Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists

Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists PDF Author: Lhundub Sopa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614298092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book

Book Description
A modern commentary by a beloved Tibetan teacher on a classical Indian Buddhist text and an introduction to Buddhism by one of the tradition’s most famous authors. A teaching on how to live a Buddhist life in contemporary society. Letter to A Friend, by the great Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, is one of the best-known introductions to Buddhism in classical Indian Buddhist literature. In this warm and generous commentary, one of the twentieth century’s most beloved teachers, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, shows how Nagarjuna’s advice on how to follow Buddhist ethics while living fully in the world speaks just as clearly to us today as it did to the Indian king for whom it was composed. Nagarjuna maintained that all Buddhists can embody the full teachings of the Buddha. Therefore, this book covers topics from simple virtues to the most profound truths of emptiness. Expertly compiled by his student, scholar Beth Newman, from talks given over a number of years, the commentary brings this ancient Buddhist teaching to a modern audience.

Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists

Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists PDF Author: Lhundub Sopa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614298092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book

Book Description
A modern commentary by a beloved Tibetan teacher on a classical Indian Buddhist text and an introduction to Buddhism by one of the tradition’s most famous authors. A teaching on how to live a Buddhist life in contemporary society. Letter to A Friend, by the great Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, is one of the best-known introductions to Buddhism in classical Indian Buddhist literature. In this warm and generous commentary, one of the twentieth century’s most beloved teachers, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, shows how Nagarjuna’s advice on how to follow Buddhist ethics while living fully in the world speaks just as clearly to us today as it did to the Indian king for whom it was composed. Nagarjuna maintained that all Buddhists can embody the full teachings of the Buddha. Therefore, this book covers topics from simple virtues to the most profound truths of emptiness. Expertly compiled by his student, scholar Beth Newman, from talks given over a number of years, the commentary brings this ancient Buddhist teaching to a modern audience.

Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists

Nagarjuna's Advice for Buddhists PDF Author: Lhundub Sopa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614297851
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book

Book Description
"A Letter to a Friend stands out among Nāgārjuna's works because of its minimal philosophical content and limited discussion of Mahayana practices. A Letter to a Friend is a comprehensive yet brief summary of the basic ideas and practices that form the substrate for all forms Buddhism: in other words, the text outlines the practices common to the Hinayana-more respectfully called the Śrāvakayāna-and the Mahayana in both its Sutrayana and Vajrayana forms. In that regard, it can be seen as a very early precursor of the presentation of the graduated path to awakening in a single text developed centuries later by Atiśa (circa 982-1055), and expanded in Tibet by the master Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). Geshe Sopa was an exemplary Buddhist monk practitioner as well as a superlative scholar. His quiet and compassionate traditionalism drew people in; he did not blast people with charisma. He was a recognized master of his tradition and also knew how to reach a contemporary audience. His teachings on A Letter to a Friend roughly follow the commentary written by Rendawa Shonu Lodro (1349-1412). However, he added much, much more. He brought in additional material from many sources: the sutras, other texts by Nāgārjuna, works by great Indian masters such as Śāntideva, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, Vasubhandu and others, and from multiple works by Je Tsongkhapa.15 Although Nāgārjuna's text primarily teaches the common path with little emphasis on philosophy, Geshe Sopa's explanation supplements it to teach the Mahayana path and Madhyamaka philosophy"--

Living Ethically

Living Ethically PDF Author: Sangharakshita
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
ISBN: 1907314881
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book

Book Description
In a world of increasingly confused ethics, Living Ethically looks back over the centuries for guidance from Nagarjuna, one of the greatest teachers of the Mahayana tradition. Drawing on the themes of Nagarjuna's famous scripture, Precious Garland of Advice for a King, this book explores the relationship between an ethical lifestyle and the development of wisdom. Covering both personal and collective ethics, Sangharakshita considers such enduring themes as pride, power and business, as well as friendship, love and generosity.

Buddhist Advice for Living & Liberation

Buddhist Advice for Living & Liberation PDF Author: Nāgārjuna
Publisher: Snow Lion
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book

Book Description
In this foundational text of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, Nagarjuna offers intimate counsel on how to conduct one's life so as to improve one's condition and to gain release from all types of suffering, culminating in Buddhahood.

Buddhist Advice for Living & Liberation

Buddhist Advice for Living & Liberation PDF Author: Nāgārjuna
Publisher: Snow Lion Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Mādhyamika (Buddhism)
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book

Book Description
Nagarjuna is renowned for his penetrating anaylsis of reality.

Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness

Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness PDF Author: Jampa Tegchok
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 161429335X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Get Book

Book Description
Let a great Tibetan scholar guide you through one of Nagarjuna’s masterworks. In Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness Khensur Jampa Tegchok walks us carefully through a classic of Indian Buddhist philosophy, explaining the implications of its philosophical arguments and grounding its advice in a recognizable day-to-day world. In Precious Garland, the source text for this commentary, Nagarjuna advises his patron king on how best to take advantage of human life to secure a happy rebirth in the next life while making progress toward the goal of enlightenment. Known primarily for his incisive presentation of emptiness, here Nagarjuna shows his wise understanding of how to navigate the intricacies of worldly life to balance everyday needs with spiritual practice. Loaded with equal measures of penetrating explanations of the highest reality and inspiring encouragement towards the bodhisattva practices, Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness makes the case for living a thoughtful, morally upright life in the world to achieve immediate and ultimate spiritual goals.

