Recensions
Nāgārjuna's Ratnāvalī: Volume 1, The Basic Texts
This new edition of Nāgārjuna's Ratnāvalī - recently ranked as one of the authentic works of the Buddhist thinker who wrote the Madhyamakaśāstra - hardly needs justification. The need for a usable edition of both the Sanskrit original and its Tibetan translation has become apparent as a result of the availability of three modern scholarly renderings of the Ratnāvalī. No one would wish to deny the usefulness of the works of URYŪZU, HOPKINS, and LINDTNER, but the many difficult and controversial passages in the work (especially where the Sanskrit text is no longer extant) call for a reliable textual basis for the comparison and evaluation of these translations. It is the modest aim of this publication to
combine in one volume the most important source materials for the study of the Ratnāvalī:
- a) The Sanskrit text as far as it is still available
- b) The canonical Tibetan version of the complete work
- c) The Taishō edition of Paramārtha's Chinese translation
Book
Nāgārjuna's Precious Garland: Ratnāvalī
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.
Nāgārjuna 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 Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia, and his importance for the development of the Mahāyāna tradition can scarcely be exaggerated.
The translators here first rendered Nāgārjuna’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, they provide rigorous working editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan verses they translate. (Source: Wisdom Publications)Book
Full translations
Nāgārjuna's Precious Garland: Ratnāvalī
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.
Nāgārjuna 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 Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia, and his importance for the development of the Mahāyāna tradition can scarcely be exaggerated.
The translators here first rendered Nāgārjuna’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, they provide rigorous working editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan verses they translate. (Source: Wisdom Publications)Book
Scholarship
Citations from the Ratnāvalī and Bodhicittavivaraṇa in the Abhayapaddhati
This article reports newly discovered Sanskrit quotations from Nāgārjuna's Ratnāvalī and Bodhicittavivaraṇa found in Abhayākaragupta's twelfth-century Abhayapaddhati commentary. The author identifies one previously unpublished Ratnāvalī verse and four Bodhicittavivaraṇa verses not yet known in Sanskrit, expanding our knowledge of these important texts.
Article
Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna
The author deals with the thirteen works attributed to Nāgārjuna. The first six are mainly dialectical works such as Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Śūnyatāsaptati, Vigrahavyāvartanī, Vaidalyaprakaraṇa, Vyavahārasiddhi, Yuktiṣaṣṭikā followed by the remaining seven which are chiefly didactic texts - Catuḥstava, Ratnāvali, Pratītyasamutpādahṛdayakārikā, Sūtrasamuccaya, Bodhicittavivaraṇa, Suhṛllekha, and Bodhisaṃbhāra (ka). Thus he roughly follows the prescriptive distinction between Yukti and Agama.
Book
Nāgārjuna's Precious Garland: Ratnāvalī
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.
Nāgārjuna 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 Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia, and his importance for the development of the Mahāyāna tradition can scarcely be exaggerated.
The translators here first rendered Nāgārjuna’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, they provide rigorous working editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan verses they translate. (Source: Wisdom Publications)Book
