The Root Stanzas of the Middle Way

Download or read book The Root Stanzas of the Middle Way written by Nagarjuna and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.