Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika (Root Verses on the Middle Way) is among the most influential works in Buddhist philosophy. Its method is relentless: take any concept you believe names a real thing; show that it cannot exist independently; conclude that its reality is not self-standing but dependent.
The result is the doctrine of Emptiness — all phenomena are empty of inherent existence — which transforms Buddhism’s earlier teachings into the full Mahayana vision. Nagarjuna is the philosophical foundation of Tibetan Buddhism and Zen alike.