UPC: 9780195093360 | The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Paperback)

UPC lookup results for: 9780195093360 | The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Paperback)

The Buddhist saint Nāgārjuna who lived in South India in approximately the second century CE is undoubtedly the most important influential and widely studied Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences letters of advice to kings and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā–read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet China Japan and Korea–is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy. Now in The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way Jay L. Garfield provides a clear and eminently readable translation of Nāgārjuna s seminal work offering those with little or no prior knowledge of Buddhist philosophy a view into the profound logic of the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā. Garfield presents a superb translation of the Tibetan text of Mūlamadhyamikakārikā in its entirety and a commentary reflecting the Tibetan tradition through which Nāgārjuna s philosophical influence has largely been transmitted. Illuminating the systematic character of Nāgārjuna s reasoning Garfield shows how Nāgārjuna develops his doctrine that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence that is than nothing exists substantially or independently. Despite lacking any essence he argues phenomena nonetheless exist conventionally and that indeed conventional existence and ultimate emptiness are in fact the same thing. This represents the radical understanding of the Buddhist doctrine of the two truths or two levels of reality. He offers a verse-by-verse commentary that explains Nāgārjuna s positions and arguments in the language of Western metaphysics and epistemology and connects Nāgārjuna s concerns to those of Western philosophers such as Sextus Hume and Wittgenstein. An accessible translation of the foundational text for all Mahāyāna Buddhism The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way offers insight to all those interested in the nature of reality.