Suhṛllekha

सुहृल्लेख

Suhṛllekha

བཤེས་པའི་སྤྲིང་ཡིག

bshes pa'i spring yig

Letter to a Friend (84000)

Text

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Letter to a Friend (Skt. Suhṛllekha; Tib. བཤེས་པའི་སྤྲིང་ཡིག་, shepé tring yik, Wyl. bshes pa'i spring yig) — a śāstra by Nāgārjuna, which belongs to his Collection of Advice.

Nāgārjuna (1st-2nd century A.D.) wrote this celebrated poem as a letter of advice to his friend King Gautamiputra/Satavahana.

This advice gives a concise and comprehensive introduction to the entire path and practice of Buddhism. It guides both householders and the ordained onto the path leading to liberation and enlightenment. The instructions are of special interest to those who wish to take up spiritual activity while continuing to live and work in society; they are meant to convey the whole meaning of the Dharma to the ordinary person in a language and style that are easy to understand.

Despite its short length (123 verses), it covers the whole Mahāyāna path with unusual clarity and memorable imagery; thus it is widely quoted by Tibet's great masters and scholars in the many commentaries they have written on the Buddhist path. (Source Accessed Feb 13, 2026)

Citation

Nāgārjuna. suhṛllekha [सुहृल्लेख]. bshes pa'i spring yig [བཤེས་པའི་སྤྲིང་ཡིག]. [Letter to a Friend (84000)]. Translated by Ska ba dpal brtsegs. Tengyur, RKTST 3520 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3520&typ=2.

Full translations

To Buddhistiske Læredigte

A Danish translation of Nāgārjuna's Suhṛllekha and Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra by Christian Lindtner.

Book

Scholarship

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

	Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies (rKTs)
	Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC)

Number	3520
Canon	mdo
Sanskrit	suhṛllekha (D)
Alternate Titles	bshes pa'i spring yig;bshes pa'i phrin yig;bshes spring;bshes pa'i spring yig gi rtsa ba;bshes springs kyi rtsa ba;bshes springs
Alternate Titles - Sanskrit	suhṛllekha
Author	Nāgārjuna
Author (Tibetan)	slob dpon 'phags pa klu sgrub
Translator	zhu chen gyi lo tsA ba ban de dpal brtsegs
Translator Pandita	rgya gar gyi mkhan po sarba dz+nya de ba
Colophon	bshes pa'i spring yig slob dpon 'phags pa klu sgrub kyis/_/mdza' bo rgyal po bde spyod la bskur ba rdzogs so
Title from Colophon	bshes pa'i spring yig slob dpon 'phags pa klu sgrub kyis/_/mdza' bo rgyal po bde spyod la bskur ba