Tuesday, May 12, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Madhyamaka and Middle Way
Tibetan-preserved Madhyamaka treatises and related works on emptiness, the two truths, and the middle way.
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Texts
Clear Words — MahamatiMahamati's verse-by-verse commentary on Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend, never before in EnglishCommentary on Entering into Reality — ShriguptaA systematic Madhyamaka treatise establishing the emptiness of all phenomena through the reasoning of 'neither one nor many.' By Acarya Shrigupta, teacher of Jnanagarbha. First English translation from the Tibetan (Tengyur D3892).Commentary on the Compendium of Essence of Wisdom — BodhibhadraBodhibhadra's commentary on Aryadeva's Compendium of Essence of Wisdom. First English translation from Classical Tibetan.Commentary on the Concise Refutation of PramanaAn anonymous Madhyamaka commentary on Nagarjuna's method of refuting the sixteen categories of Nyaya logic — demonstrating that all three types of evidence are unestablished. First English translation from Classical Tibetan.Compendium of the Essence of the Middle Way — VidyakaraprabhaA systematic Madhyamaka treatise by Vidyakaraprabha (8th-9th c.), using the ascending staircase method to refute both external objects and consciousness, establishing the Middle Way through extensive sutra citations. First English translation.Summary of the Meaning of the Middle Way — SucaritamisraSucaritamisra's concise Madhyamaka treatise classifying the two truths — ultimate and conventional — into their subdivisions. One of the shortest independent texts in the Tengyur's Middle Way section. First English translation.The Buddhapalita — BuddhapalitaThe foundational Madhyamaka commentary by Buddhapalita on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika. First English translation. Chapters 1–27 complete (folios 158b.1–280b.6).The Jewel Lamp of the Middle Way — BhavyaBhāvya's comprehensive Svātantrika Madhyamaka treatise on the two truths, refuting wrong views from both non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools, with meditation instructions — the first English translation from Classical Tibetan (Degé Tengyur D3854).The Middle Way — Dependent Origination — KrsnapadaKṛṣṇapāda's practical meditation guide grounded in Madhyamaka philosophy — from the emptiness of all appearances through the six obstacles to meditation and their eight antidotes. First English translation.Twenty Verses on the Formless — AnandashriA twenty-verse Madhyamaka critique of the nirākāravāda — the theory that ultimate cognition is without aspects, like space. Systematically dismantles the formless through direct perception, inference, and scripture. By the Nepali paṇḍita Ānandaśrī. First English translation from the Tibetan (Tengyur D3894).Verses on the Destruction of Isvara — SilaraksitaA Buddhist philosophical refutation of the Creator God, demonstrating through logic that no eternal, singular deity could produce the diversity of the world.