MMK is so subtle and employs paradox so joyfully, I’m never really sure I get it. But just to take the shorter second passage.
I’m not sure about the translation; the text says nothing of this, it doesn’t even have the word dharma (just dharmatā).
Let me try to translate it. Here be dragons, I am just messing around!
ātmety api prajñapitam anātmety api deśitam |
“Self” is just a designation, and even “not-self” is just a teaching. [1]
buddhair nātmā na cānātmā kaścid ity api deśitam ||
The Buddha taught that there’s not even such a thing as self nor not-self.
nivṛttam abhidhātavyaṃ nivṛttaś cittagocaraḥ |
What is nameable has ceased, the scope of consciousness (or thought?) has ceased
anutpannāniruddhā hi nirvāṇam iva dharmatā ||
For the nature of extinguishment (nirvāṇa) is like the cessation of what has never arisen.
sarvaṃ tathyaṃ na vā tathyaṃ tathyaṃ cātathyam eva ca |
All is real, and not real, and both real and not real [2]
naivātathyaṃ naiva tathyam etad buddhānuśāsanam ||
and all is neither real nor not-real: this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
- [1] I think the use of api as connector here rather than ca or vā is significant; it has the nuance of “even if”, “so little as”.
- [2] Note the text uses both the disjunctive and conjunctive, I assume the conjunctive sense is meant.
Just to focus on the last lines, in the EBTs, the “all” means the six senses. Persumably this is the case here (unless Nagarjuna uses it otherwise).
So he is saying that the six senses can be looked upon as “real”, as truly existing. This, by itself, would seem to endorse the Abhidharma doctrine of svabhāva. But, he goes on, it can also be seen as non-existing, presumably because it ceases. Remember that in Indian philosophy “exists” means “exists eternally and absolutely”. The verse deals with impermanence, so that is presumably what is meant here.
Things can also be seen as both existing and non-existing. In Indian logic, this is not meant to be a paradox, but an acknowledgement of the complexity of reality that cannot be reduced to binaries. I would think that here this refers to “change while persisting”, an idea found in the suttas that was much debated in the Abhidhamma system. A house, for example, lasts for many years, yet it is nevertheless constantly changing.
Finally, the neither -nor construction points to the fact that our language, being based on our limited experience, falters when it comes to things on the borders. This category could include, for example, concepts such as “number”, “Time” or “being”, which do not exist as such, but which are not entirely imaginary either. This would hark back to the lines that refer to concepts and language.