Entering the Middle Way.
The Madhyamakāvatāra (入中論) is Candrakīrti's own guide into Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka philosophy — the path through the ten bodhisattva grounds to buddhahood, argued through the lens of emptiness. These are Ru-Yi's own reading notes on the text, organized by theme rather than session by session.
What this collection is
These pages are original commentary written by Ru-Yi, not a translation of any published work. They walk through the Madhyamakāvatāra's own argument — the meaning of "middle," the three causes of a bodhisattva, the ten grounds, and the refutation of a fixed self — organized around themes so a reader can enter wherever a question actually starts.
Root verses quoted in these notes are translated directly by Ru-Yi from Candrakīrti's Sanskrit text as rendered into Chinese by Venerable Fazun (法尊法師), not copied from any existing English edition.
In preparing these notes we studied Ven. Miao Jing's (妙境長老, 1930–2003) 入中論頌講記 — his oral lecture series on this text, transcribed by Fayun Publishing (法雲出版社) and hosted at fayun.org.
That transcript is listed here as a reference work we consulted, not reproduced. Any quotations from it in these notes are brief excerpts cited for illustration, and the English wording throughout is our own.
Reading Notes
All eleven entries are now live, following the text's own progression from the opening homage through the ten bodhisattva grounds to buddhahood itself — read in order, or jump to whichever theme you need.
Why Study the Madhyamakāvatāra
Who Candrakīrti was, what "middle" means in Madhyamaka, and a close reading of the text's opening homage — the three causes of a bodhisattva, and why compassion is named first among them.
Ground 1 · LiveThe First Ground: Joy and the Perfection of Giving
What it takes to enter the First Ground, why giving is its signature virtue, and the difference between giving that merely pays off and giving that liberates.
Grounds 2–3 · LiveDiscipline and Patience
Why pure discipline requires the wisdom of no-self, and how a bodhisattva endures harm without anger — grounded in compassion and in seeing "the cutter, the cut, and the cutting" as illusion-like.
Grounds 4–5 · LiveDiligence and Meditative Concentration
The 37 factors of enlightenment, the four foundations of mindfulness read the Mahāyāna way, and why even advanced meditators remain vulnerable to subtle pride.
Ground 6, part 1 · LiveThe Two Truths and the Refutation of Wrong Arising
Why "I saw my mother give birth to me" isn't proof of anything, ultimately — the fourfold refutation of self-arising, other-arising, both, and causeless arising that opens the text's central philosophical argument.
Ground 6, part 2 · LiveRefuting "Mind-Only": Candrakīrti and the Dream Argument
Candrakīrti's running debate with Yogācāra over whether the mind can exist without any object at all — argued through dreams, cataracts, and a hungry ghost's river of pus.
Ground 6, part 3 · LiveNo Creator, No First Cause
The refutation of Īśvara and other theistic first-causes, and the "barren woman's son" analogy that distinguishes things merely empty from things that don't exist at all.
Ground 6, part 4 · LiveThe Sixteen Emptinesses
From the emptiness of the six senses to the emptiness of emptiness itself — the text's expanded catalogue of no-self, scaled to different disciples' capacities.
Ground 6, part 5 · LiveRefuting the Self: The Sevenfold Chariot Reasoning
The text's most famous argument — is a chariot its parts, apart from its parts, or something else entirely? — applied to dismantle twenty possible wrong views of a fixed self.
Grounds 7–10 · LiveFar-Going, Immovable, Excellent, and Cloud of Dharma
How a bodhisattva becomes irreversible, why even the buddhas of the ten directions must intervene at the Eighth Ground, and the coronation-like empowerment that opens the Tenth.
Buddha Ground · LiveThe Ten Powers, and a Buddha Who Never Departs
The Buddha's omniscience catalogued in ten powers, and the text's closing argument for why a Buddha never enters final nirvana as long as any being still suffers.
Terminology Notes
Recurring terms, the ten ground names, and a note on method, kept consistent across all eleven entries. See also this site's note on translation method.