The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism

The main content is organized into eight chapters. The first chapter, “A Preliminary Examination of Madhyamaka Ontology,” studies the ontological status of Madhyamaka thought and the problem of whether emptiness should be treated as a doctrine or as a critique of all doctrinal fixation. The second chapter, “Nāgārjuna and Logic,” analyzes Nāgārjuna’s use of reasoning, negation, and dialectical method. The third chapter, “Nāgārjuna and the Continuity of Tradition,” examines whether Nāgārjuna’s thought stands in continuity with earlier Buddhist teachings or represents a radical break. The fourth chapter, “The Problem of Mahāyāna ‘Schools,’” questions the modern tendency to separate Madhyamaka and Yogācāra into fixed institutional or philosophical camps. The fifth chapter, “The Conception of Truth in Early Buddhism,” explores the background from which later Mahāyāna theories of truth developed. The sixth chapter, “The Two Truths and the Three Natures,” compares Madhyamaka’s two-truth framework with Yogācāra’s three-nature doctrine. The seventh chapter, “The Nature of Reality,” considers how both traditions articulate reality beyond conceptual construction. The eighth chapter, “The Problem of Idealism,” evaluates whether Yogācāra should properly be interpreted as philosophical idealism or as a disciplined analysis of cognition, appearance, and liberation.