Lightning Sparks of Wisdom

Verses on the Essence of Nagarjunas Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way

Chapter One: An Examination of Causal Conditions
These various thoughts of attachment and aversion
Seem to arise from causes and conditions,
But when you examine their causes and conditions,
You find they are unborn, beyond conceptual fabrication,
So know these thoughts have no inherent nature.
Chapter Two: An Examination of Coming and Going
The mind thinks a variety of good and bad thoughts,
But since their coming and going are imperceptible,
Know that thoughts true nature is free from coming and going
And that thoughts are dependently arisen mere appearances.
Chapter Three: An Examination of the Sources of Consciousness
The inner and outer sources of consciousness
Cannot logically exist sequentially
And cannot logically exist simultaneously,
And so the Buddha taught they have no nature of their own.
Chapter Four: An Examination of the Aggregates
Causal forms, the four great elements,
And resultant forms, the five sense faculties and their five objects,
Cannot logically exist sequentially or simultaneously,
So know they are appearance-emptiness, like dreams.
Chapter Five: An Examination of the Elements
Considering the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness,
When you distinguish between their defining characteristics and that which is defined, and then
analyze,
You cannot find even the tiniest bit of true existence.
Chapter Six: An Examination of Desire and the Desirous One
The one who desires and the one who is desired
Do not have any truly existent self,
So how could the desire possibly exist?
Know that it is the great original purity and freedom.
Chapter Seven: An Examination of the Composite
With all composite things,
Arising, abiding, and ceasing are imperceptible,
So know they are like dreams and watermoons
They have no inherent nature.
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Chapter Eight: An Examination of Actors and Actions

Since the actor has no self,
Know the action does not truly exist.
The actor is like an emanation
And the action like an emanation of an emanation.
Chapter Nine: An Examination of What Comes First
With experiences of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and bodily sensations,
If the self does not truly exist before these experiences
How could it possibly exist after them?
Know that the self is a dependently arisen mere appearance.
Chapter Ten: An Examination of Fire and Firewood
When you rub two sticks together
The fire that appears does not come or go.
Know that it is the same with the mental afflictions and suffering
They do not come or go.
Chapter Eleven: An Examination of Samsara
Since the one who circles in samsara does not truly exist,
How could samsara possibly exist?
Like wandering lost in darkness in a dream,
Know samsara is a dependently arisen mere appearance.
Chapter Twelve: An Examination of Suffering
The suffering of the three realms of samsara
Does not arise from itself, from something different than itself,
From both of these, or without cause.
So know that suffering does not happen.
Chapter Thirteen: An Examination of the Precise Nature
Emptiness, not emptiness, and so forth
These are terms used at the stage of slight analysis.
Thorough logical analysis reveals
That genuine reality transcends empty and not empty both.
Chapter Fourteen: An Examination of Contact
Logical analysis proves
That the enemy seen, the eyes that see, and the person seeing, these three,
Do not actually meet, like watermoons and dreams.
Chapter Fifteen: An Examination of Things and the Absence of Things
Just as the mighty teacher, the Muni, advised Katyayana,
Please know that clinging to things existing or not existing
Is what causes suffering to increase.
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Chapter Sixteen: An Examination of Bondage and Liberation

Since genuine reality transcends the notions of someone bound and something binding,
Doubts and mistaken thoughts do not bind, nor is there any liberation from them.
It is like the bondage and liberation that appear in dreams.
Chapter Seventeen: An Examination of Karmic Actions and Results
Since the mental afflictions have no self-nature,
How could karma have any inherent nature either?
Therefore, the body does not truly exist,
And actors and their actions results are the same.
Chapter Eighteen: An Examination of Self and Phenomena
There is no self in the individual
And phenomena have no inherent nature either,
So if you know that phenomena do not truly exist and then meditate,
You will be free.
Chapter Nineteen: An Examination of Time
There is no common day or night,
When you suffer, it seems difficult for the time to pass,
And when youre happy, the time passes easily,
So know that time has no inherent nature.
Chapter Twenty: An Examination of Collections
An army, a crowd, a group of guests at an inn
There is a mere appearance of a collection,
But the entity possessing the collection cannot be seen.
So collections are dependently arisen mere appearances.
Chapter Twenty-one: An Examination of Emergence and Decay
A big citys emergence and decay
Are opposite events, so they cannot be one thing,
And for them to be different would also be illogical
So they are appearance-emptiness, like movies.
Chapter Twenty-two: An Examination of the Tathagata
The tathagatas abiding reality transcends conceptual fabrication,
And in exactly the same way, wandering beings true nature is beyond concept.
This true nature, beyond fabrication, is originally pure and originally free from stains;
The stains true nature is the same original purity and freedom.

Chapter Twenty-three: An Examination of Mistakes

Clean, self, happiness, and permanence
Have no self-nature, and just the same,
Selflessness, filth, impermanence, and suffering
Have no inherent nature either.
Chapter Twenty-four: An Examination of the Four Noble Truths
When you know that whatever is dependently arisen is empty,
Karmic cause and result, the rare and supreme ones, and the four noble truths are logically feasible.
And at the stage of no analysis, from the perspective of worldly renown,
Conventional adopting and rejecting are logically feasible.
Chapter Twenty-five: An Examination of Nirvana
The ultimate nature of nirvana
Is free from the fabrications of arising and ceasing.
In the same way, the ultimate nature of samsara
Is free from the fabrications of arising and ceasing.
Chapter Twenty-six: An Examination of the Twelve Links of Existence
Since ignorance has no essence,
Its ending has no essence either.
Since birth and death have no essence,
Their ending does not truly occur.
Chapter Twenty-seven: An Examination of Views
Since all phenomena lack inherent nature,
Wrong views have no inherent nature.
Since the one with the view has no self,
Wrong views cannot truly exist.

This summary of the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way was composed extemporaneously by Sherab
Lodr (Khenpo Tsltrim Gyamtso Rinpoche) at the Halifax Shambhala Center and Dorje Denma Ling,
Nova Scotia, Canada in September 2003.
Translated by Ari Goldfield.

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