Rājaparikathāratnāvali
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राजपरिकथारत्नावलि
Rājaparikathāratnāvali
རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གཏམ་བྱ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ
rgyal po la gtam bya ba rin po che'i phreng ba
The Precious Garland, A Letter to the King (84000)
Text
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Description
Ratnāvalī. (T. Rin chen phreng ba; C. Baoxingwang zheng lun; J. Hōgyō ō shöron; K. Pohaengwang chöng non 寶行王正論). In Sanskrit, "Garland of Jewels," a Sanskrit work by the Madhyamaka philosopher Nāgārjuna. The work consists of five hundred verses arranged in five chapters. While the Ratnāvalī contains many of Nāgārjuna's fundamental philosophical ideas, grounded primarily in the notion of emptiness (śūnyatā), the work is more focused on issues of ethics. The Ratnāvalī is addressed to King Gautamīputra of Āndhra, a friend and patron of Nāgārjuna, and much of the text discusses the proper conduct of the laity, particularly those in administrative positions such as ministers and kings. In particular, the fourth chapter is devoted to an exploration of kingship and the proper management of a kingdom. The work also contains a defense of the Mahāyāna as the word of the Buddha (buddhavacana), an exposition of the collection of merit (puṇyasaṃbhāra) and the collection of wisdom (jñānasaṃbhāra), a description of the ten bodhisattva stages (bhūmi) based on the Daśabhūmikasūtra, and a correlation of the practice of specific virtues with the achievement of the thirty-two marks of a superman (mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa). There are complete versions of the work extant in Tibetan and Chinese translations, but only parts survive in the original Sanskrit. (Source: "Ratnāvalī." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 704. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Quoted in the aligned translations
Reference
Nāgārjuna. rājaparikathāratnāvali [राजपरिकथारत्नावलि]. rgyal po la gtam bya ba rin po che'i phreng ba [རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གཏམ་བྱ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ]. [The Precious Garland, A Letter to the King (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3496 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3496&typ=2.
Interconnections
All 13Books 11Articles 2
2 Recensions
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
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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)2 Full translations
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)
This book is a commemorative edition that was produced especially for the occasion of H.H. the Dalai Lama's teachings in Los Angeles in June 1997.
3 Scholarship
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.
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.
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)6 A topic of
Nepal hat seit den siebziger Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts eine wichtige Rolle in der Laufbahn vieler deutscher Indologen und Tibetologen gespielt. Das Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project bot nicht nur einen zeitweiligen Arbeitsplatz, der es ermoglichte, in einem fill Forschungen aller Art ungemein fruchtbaren Umfeld Landeserfahrung zu sammeln; als gemeinsamer Bezugspunkt verband es auch alle diejenigen, die dort arbeiteten und forschten, und bot es den Jüngeren die Gelegenheit, femab der heimischen Begrenztheiten in unmittelbaren, oft sehr persönlichen Kontakt zu den Autoritäten innerhalb des eigenen Faches zu treten. Das daraus entstandene Beziehungsgeflecht hat die heutige deutsche Indologie durchaus mitgeprägt. So sind auch Michael Hahn und wir, die Herausgeber des vorliegenden Bandes, seit den gemeinsamen Tagen in Kathmandu, die nun schon bald 30 Jahre zurückliegen, durch feste Freundschaft verbunden.
In jener Zeit in Nepal haben wir den Jubilar als äußerst kenntnisreichen und anregenden Gelehrten kennengelemt, der nicht müde wurde, uns Jüngeren, noch ganz am Anfang Stehenden etwas von der Faszination zu vermitteln, die ihm aus der Beschäftigung mit seinen Forschungsgegenständen erwuchs. Gleichzeitig verstand er es, durch seine offene und aufgeschlossene, Alters- und Wissensunterschiede ignorierende Art die Wurzeln für eine dauerhafte Freundschaft zu legen. Dafür und für all das, was wir seither an Anregung und Förderung von ihm erfahren haben, sind wir dankbar, und wir freuen uns, ihm mit dem vorliegenden Band wenigstens einen kleinen Teil jener Dankesschuld abstatten zu können.
