[Buddha-l] Have more fun: deny nirvana, not rebirth [was Batchelor]

[Dan Lusthaus]

> the ultimate buddhist heresy is, of course, to deny anatman. anything
> else is only a half measure at best.

Then, Curt, was Nagarjuna a heretic when he wrote:

atmetyapi prajñapitamanatmetyapi desitam|

buddhairnatma na canatma kascidityapi desitam||6||

Just to make things dicey, here is Streng's rendering, followed by Garfield 
(the latter from the Tibetan):

There is the teaching of "individual self" (atma), and the teaching of 
"non-individual self" (anatma);
But neither "individual self" nor "non-individual self" whatever has been 
taught by the Buddhas.
(Streng)

That these is a self has been taught,
And the doctrine of no-self,
By the buddhas, as well as the
Doctrine of neither self nor nonself.
(Garfield)

(did Jay miss a negative in the Tibetan?)

I would render the last line something like:

"No such thing as atman nor anatman were taught by the Buddhas."

(though structurally Streng's is closer, preserving the "neither...nor...")

Dan