Mulamadhyamakakarika

Mulamadhyamakakarika by Nagarjuna is one of the greatest commentaries on the Middle Way.

In Tibetan: dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa shes rab ches bya ba, also dbu ma rtsa ba'i shes rab or dbu ma rtsa she

In English: Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way.

This text then inspired a large set of commentary literature in Sanskrit, in the Tibetan, Chinese, Korean and Japanese traditions. The Middle Way philosophical schools have their basis established in this text: both the Svatantrika-Madhyamika and Prasangika-Madhyamika systems are described in this text based on scholars from either tradition.

Contents

The text is in verse form, and has 27 chapters:

• Dedicatory verses
• Chapter 1: Conditions
• Chapter 2: Motions
• Chapter 3: The Senses
• Chapter 4: The Aggregates
• Chapter 5: The Elements
• Chapter 6: Desire and The Desirous
• Chapter 7: The Conditioned
• Chapter 8: Agent and Action
• Chapter 9: Prior Entity
• Chapter 10: Fire and Fuel
• Chapter 11: Initial and Final Limits
• Chapter 12: Suffering
• Chapter 13: Compounded Phenomena
• Chapter 14: Connection
• Chapter 15: Essence
• Chapter 16: Bondage
• Chapter 17: Actions and their Fruit
• Chapter 18: Self and Entities
• Chapter 19: Time
• Chapter 20: Combinations
• Chapter 21: Becoming and Destruction
• Chapter 22: Tathagata
• Chapter 23: Errors
• Chapter 24: Four Noble Truths
• Chapter 25: Nirvana
• Chapter 26: Twelve Links
• Chapter 27: Views

See Also

• The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, translation and commentary by Jay Garfield, ISBN 0-19-509336-4
• Asian Classics Institute Tibetan Text