Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way (XIII) — by Nagarjuna

XIII.1. A thing of which the basic elements are deception is vain, as the glorious one said.
All conditioned elements (samskara) are things that have basic elements (dharma) which are deception; therefore, they are vain.

XIII.2. “If that which has deceptive basic elements is vain, what is there which deceives?”
This was spoken by the glorious one to illuminate “emptiness.”

XIII.3. An opponent says:
There is non-self-existence of things since a thing, by observation, becomes something else. (i.e. impermanence)
A thing without self-existence does not exist—due to the emptiness of existing things.

XIII.4. If self-existence does not exist, whose “other-existence” would there be?
Nargarjuna answers:
If self-existence does exist, whose “other-existence” would there be?

XIII.5. Just as there is no other-existence of a thing, so also an-other-existence of something else is not possible—
Since a youth is not aging (jiryate), and since “who has already aged” is not aging (jiryate).

XIII.6. If there would be an other-existence of a thing, milk would exist as curds.
But surely “being curds” will be something other than milk.

XIII.7. If something would be non-empty, something would logically also be empty
But nothing is non-empty, so how will it become empty?

XIII.8. Emptiness is proclaimed by the victorious one as the refutation of all viewpoints;
But those who hold “emptiness” as a viewpoint—the true perceivers have called those “incurable” (asadhya).

Source: Orientalia