Namo Guru Nagarjuna Ye

The true nature of all phenomena is beyond the extremes of concepts,
And conventionally, dependently arisen appearances are undeniable,
Skillful guide, this is the way you teach the path of the two truths in union,
With great respect I bow to you, supremely noble Nagarjuna.

When you excellently know the middle turning’s teachings on perfect and complete purity,
Fabrications of clinging to attributes dissolve in their own place,
All reference points and assertions are self-arisen and self-free.  

If perceived and perceiver existed from the start, that’d be the extreme of permanence,
If duality didn’t exist from the start, that’d be the extreme of extinction—
Since these views of permanence and extinction are difficult to clear away,
You should enter the path of the middle way, free from these extremes.

The original fabrications of perceived and perceiver
And the original nonexistence of dualistic fabrications
Are just the same as the extremes of permanence and extinction,
So perceived and perceiver are simply pure and free from the start.

When perceived and perceiver are themselves imperceptible from the start,
Then logical analysis is also imperceptible,
So logical analysis has no ground and no root—
How can groundlessness and rootlessness be analyzed or not?

When the practice of desire, anger, and stupidity’s perfect purity
Is connected with the practice of the five poisons’ self-liberation,
It is excellently shown that sutra and mantra’s profound point is the same.  

Arbuta, India, March 20, 2006. Translated by Ari Goldfield. Translation copyright 2012, Ari Goldfield.