The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana

by Theodore Stcherbatsky

The present book provides an English translation of Nagarjuna's chapters on Causality and Nirvana and Candrakirti's comprehensive commentary on the Sanskrit Text and presents a rare exposition of the Madhyamaka Dialectic.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

Reviews

[Virtual Mitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a long time student of Buddhism, I have known of and indeed owned this book for a quite a while, but have consistently avoided it because of its era. In my experience, many of the early writers on Buddhism betray too much of their cultural perspective in their writing so that their works are more period pieces than helpful scholarship. Such is not the case with The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and accuracy of Stcherbatsky's knowledge about Buddhism, Hinduism, Western Philosophy, Sanskrit and Tibetan. And while I did not agree with some of his choices in translation (e.g. Ens and non-Ens instead of being/existence and non-being/non-existence, or relativity instead of emptiness), these were easily overlooked. The introduction by Jaideva Singh was less notable but does not detract from the overall read. The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana is by no means an easy-read and probably not an advisable one for someone new to Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, but for anyone who enjoys philosophy and has some prior knowledge of the Buddhism philosophical scene that centers around Nagarjuna, this book is a joy to read and highly informative.