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Nagarjuna

Mulamadhyamakakarika: Verses from the Centre

by Nagarjuna

Translation by Stephen Batchelor

Sanskrit: Mula madhyamaka karika.

Tibetan: ༺དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུ་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེས་བྱ་བ།༻ - (dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa shes rab ches bya ba)

Contents & Translation of "Mulamadhyamakakarika: Verses from the Centre"

Preface

This document contains the romanized Tibetan text of Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika together with a literal English translation. Two Tibetan texts were consulted: the versions found in (1) The Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP), Woodblock to Laser Source CD, Release A; Produced under the direction of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Washington DC, 1993 and; (2) "Dbuma Rigs Tshogs Drug: The Six Yukt Shastra of Madhyamika" (pp. 1-37) -(see dbu ma'i bstan bcos rigs pa'i tshogs drug [RY])-, edited by Prof. L.P. Lhalungpa. Delhi: 1970. The version here relies on both sources as well as the text embedded in the prose of Tsongkhapa's "An Ocean of Reason: A Great Exposition of the Root Text Verses from the Center" (rtsa she thig chen rigs pa'i rgya mtsho). Varanasi: mtho slob dge ldan spyi las khang, 1973.

Each Tibetan verse is followed by a literal English translation. This translation served as the first draft for the free poetic version published in Stephen Batchelor's "Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime". New York: Riverhead Books, 2000.

In making the English translation, the primary authority was Tsongkhapa’s fourteenth century commentary: "An Ocean of Reason: A Great Exposition of the Root Text Verses from the Center".

The following translations from Sanskrit were also consulted:

Inada, Kenneth K. - "Nagarjuna: A Translation of his Mulamadhyamakakarika with an Introductory Essay"; Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1970.

Kalupahana, David J. - "Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way". Albany: SUNY, 1986.

Streng, Frederick. - "Emptiness -- A Study in Religious Meaning". Nashville, New York: Abingdon, 1967.

As was the following translation from the Tibetan:

Garfield, Jay L. - "The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika". New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Any mistakes are my own.

Stephen Batchelor

Abbreviations:

In the comments that follow some of the verses, the abbreviations refer to the works below. The number after the abbreviation refers to the page number of the editions cited.

Lha. - "Dbuma Rigs Tshogs Drug: The Six Yukt Shastra of Madhyamika" (pp. 1-37), edited by Prof. L.P. Lhalungpa. Delhi: 1970.

Ts. - Tsongkhapa. - "An Ocean of Reason: A Great Exposition of the Root Text Verses from the Center" (rTsa she tik chen rigs pa’i rgya mtsho). Varanasi: mTho slob dge ldan spyi las khang, 1973.

K. - Kalupahana, David J. - Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way. Albany: SUNY, 1986.

The title given in brackets below the title at the head of each chapter is the name of the poem found in Stephen Batchelor's "Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime".

(Translator’s homage):

དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུ་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།

རྒྱ་གར་སྐད།༔ pra dzny'a n'a ma m'u la ma dhy'a ma ka k'a ri ka

བོད་སྐད་དུ།༔ འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།
_____________________________________

dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa shes rab ches bya ba bzhugs so // //
(rgya gar skad du): pra dzny'a n'a ma m'u la ma dhy'a ma ka k'a ri ka
(bod skad du): 'jam dpal gzhon nur gyur pa la phyag 'tshal lo

("Herein lie the Root Verses of the Center called “Intelligence”. In the language of India: Prajnanamamulamadhyamakakarika. In the language of Tibet: dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa shes rab ches bya ba. I prostrate to the youthful Manjushri").

(Nagarjuna’s homage):

གང་གིས་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་པར་འབྱུང།

འགག་པ་མེད་པ་སྐྱེ་མེད་པ།

ཆད་པ་མེད་པ་རྟག་མེད་པ།

འོང་པ་མེད་པ་འགྲོ་མེད་པ།

ཐ་དད་དོན་མིན་དོན་གཅིག་མིན།

སྤྲོས་པ་ཉེར་ཞི་ཞི་བསྟན་པ།

རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨྲ་རྣམས་ཀྱི།

དམ་པ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།
_______________________________

gang gis rten cing 'brel par 'byung//
'gag pa med pa skye med pa//
chad pa med pa rtag med pa//
'ong pa med pa 'gro med pa//
tha dad don min don gcig min//
spros pa nyer zhi zhi bstan pa//
rdzogs pa'i sangs rgyas smra rnams kyi//
dam pa de la phyag 'tshal lo/

("I bow down to the most sublime of speakers, the completely awakened one who taught contingency (no cessation, no birth, no annihilation, no permanence, no coming, no going, no difference, no identity) to ease fixations").

Contents & Translation of "Mulamadhyamakakarika: Verses from the Centre":

1. Investigation of Conditions (Conditions)

2. Investigation of Coming and Going (Walking)

3. Investigation of the Sense Organs (Seeing)

4. Investigation of the Aggregates (Body)

5. Investigation of the Elements (Space)

6. Investigation of Desire and the Desirous One (Addiction)

7. Investigation of Birth, Abiding and Perishing (Birth)

8. Investigation of Act and Actor (Actors)

9. Investigation of the Presence of Something Prior (Already)

10. Investigation of Fire and Firewood (Fire)

11. Investigation of Extremes of Before and After (Before)