Nāgārjuna’s “Seventy Stanzas”: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness

The work opens with a preface explaining the background of the project: Komito’s study of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka system in Dharamsala with Geshe Sonam Rinchen, and the decision to produce a readable contemporary commentary rather than a purely literal or technical translation. The foreword presents the traditional legend of Nāgārjuna’s encounter with the nāgas, linking Nāgārjuna to the transmission of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings and the Madhyamaka doctrine of emptiness. The book is divided into three main chapters. Chapter 1, “Buddhist Psychology,” introduces Buddhadharma, perception and conception, subject, attention, meditation, and object. Chapter 2, “The Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness,” gives the translation of Nāgārjuna’s verses and includes the Tibetan text and commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen. Chapter 3, “The Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness and its Transmission,” discusses Nāgārjuna’s treatises, the transmission of the Seventy Stanzas during the first and second introductions of Buddhism to Tibet, and modern translation activities. The volume concludes with footnotes, bibliography, and index.