Nagarjuna (ca. 150 – 250 CE) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher. Little is known for certain of his life, but he was a strong exponent of the Mahayana expression of the Buddha’s teaching.

If something has an essence–
How can it ever change
Into anything else?

A thing doesn’t change into something else–
Youth does not age,
Age does not age.

If something changed into something else–
Milk would be butter
Or butter would not be milk.

Were there a trace of something,
There would be a trace of emptiness.
Were there no trace of anything,
There would be no trace of emptiness.

Buddhas say emptiness
Is relinquishing opinions.
Believers in emptiness
Are incurable.

Translation Stephen Batchelor