Reading list

Emptiness and the Middle Way

From the Perfection of Wisdom to Nāgārjuna and his Tibetan interpreters.

Advanced. 7 steps

Orientation

Concept
Emptiness (śūnyatā)
What emptiness denies and what it does not: no intrinsic existence, not no existence.

Text
Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts
tr. E. B. Cowell, F. Max Müller, J. Takakusu, 1894
Read the Heart Sūtra and the Diamond Sūtra in Müller’s translations.

Author
Nāgārjuna
His life, as far as it is known, and his place in the tradition.
Text
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
Nāgārjuna
Read chapter 1 on causation and chapter 24 on emptiness and the two truths.
Concept
The two truths
How conventional and ultimate truth depend on each other in Madhyamaka.

Text
The Path of Light
Śāntideva, tr. L. D. Barnett, 1909
Śāntideva’s chapter on wisdom, read with his chapters on patience and exchanging self.

Text
The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment
Tsongkhapa, tr. The Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee, 2000
Tsongkhapa’s account of the view in the volume on insight, for advanced readers.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Emptiness and the Middle Way.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/emptiness-and-the-middle-way.
Chicago (note): “Emptiness and the Middle Way,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/emptiness-and-the-middle-way.
MLA: “Emptiness and the Middle Way.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/emptiness-and-the-middle-way.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-emptiness-and-the-middle-way, title = {{Emptiness and the Middle Way}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/emptiness-and-the-middle-way} }