Wednesday, April 1, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Nagarjuna
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Texts
A Drop of Nourishment for the People — NagarjunaA verse treatise on worldly wisdom and ethics attributed to Nagarjuna, combining Indian fable traditions with Buddhist soteriology — first English translation from the Dege Tengyur.Awakening the Unawakened — NagarjunaA short Madhyamaka treatise attributed to Nāgārjuna on twofold selflessness — the selflessness of persons through the rope-snake analogy, and the selflessness of phenomena through the analysis of atoms. Concludes with nine similes and a luminous vision of non-apprehension. First English translation from the Tibetan (Tengyur D3838).Deliverance from Hell — NagarjunaA searing supplication by Nāgārjuna in the voice of a sinner crying out from the hells for the Buddha's salvation. Fifteen verses of raw confession and desperate prayer. First English translation from Tibetan.Discourse on Giving — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's discourse on the supreme virtue of generosity — a great treasure that follows one through lifetimes like a calf following its mother. Fourteen verses from the Tengyur's miscellany section. First English translation.Discourse on Transcending Existence — NagarjunaAn eighteen-verse philosophical poem on the emptiness of existence and transmigration, attributed to Nāgārjuna. First English translation from the Degé Tengyur.Exposition of the Heart of Dependent Origination — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's auto-commentary on the Heart of Dependent Origination — a dialogue proving through eight analogies that nothing transmigrates between lives, yet rebirth occurs through empty dharmas arising from empty dharmas. First freely available English translation from Tibetan (Tengyur D3837).Praise for Pleasing Sentient Beings — NagarjunaA short Buddhist praise text in which the Buddha declares that compassion for sentient beings is the only true worship. Versified from sūtra by Nāgārjuna, translated into Tibetan by Atiśa.Praise in Adoration — NagarjunaA short devotional hymn of prostration by Nāgārjuna, praising the Buddha through seven verses of adoration. First English translation from Tibetan.Praise of the Compassion of Manjushri — NagarjunaA devotional hymn by Nāgārjuna addressed to Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom, asking why the compassionate one has not saved the speaker.Praise of the Incomparable One — NagarjunaA twenty-four verse praise of the Buddha by Nāgārjuna, celebrating the paradoxes of supreme realization — the one who sees nothing with the Buddha's eye and thereby knows reality, whose body is empty as a rainbow yet blazes with the marks of awakening. One of Nāgārjuna's famous Four Hymns (Catuḥstava). First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1119).Praise of the Inconceivable — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's longest and most philosophically comprehensive hymn — a systematic devotional exposition of emptiness, dependent arising, the nature of the Tathāgata, and the two truths. The fourth and final hymn of the Catuḥstava, completing the set in free English for the first time. First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1128).Praise of the Stupas of the Eight Great Holy Sites — NagarjunaA devotional hymn by Nāgārjuna praising the eight stūpas marking the supreme events of the Buddha's life, from the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku 1134). First-ever English translation.Praise of the Three Bodies — NagarjunaA four-verse hymn praising the three bodies of the Buddha — dharmakāya, sambhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya — each bowed to in a single architectonic verse of compressed devotional philosophy. Attributed to Nāgārjuna. First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1123).Praise of the Twelve Deeds — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's devotional hymn praising the twelve great deeds of the Buddha — from generating bodhicitta through parinirvāṇa and the distribution of relics. Thirteen stanzas of four lines each, every stanza ending with a bow. First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1135).Praise of the Vajra of Mind — NagarjunaA seven-verse hymn praising mind as the indestructible vajra — both the ground of awakening and the source of all bondage. Attributed to Nāgārjuna. First English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1121).Praise of the World-Transcendent — NagarjunaA twenty-five verse praise of the Buddha as supreme philosopher by Nāgārjuna, celebrating his deconstruction of form, feeling, name, causation, arising, samsara, and emptiness itself. The most argumentative of Nāgārjuna's famous Four Hymns (Catuḥstava). First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1120).Praise of Ultimate Reality — NagarjunaA ten-verse praise of ultimate reality by Nāgārjuna, systematically negating every possible attribute — birth, substance, color, measure, location — until the act of praise itself dissolves. First freely available English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D1122).Praise Transcending Praise — NagarjunaAn eighteen-verse philosophical hymn by Nāgārjuna praising the Buddha precisely by demonstrating that all praise is impossible — emptiness, dependent origination, and the collapse of every view. First English translation from Tibetan.Refutation of Objections — NagarjunaNagarjuna's defense of emptiness against twenty objections — seventy verses dissolving the foundations of realist epistemology. One of the Five Collections of Reasoning. First free English from Classical Tibetan.Seventy Verses on Emptiness — NagarjunaSeventy-three verses systematically dismantling all ontological categories through Madhyamaka emptiness analysis. One of Nagarjuna's Five Collections of Reasoning. First free English translation from Classical Tibetan (Dege Tengyur D3827).Sixty Verses on Reasoning — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's Sixty Verses on Reasoning — one of the Five Collections, arguing that dependent origination transcends both existence and non-existence. First freely available English translation.The Akutobhaya — NagarjunaThe earliest known commentary on the Mulamadhyamakakarika, attributed to Nagarjuna. First freely available complete English translation — all twenty-seven chapters with terminal colophon.The Dream Wish-Fulfilling Jewel — NagarjunaA thirty-two verse discourse attributed to Nāgārjuna on why sentient beings are the wish-fulfilling jewel. Tohoku 4160. First English translation from the Dege Tengyur.The Hundred Wisdoms — NagarjunaOne hundred verses on wisdom, statecraft, and the good life — attributed to Nāgārjuna, first English translation from Classical Tibetan.The Rite of Generating the Awakening Mind — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's liturgical rite for generating bodhicitta — the seven-branch ceremony that transforms an ordinary being into a bodhisattva. Confession, rejoicing, refuge, offering of self, the generation of the awakening mind, aspiration, and dedication. First English translation from Tibetan (Tengyur D3966).The Staff of Wisdom — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's comprehensive treatise on ethics, statecraft, and wisdom — practical advice sealed with animal fables, natural metaphors, and Buddhist soteriology. First English translation from Tibetan.The Vaidalyasutra — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's systematic dismantling of the Nyāya school's sixteen categories of logic — a compressed philosophical demolition in which every tool of formal reasoning is turned against itself. First freely available English translation.Transference of Existence — NagarjunaA condensed Madhyamaka philosophical poem in five chapters by Nāgārjuna. Emptiness of entities, the five aggregates, non-dual wisdom, the six perfections, and the two truths. First English translation from Tibetan (D3840).Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle — NagarjunaThe Mahāyānaviṃśikā — Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle — by Nāgārjuna. A concise distillation of Mahāyāna philosophy in twenty verses: the emptiness of all phenomena, the illusory nature of samsara, the identity of samsara and nirvana, and the Great Vehicle as the boat across the ocean of suffering. First freely available English translation. Good Works Translation from Tibetan.Unsurpassed Praise — NagarjunaAn eight-verse hymn by Nāgārjuna praising the Buddha as the Unsurpassed One — beyond knowing and not-knowing, beyond meditation and non-meditation, whose nature is as devoid of substance as legs on a snake. First English translation from Tibetan.Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination — NagarjunaNāgārjuna's seven-and-a-half-verse distillation of the twelve links of dependent origination — how they cycle through affliction, karma, and suffering, how the aggregates reconnect at rebirth without any self or essence transferring, and how seeing reality truly is liberation. The verse root text that the Exposition of the Heart of Dependent Origination (D3837) comments upon. First freely available English translation from Tibetan (Tengyur D3836).