Text: Sixty Verses on Reasoning

Introduction

Sixty Verses on Reasoning (Yuktisastika) is a compact, rigorous work of Buddhist philosophy traditionally attributed to Nagarjuna. Composed as sixty aphoristic verses, it distills central Madhyamaka insights into a careful program of rational critique. The text models how argumentative clarity and logical analysis serve soteriological ends by exposing the empty, dependently arisen character of phenomena.

Purpose and Method

The work advances the claim that correct reasoning is an indispensable tool for uprooting mistaken ontologies and securing a clear view of reality. It does not oppose meditation or ethical discipline; rather, it uses dialectical scrutiny to remove intellectual obstacles that reinforce attachment and aversion. Each verse performs a tightly focused refutation or clarification, aiming to dismantle reified notions that underlie suffering.

Key Doctrines

Central to the text is the doctrine of emptiness: all things lack inherent, independent existence. The Sixty Verses develops this through the principle of dependent origination, showing that causation, identity, and properties cannot ground a self-sufficient essence. The work treats individuals, moments, and universals alike as dependently designated and thus devoid of svabhāva. This denial of ontological autonomy supports the Madhyamaka middle way, rejecting both eternalism and nihilism.

Argumentative Strategy

The text proceeds by presenting common assumptions about persons, objects, causes, and effects, and then subjecting these assumptions to reductio arguments and fine distinctions. It emphasizes inferential reasoning, examining how evidence and inference are used, and misused, in everyday and philosophical contexts. By exposing contradictions and regressions that arise from reifying premises, the verses lead readers to abandon untenable conceptual positions. The procedure is analytical yet aimed at displacing attachment to conceptual frameworks rather than merely winning debates.

Philosophical Style

Economy and precision characterize the Sixty Verses. Each couplet or stanza tightens the argument, often turning a conventional premise against itself to reveal instability. The language favors logical moves, negation, conditional analysis, and substitution, while maintaining a consistent ethical horizon: accurate view transforms conduct and perception. The text balances technical reasoning with the broader Buddhist concern that right understanding supports liberation, so its tone combines analytical rigor with practical urgency.

Legacy and Influence

The Sixty Verses became a pivotal pedagogical tool for Madhyamaka thinkers and commentators, prized for its clarity in articulating a reasoning-based path to insight. It influenced later debates on inference, perception, and causation across South and East Asian scholastic traditions, shaping how emptiness was taught and defended. As a concise manual of rational critique, it continues to be studied for its exemplary demonstration of how disciplined thought can function as a means to undermine clinging and open the way to non-conceptual realization.