Here is one of Buddhism's profoundest classics, made new for today's reader. In the third century CE, the Indian master Aryadeva composed four hundred verses to cut through the illusions that keep us entangled in suffering. With wit and surgical precision, he dismantles attachment to the body, pleasure, pride, and wrong views, then guides the reader into the heart of the Middle Way: the liberating insight that all things are empty of fixed, independent existence, and that emptiness, far from denying the world, is the very ground of compassion. This faithful modern-English edition preserves the sequence, imagery, and argument of the original sixteen chapters while rendering their teachings in clear, present-day language. It includes an introductory essay, a glossary of names and terms, and practical notes on how to read a classical philosophical poem. Whether you are new to Buddhist thought or long familiar with it, this timeless text invites you to see the world as it is, and to meet it with greater freedom and kindness. Part of The World Scriptures Library.