Nagarjuna's renowned twenty seven-chapter Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamakakarika), the definitive, touchstone presentation of the doctrine of emptiness, is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Professors Siderits and Katsura prepared this translation using the four surviving Indian commentaries in an attempt to reconstruct an interpretation of its enigmatic verses that adheres as closely as possible to that of its earliest proponents. Each verse is accompanied by concise, lively exposition by the authors conveying the explanations of the Indian commentators. The result is a translation that balances the demands for fidelity and accessibility.

Nagarjuna's Middle Way: Mulamadhyamakakarika, Mark Siderits and Shoryu Katsura, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 368 pages, Paperback, $29.95

Mark Siderits was trained in Asian and Western philosophy at the University of Hawaii and Yale University. He has taught both Asian and Western philosophy, for many years at Illinois State University, and most recently as Professor of philosophy at Seoul National University, from which he retired in 2012. He is the author or editor of five books and has published numerous articles on a wide variety of subjects in Indian Buddhist philosophy and comparative philosophy. Much of his work aims at building bridges between the classical Indian tradition and contemporary philosophy, by using insights from one tradition to cast light on problems arising in the other.

Professor Shoryu Katsura received his training in Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies at Kyoto University and the University of Toronto. From 1974 to 2004 he taught in the Department of Indian Philosophy at Hiroshima University; from 2004 he was Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, until his retirement in 2012. He remains active at Ryukoku University, where he is Director of their Research Center for Buddhist Cultures in Asia. He is the author or editor of seven books, and has published over sixty articles on various facets of classical Indian Buddhist thought. He is perhaps best known for his work on Buddhist epistemology--the thought of Dignaga, Dharmakirti, and their commentators--but has also made important contributions to the study of Madhyamaka, Abhidharma, and later Mahayana thought. In addition he serves as chief priest of Kodaiji, a small Jodo-shinshu temple in Shiga Prefecture.

CONTENTS: Nagarjuna's Middle Way: Mulamadhyamakakarika
Preface		ix
Introduction		1
Mulamadhyamakakarika by Nagarjuna		11
Dedicatory Verse		13
1.	An Analysis of Conditions	17
2.	An Analysis of the Traversed, the Not Yet Traversed, and the Presently Being Traversed	31
3.	An Analysis of the Ayatanas	43
4.	An Analysis of the Skandhas	51
5.	An Analysis of the Dhatus	59
6.	An Analysis of Desire and the One Who Desires	65
7.	An Analysis of the Conditioned	71
8.	An Analysis of Object and Agent	89
9.	An Analysis of What Is Prior	99
10.	An Analysis of Fire and Fuel	109
11.	An Analysis of the Prior and Posterior Parts (of Samsara)	121
12.	An Analysis of Suffering	129
13.	An Analysis of the Composite	137
14.	An Analysis of Conjunction	147
15.	An Analysis of Intrinsic Nature	153
16.	An Analysis of Bondage and Liberation	163
17.	An Analysis of Action and Fruit	171
18.	An Analysis of the Self	193
19.	An Analysis of Time	207
20.	An Analysis of the Assemblage	213
21.	An Analysis of Arising and Dissolution (of Existents)	227
22.	An Analysis of the Tathagata	241
23.	An Analysis of False Conception	253
24.	An Analysis of the Noble Truths	267
25.	An Analysis of Nirvana	289
26.	An Analysis of the Twelvefold Chain	307
27.	An Analysis of Views	317
Bibliography		337
Index		343
About the Translators		353