Mulamadhyamakakarika (MMK) of Nagarjuna, Section 24
1.
If everything is empty, there is no origination nor destruction.
Then you must incorrectly conclude that there is non-existence of the four holy truths.
2.
If there is non-existence of the four holy truths, the saving knowledge, the elimination of illusion,
The "becoming" enlightened (bhavana), and the "realization" of the goal are impossible.
3.
If there is non-existence, then also the four holy "fruits" do not exist.
In the non-existence of fruit there is no "residing in fruit" nor obtaining.
4.
When the community of Buddhists does not exist, then those eight "kinds of persons" i.e., four abiding in the fruit and four who are obtaining do not exist.
Because there is non-existence of the four holy truths, the real Dharma does not exist.
5.
And if there are no dharma and community, how will the Buddha exist?
By speaking thus, that everything is empty certainly you deny the three jewels i.e., the Buddha, the Dharma, and the community.
6.
You deny the real existence of a product, of right and wrong,
And all the practical behavior of the world as being empty.
7.
We reply that you do not comprehend the point of emptiness;
You eliminate both "emptiness" itself and its purpose from it.
8.
The teaching by the Buddhas of the Dharma has recourse to two truths:
The world-ensconced truth and the truth which is the highest sense.
9.
Those who do not know the distribution (vibhagam) of the two kinds of truth
Do not know the profound "point" (tattva) in the teaching of the Buddha.
10.
The highest sense of the truth is not taught apart from practical behavior,
And without having understood the highest sense one cannot understand nirvana.
11.
Emptiness, having been dimly perceived, utterly destroys the slow-witted.
It is like a snake wrongly grasped or magical knowledge incorrectly applied.
12.
Therefore the mind of the ascetic Gautama was diverted from teaching the Dharma,
Having thought about the incomprehensibility of the Dharma by the stupid.
13.
Time and again you have made a condemnation of emptiness,
But that refutation does not apply to our emptiness.
14.
When emptiness "works", then everything in existence "works". (A)
If emptiness "does not work", then all existence "does not work". (B)
15.
You, while projecting your own faults on us, (by objectifying emptiness)
Are like a person who, having mounted his horse, forgot the horse.