In this breakthrough translation, Nagarjuna, the early Buddhist philosopher, attempts to show that reality cannot be reduced to conceptual structures because thought and conceptualizaton belong to the field of mental presentation and are therefore fantasy. Reality, on the contrary, is what is experienced, and for that very reason, cannot be thought. A work of enormous impact on the history of Buddhist thought in East Asia, Nagarjuna demonstrates the absurdity of concepts such as substance, causality, and the idea of movement. Much like the Western philosopher Kant, he shows the limits of human understanding, and in doing so, creates room for religious experience.

Nagarjuna: The Central Philosophy Basis Verses, Erik Hoogcarspel, translator, Olive Press, 2005, 175 Pages, $28.95