With the aid of these four alternatives (catuṣkoṭika: affirmation, negation, double affirmation, double negation), Nāgārjuna rejects all firm standpoints and traces a middle path between being and nonbeing. Most likely the eight negations, arranged in couplets in Chinese, can be traced back to Nāgārjuna: neither destruction nor production, neither annihilation nor permanence, neither unity nor difference, neither coming nor going.Dumoulin, Heinrich (author); Heisig, James W. (translator); Knitter, Paul (translator); with introduction by McCrae, John (1988, 2005). Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 1 India and China. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: World Wisdom, Inc. , pp.43-44
