Explore the Mulamadhyamakakarika the way the Dalai Lama teaches it.
Nagarjuna's Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, or as it's known in Tibetan, Root Wisdom, is a definitive presentation of the doctrines of emptiness and dependent arising, and a foundational text of Mahayana Buddhism.
In this book, Barry Kerzin, personal physician to the Dalai Lama, presents this fundamental work in a digestible way, using a method favored by His Holiness: focusing on five key chapters, presented in a specific order.
- First we explore the twelve links of dependent origination, in Nagarjuna's chapter 26, to learn why and how we cycle through sa?sara.
- Then we examine the self that cycles to discover that, in fact, there is no inherently existent self, based on Nagarjuna's chapter 18.
- We then enter an analysis of the four noble truths, based on chapter 24, to understand how conventional reality is understood.
- Next, an investigation of the Tathagata shows the reader that even emptiness is empty in chapter 22.
- Finally, Nagarjuna re-emphasizes the pervasiveness of emptiness in his first chapter.
Thus, Dr. Kerzin walks us through Nagarjuna's masterwork and lets the great teacher introduce us to Buddhist philosophy, step by step-deepening our understanding, enhancing the way we practice.
