Two extremes

Two extremes - eternalism and nihilism. From a buddhist perspective, all non-buddhist philosophies are considered to fall into either of these two extremes. Even within buddhism, there is an attempt by each philosophical school to avoid these extremes and to point out how other schools have to do so.

In the King of Samadhi Sutra, the Buddha said:

Existence and non-existence are extremes,

Purity and impurity are extremes as well,

Thus, having relinquished both extremes,

The wise do not dwell even in the middle.

Nagarjuna wrote:

To say “it is” is a conception of permanence,

To say “it is not” is a view of nihilism,

Therefore the learned should dwell

In neither existence nor non-existence.