In Nāgārjuna’s school of thought, Madhyamaka's most important and fundamental work is Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Based on the most profound teaching of dependent origination in Agama, Arya Nāgārjuna in his discourse proposed all phenomenon arise from dependent origination, and because of that, all phenomenon are devoid of intrinsic nature, thus this lack of intrinsic nature is referred to as emptiness. This was the principle he used to comment on whether thoughts of different Buddhist sects are in accordance with the Buddha’s original teaching. The essence of Nāgārjuna’s teaching on Madhyamaka is that rather than conflicting with each other, dependent origination and emptiness are, in fact, complimentary. He then used this argument to refute the obsession to realism proffered by heretics (Tīrthika) and hearers (Śrāvaka). Therefore, to master an understanding of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, it is essential to understand the central doctrines of other sects. For this reason, I chose "A Disciplinary Analysis between Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and the Schismatic Doctrines" as the topic of this thesis. In this thesis, I start with a brief introduction to the development of Buddhism in Nāgārjuna's time. Then with reference to Master Yin-Shun's work on Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, I present the essence of each chapter. Master Yin-Shun discusses Nāgārjuna's great work in four chapters according to The Four Noble Truths—the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. In the end, I use the following three chapters—Analysis of the conditioned (Saṃskṛtaparīkṣā), Analysis of action and its fruit (Karmaphalaparīkṣa) and Analysis of the soul (Ātmaparīkṣā)—as examples to explore Nāgārjuna's views versus those proposed by other sects culminating in an explanation of the essence and uniqueness of Nāgārjuna's philosophy.
