Modern texts
- Mahayana Buddhism - The Doctrinal Foundations (Paul Williams)
Ancient classics
- Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
Sutras
Red Pine for Heart/Diamond, BDK or Shambhala are good for others.
Prajnaparamita
- The Heart Sutra
- The sutra itself is 2 pages but the commentary is a great introduction to Buddhism and to how Mahayana differs from Śrāvaka traditions.
- The Diamond Sutra
Tiantai/Tendai
- The Lotus Sutra
Pure Land
- The Three Pure Land Sutras
Yogācāra
- Saṃdhinirmocana Sutra
Chan/Zen
- Lankavatara Sutra
- Śūraṅgama Sutra
Tathāgatagarbha
- Tathāgatagarbha sūtra
- The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion’s Roar
Huayen
- Avatamsaka Sutra
Misc
- Vimalakirti Sutra
Madhyamaka
Nāgārjuna
- Mulamadhyamakakarika - Verses on the Middle Way
- Yuktisaktika - Sixty Verses on Reasoning
- Sunyataspati - Seventy Verses on Emptiness
- Vigrahavyavartani - Countering Hostile Objections (a reply to objections against his work)
- Vaidalyaprakarana - The Treatise that Grinds into Little Pieces (an attack on the categories of the Hindu epistemologists (Nyaya))
- Vyavaharasiddhi - a proof of the conventional realm (this work is lost save for a few verses, and some Tibetans substituted the Ratnavali (The Jewel Garland))
- Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way
Prasangika (Consequentialist)
Methodology: reductio ad absurdum, point out that an opponent’s position entails undesired consequences for the opponent himself.
- Buddhapalita
- Candrakirti
- Santideva
Svatantrika (Autonomist)
Believe reductio ad absurdum is not enough, autonomous inference should be employed to put forth one’s own positions. Tsong kha pa says that Svatantrikas, although they deny svabhava ultimately like the Prasangikas, accept that in the conventional realm there is conventional svabhava.
- Sautrantika-Svatantrika
- Bhavaviveka
- Yogacara-Svatantrika
- (although ultimately absolutely everything lacks svabhava, conventionally objects are not external to the reflexively aware perceiving mind)
- Santaraksita
- Kamalasila
Chan/Zen
- The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma
- The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
- The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China
- The Record of Linji: A New Translation Of The Linjilu In The Light Of Ten Japanese Zen Commentaries
- The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse
- The Gateless Gate
- Blue Cliff Record
- Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo
- Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Ekaku