Nagarjuna's Precious Garland

Nagarjuna's Precious Garland PDF Author: Sara McClintock
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614298688
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Get Book

Book Description
Discover the eloquence and insight of the philosopher Nagarjuna, held by tradition to be a second Buddha, in this concise instruction for a king that is considered a masterpiece of Buddhist literature. In this profound work of five hundred verses, we encounter a presentation of Buddhism that integrates both the worldly and the transcendent. The clear and sagacious advice laid out on every page serves as a road map to one’s highest goal—whether that goal is a better life, here called the Dharma of ascendance, or the ultimate one of spiritual freedom, the Dharma of the highest good. The verses, written for an unnamed ruler, touch on questions of statecraft, but their broader themes speak to us today because they tackle the difficulty of integrating one’s spiritual journey with the social and political demands of daily life. Nagarjuna was an Indian Buddhist teacher, probably of the second century CE, who was renowned for his astute articulation of the philosophy of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka). His thoroughgoing critique of all forms of essentialism became a touchstone for Mahayana Buddhism in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia, and his importance for the development of the Mahayana tradition can scarcely be exaggerated. The translators here first rendered Nagarjuna’s letter for the Dalai Lama’s teachings on the work in Los Angeles in 1997. While that commemorative edition was translated from the Tibetan, the present volume prioritizes the surviving Sanskrit verses along with the only known Indian commentary, by the eleventh-century scholar Ajitamitra. This is the first complete translation in English of the Precious Garland that takes the Indian text and commentary as its primary authorities. In addition, the translators provide rigorous working editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan verses they translate. This elegant and precise rendering of Nagarjuna’s work is certain to become the touchstone translation of this celebrated Buddhist text.

Nagarjuna's Middle Way

Nagarjuna's Middle Way PDF Author: Mark Siderits
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 161429061X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book

Book Description
Winner of the 2014 Khyenste Foundation Translation Prize. Nagarjuna's renowned twenty-seven-chapter Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamakakarika) is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. It is the definitive, touchstone presentation of the doctrine of emptiness. Professors Siderits and Katsura prepared this translation using the four surviving Indian commentaries in an attempt to reconstruct an interpretation of its enigmatic verses that adheres as closely as possible to that of its earliest proponents. Each verse is accompanied by concise, lively exposition by the authors conveying the explanations of the Indian commentators. The result is a translation that balances the demands for fidelity and accessibility.

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way : Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way : Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika PDF Author: Nagarjuna
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195093364
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book

Book Description
For nearly two thousand years Buddhism has mystified and captivated both lay people and scholars alike. Seen alternately as a path to spiritual enlightenment, an system of ethical and moral rubrics, a cultural tradition, or simply a graceful philosophy of life, Buddhism has produced impassioned followers the world over. The Buddhist saint Nagarjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the first century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahayana Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work, the Mulamadhyamikakarika--read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea--is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy. Now, in The Foundations of the Philosophy of the Middle Way, Jay L. Garfield provides a clear and and eminently readable translation of Nagarjuna's seminal work, offering those with little of no prior knowledge of Buddhist philosophy a view into the profound logic of the Mulamadhyamikakarika. Translated from the Tibetan, the tradition through which Nagarjuna's philosophical influence has largely been transmitted, Garfield presents a superb translation of Mulamadhyamikakarika in its entirety. Illuminating the systematic character of Nagarjuna's reasoning, as well as the works profundity, Garfield shows how Nagarjuna develops his doctrine that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence and essenceless. But, he argues, phenomena nonetheless exist conventionaly, and that indeed conventional existence and ultimate emptiness are in fact the same thing. This represents the radical understanding of the Buddhist doctrine of the two truths, or two levels of reality. Nagarjuna reinterprets all of Buddhist metaphysics and epistemology through this analytical framework--"a systematic and beautifully elegant philosophical dissection of reality." In turn, Garfield goes on to offer the only verse-by-verse commentary based upon the Indo-Tibetan Prasangika-Madhyamika reading of Nagarjuna, the school most influential in the development of Mahayana philosophy in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan. Written specifically for the Western reader, the commentary explains Nagarjuna's positions and arguments in the language of Western metaphysics and epistemology, and connects Nagarjuna's concerns tho those of Western philosophers such as Sextus, Hume, and Wittgenstein. A fascinating and accessible translation of the foundational text for all Mahayana Buddhism text, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way will enlighten all those in search of the essence of reality.

Nagarjuna's Wisdom

Nagarjuna's Wisdom PDF Author: Barry Kerzin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614295190
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 181

Get Book

Book Description
Explore the Mulamadhyamakakarika the way the Dalai Lama teaches it. Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, or as it’s known in Tibetan, Root Wisdom, is a definitive presentation of the doctrines of emptiness and dependent arising, and a foundational text of Mahayana Buddhism. In this book, Barry Kerzin, personal physician to the Dalai Lama, presents this fundamental work in a digestible way, using a method favored by His Holiness: focusing on five key chapters, presented in a specific order. First we explore the twelve links of dependent origination, in Nagarjuna’s chapter 26, to learn why and how we cycle through sa?sara. Then we examine the self that cycles to discover that, in fact, there is no inherently existent self, based on Nagarjuna's chapter 18. We then enter an analysis of the four noble truths, based on chapter 24, to understand how conventional reality is understood. Next, an investigation of the Tathagata shows the reader that even emptiness is empty in chapter 22. Finally, Nagarjuna re-emphasizes the pervasiveness of emptiness in his first chapter. Thus, Dr. Kerzin walks us through Nagarjuna’s masterwork and lets the great teacher introduce us to Buddhist philosophy, step by step—deepening our understanding, enhancing the way we practice.