An Introduction to the Philosophy of Nagarjuna.

• Author: Tatz, Mark
• Position: Book Review

By MUSASHI TACHIKAWA. Translated by Rolf W. Giebel. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1997. Pp. iv + 213. Rs 200.

This is the first study of Buddhism by this formidable scholar to be made available in English, and it is greatly to be welcomed by buddhologists who cannot read the original Japanese, not only for its intrinsic value, but also because Tachikawa references and draws upon Japanese scholarship not otherwise known in many European studies. The present volume is a revised version of the author's Ku no kozo ("The Structure of Emptiness") published in 1986.

Tachikawa takes it as his task to correct old misinterpretations of Middle Stanzas, e.g., that the text is supralogical or merely paradoxical, especially by clarifying Nagarjuna's use of the two forms of negation later made explicit by the Buddhist logicians. He also seeks to contextualize the philosophy, opining that it is easy for modern people, completely immersed in the profusion of the profane world, to underestimate, or take for granted, the absolute negation of the real existence of things.

Though not lengthy, the book is densely packed with charts, diagrams, and grammatical notes. Following the commentaries of Candrakirti and *Pingala, Tachikawa analyzes the logic and arguments of the Middle Stanzas and organizes them in tabular and symbolic form. He presents the "concrete terms" of the reductio ad absurdum: arising from self, from other, etc.; arisen or not arisen, traverser existing or not existing; suffering produced by oneself or by something else, etc.; transmigration having a limit or not, etc. These...