning, middle and end; hence that grasping at things is the cause of all views." -Candrakirti
"the perfectly enlightened buddhas-proclaimed, "What is dependently created is uncreated." -Candrakirti "Likewise, here as well, the Lord Buddhaās pronouncement that "What is dependently created is objectively uncreated," is to counteract insistence on the objectivity of things." -Candrakirti "Since relativity is not objectively created, those who, through this reasoning, accept dependent things as resembling the moon in water and reflections in a mirror, understand them as neither objectively true nor false. Therefore, those who think thus regarding dependent things realize that what is dependently arisen cannot be substantially existent, since what is like a reflection is not real. If it were real, that would entail the absurdity that its transformation would be impossible. Yet neither is it unreal, since it manifests as real within the world." -Candrakirti
Nagarjuna said "If I had any position, I thereby would be at fault. Since I have no position, I am not at fault at all." Aryadeva said "Against someone who has no thesis of āexistence, nonexistence, or [both] existence and nonexistence,ā it is not possible to level a charge, even if [this is tried] for a long time."
"I do not say that entities do not exist, because I say that they originate in dependence. āSo are you a realist then?ā I am not, because I am just a proponent of dependent origination. āWhat sort of nature is it then that you [propound]?ā I propound dependent origination. āWhat is the meaning of dependent origination?ā It has the meaning of the lack of a nature and the meaning of nonarising through a nature [of its own]. It has the meaning of the origination of results with a nature similar to that of illusions, mirages, reflections, cities of scent-eaters, magical creations, and dreams. It has the meaning of emptiness and identitylessness." -Candrakirti
Nagarjuna in MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ 1.1. states:
"Not from themselves, not from something other,
Not from both, and not without a cause-
At any place and any time,
All entities lack arising."
BuddhapÄlita comments (using consequentalist arguments which ultimately snowballs into Tibetan prasangika vs. svatantrika):
"Entities do not arise from their own intrinsic nature, because their arising would be pointless and because they would arise endlessly. For entities that [already] exist as their own intrinsic nature, there is no need to arise again. If they were to arise despite existing [already], there would be no time when they do not arise; [but] that is also not asserted [by the Enumerators].
CandrakÄ«rti, in ''MadhyamakÄvatÄra'' VI.14., comments:
"If something were to originate in dependence on something other than it,
Well, then utter darkness could spring from flames
And everything could arise from everything,
Because everything that does not produce [a specific result] is the same in being other [than it]."
CandrakÄ«rti, in the ''PrasannapadÄ'', comments:
"Entities also do not arise from something other, because there is nothing other."
Nagarjuna in ''MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ'' 1.3cd. states:
"If an entity in itself does not exist,
An entity other [than it] does not exist either."
CandrakÄ«rti, in the ''PrasannapadÄ'', comments:
"Nor do entities arise from both [themselves and others], because this would entail [all] the flaws that were stated for both of these theses and because none of these [disproved possibilities] have the capacity to produce [entities]."
Nagarjuna, in ''MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ'' VII.17., states:
"If some nonarisen entity
Existed somewhere,
It might arise.
However, since such does not exist, what would arise?"
Nagarjuna, in ''MÅ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ'' VII.19cd., states:
"If something that lacks arising could arise,
Just about anything could arise in this way."
