This volume presents a new English translation of the founding text of
the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of Mahayana Buddhism, Nagarjuna’s
Root Stanzas of the Middle Way, and includes the Tibetan version of the text. The
Root Stanzas
holds an honored place in all branches of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as
in the Buddhist traditions found in China, Japan, and Korea, because of
the way it develops the seminal view of emptiness (
shunyata),
which is crucial to understanding Mahayana Buddhism and central to its
practice. It is prized for its pithy and pointed arguments that show
that things lack intrinsic being and thus are “empty” (
shunya). They abide in the Middle Way, free from the extremes of permanence and annihilation.
176 pages. Hardcover.