Thanks Dan!

Michael Dorfman also sent me this information below -- also from the Chinese, I guess.

Is there scholarly consensus about whether Nagarjuna might actually have said it?

Best,

Dean

"Relying on the meaning (arthapratisaraṇa), since goodwill or malice, defect or merit, falsity or truth, cannot be attributed to meaning. It is the letter (vyañjana) that indicates the meaning (artha), but the meaning is not the letter. Suppose a man points his finger at the moon to people who doubt the moon's presence; if these doubters fixate on the finger but do not look at the moon, this man tells them: "I am pointing to the moon with my finger so that you may notice the moon. Why do you fixate on my finger instead of looking at the moon?"  It is the same here: the letter (vyañjana) is the finger pointing to the meaning (artha), but the letter is not the meaning. This is why one should not rely on the letter."

Page 425 of the attached translation of the Māhāprajñāpāramitāśāstra.
THE TREATISE ON THE GREAT VIRTUE OF WISDOM OF NĀGĀRJUNA
(MAHĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀŚĀSTRA)
ÉTIENNE LAMOTTE
VOL. I , CHAPTERS I – XV

TRANSLATED BY
THE TRIPIṬAKADHARMĀCĀRYA KUMĀRAJIVA
 Translated from the French By Gelongma Karma Migme Chodron 2001

From: Dan Lusthaus <vasubandhu@earthlink.net>
To: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Nagararjuna finger pointing to moon reference?


Dear Dean,
 
I don't know of any Sanskrit texts offhand that make that claim in Nagarjuna's name, but the Dazhidu lun (WG: Ta chih-tu lun), translated by Kumārajīva into Chinese in the first decade of the fifth century which he attributes to Nagarjuna (it is considered a commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā sūtra), contains that line three times: Twice at T 25.1509.125a29-b5, and then once again at T.25.1509.726a2-3.
 
Aside from Nagarjuna attributions, one also finds that line in all three Chinese trs. of the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra:
 
by Guṇabhadra (tr between 435-443 CE): T.16.670.510c17
by Bodhiruci (513 CE): T.16.671.557a20
by Śikṣānanda (ca. 700 CE): T.16.672.620a15
 
It is also found in Guṇabhadra's tr. of the Aṅgulimālīya sūtra (tr between 435-443), T.2.20.537a11-12 (Yangjuemolo jing)
 
Dan Lusthaus
 

Does anyone have the exact text reference for the statement attributed to Nagarjuna that one should look to the moon, not the finger pointing to the moon? In other words, the words of the teaching are not the same as their realization.

Best,

Dean

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
http://listinfo.indology.info