Nagarjuna initiated the Madhyamaka tradition in Mahayana Buddhism that influenced Zen and the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Over the centuries, this tradition spawned in India two subtraditions and syncretic combinations with another Buddhist tradition. These developments will be traced in two volumes of translations of the basic texts from Sanskrit into easily readable English for the general educated public interested in Buddhism or philosophy.

Texts available today in Sanskrit have been translated, and texts no longer extant in Sanskrit but existing in Tibetan or Chinese have been summarized. Notes and separate essays explaining the philosophical content are also included. Presented in this volume are the philosophical writings of Nagarjuna's student Aryadeva (the Four Hundred Verses on Yogic Deeds, the Hand Treatise, and a summary of the One Hundred Verses), a song by Rahulabhadra (Song in Praise of Perfected Wisdom), and selections from the principal works of the two figures who were seen by later Tibetan Buddhists as beginning the division of the Madhyamaka tradition Buddhapalita (summaries of selections from his commentary on Nagarjuna's Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way) and Bhavaviveka (the Summary of the Meaning of the Middle Way and selections from the Verses on the Heart of the Middle Way).

Richard H. Jones holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the history and philosophy of religion and an A.B. from Brown University in religious studies. He also holds a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.