"Recognize that your identity is not fixed. You’re not trapped by who you think you are or what society expects. Your sense of self, like everything else, is empty of permanent essence, meaning you can change, adapt, and grow. When you stop attaching yourself to rigid roles, you free yourself to be more flexible, creative, and compassionate—both toward yourself and others."

Nagarjuna was a Buddhist philosopher, probably from Southern India who expanded on the philosophy of Buddhism. Very little is known about his -or her?- life. So we won’t have much to talk about there, but the writings he is credited with stand out in world philosophy for their scope and sharp logical reasoning. In Mahayana schools, Nagarjuna is sometimes called “the second Buddha,” emphasizing his philosophical importance. He extended the Buddhist concept of anatman, or not-self, to all phenomena. In essence, he said that all phenomena we can experience are devoid of an unchanging self. Everything, Nagarjuna said, is dependent on other things, and nothing, no single phenomenon, has inherent existence. Now this may sound very theoretical and hand-wavy, but in our discussion he actually makes his philosophy quite practical, and applicable to our modern lives.

Interview facilitated by ChatGPT and Claude

Voicing constructed with ⁠Elevenlabs⁠

Music by ⁠Grand_Project⁠ from ⁠Pixabay⁠

Soundscape by ⁠caquet⁠ on ⁠Freesound⁠, and

Soundscape by ⁠⁠Lenguaverde on ⁠⁠Freesound⁠⁠

Concept, editing and production by Merijn de Haen

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