Studying Skepticism in Nagarjuna's Works from the Perspective of Ibn ʿArabi

In Indian mystical schools, the epistemic ability of reason is doubted. By utilizing the skepticism of the Upanishads, Buddhist materialism, and the method of the slippery eel while weakening and denigrating reason, Nagarjuna offers a unique method for discovering the truths of existence. The question is whether Nagarjuna's skepticism leads to nihilism. By following the roots of Indian skepticism in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads, and early Buddhist texts, and by analyzing Nagarjuna's polemical arguments, we find that while criticizing epistemological foundationalism and rejecting the principle of causality and emphasizing the distinction between the product of the intellect and the heart and the importance of practical conduct, he distances himself from nihilism and achieves a specific mystical realism. This mental and spiritual conduct causes the seeker to be granted divine gifts (Ibn ʿArabi) or chosen (Nagarjuna). Therefore, Nagarjuna's skepticism about the cognitive capacity of reason is a prelude to achieving wisdom derived from a faculty that Ibn ʿArabi calls the heart. A wisdom associated with a realist metaphysics according to which the entire world of phenomena is considered to be ontic qualities of the Almighty