Wir haben davon abgesehen, den Band in einen engeren thematischen Rahmen zu stellen, etwa durch die Forderung nach einem Bezug zu Nepal oder die Beschränkung auf Beiträge zu den engeren Forschungsgebieten des Jubilars. Michael Hahn ist mit Kollegen aus vie len Bereichen unseres Faches in alter Welt verbunden, und selbst die Arbeiten seiner Schüler umfassen ein so weites Spektrum, daß uns eine thematische Öffnung sinnvoll und notwendig erschien, um niemanden seiner zahlreichen Freunde und Schüler von vomherein von der Mitwirkung an dem Band auszuschließen.
Unser besonderer Dank gilt Herrn Dr. Helmut Eimer für sein sorgfaltiges Korrekturlesen. Herrn Peter Wyzlic, M. A., haben wir dafür zu danken, daß er stets mit Rat und Tat zur Seite stand, wenn es um die Lösung von Font-Problemen ging, insbesondere von solchen mit chinesischen und griechischen Zeichensätzen. Herr Prof. Dr. Ernst Steinkellner schlug uns vor, als seinen Beitrag zu der Festschrift den Band in die renommierte Reihe der Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde aufzunehmen, und diesem Vorschlag sind wir sehr gerne gefolgt. So danken wir ihm und den jetzigen Herausgebern, Frau Dr. Birgit Kellner, Herrn PD Dr. Helmut Krasser und Herrn Prof. Dr. Helmut Tauscher, fur die Veröffentlichung des Bandes in ihrer Reihe. (Die Herausgeber, preface, 7–8)
In jener Zeit in Nepal haben wir den Jubilar als äußerst kenntnisreichen und anregenden Gelehrten kennengelemt, der nicht müde wurde, uns Jüngeren, noch ganz am Anfang Stehenden etwas von der Faszination zu vermitteln, die ihm aus der Beschäftigung mit seinen Forschungsgegenständen erwuchs. Gleichzeitig verstand er es, durch seine offene und aufgeschlossene, Alters- und Wissensunterschiede ignorierende Art die Wurzeln für eine dauerhafte Freundschaft zu legen. Dafür und für all das, was wir seither an Anregung und Förderung von ihm erfahren haben, sind wir dankbar, und wir freuen uns, ihm mit dem vorliegenden Band wenigstens einen kleinen Teil jener Dankesschuld abstatten zu können.
Wir haben davon abgesehen, den Band in einen engeren thematischen Rahmen zu stellen, etwa durch die Forderung nach einem Bezug zu Nepal oder die Beschränkung auf Beiträge zu den engeren Forschungsgebieten des Jubilars. Michael Hahn ist mit Kollegen aus vie len Bereichen unseres Faches in alter Welt verbunden, und selbst die Arbeiten seiner Schüler umfassen ein so weites Spektrum, daß uns eine thematische Öffnung sinnvoll und notwendig erschien, um niemanden seiner zahlreichen Freunde und Schüler von vomherein von der Mitwirkung an dem Band auszuschließen.
Unser besonderer Dank gilt Herrn Dr. Helmut Eimer für sein sorgfaltiges Korrekturlesen. Herrn Peter Wyzlic, M. A., haben wir dafür zu danken, daß er stets mit Rat und Tat zur Seite stand, wenn es um die Lösung von Font-Problemen ging, insbesondere von solchen mit chinesischen und griechischen Zeichensätzen. Herr Prof. Dr. Ernst Steinkellner schlug uns vor, als seinen Beitrag zu der Festschrift den Band in die renommierte Reihe der Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde aufzunehmen, und diesem Vorschlag sind wir sehr gerne gefolgt. So danken wir ihm und den jetzigen Herausgebern, Frau Dr. Birgit Kellner, Herrn PD Dr. Helmut Krasser und Herrn Prof. Dr. Helmut Tauscher, fur die Veröffentlichung des Bandes in ihrer Reihe. (Die Herausgeber, preface, 7–8)
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.
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
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)
Bodhicitta, the "mind of awakening," constitutes the foundational principle of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This essay traces the concept's historical and doctrinal genesis from its pre-Mahāyāna antecedents to its full articulation in the Indian and Tibetan traditions. It explores the main scriptural and scholastic sources in India, the two great Indian lineages of practice—the "Profound View" of Nāgārjuna and the "Vast Conduct" of Asaṅga—and the pivotal role of Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna in transmitting and systematizing these teachings in Tibet. The article further details how Atiśa's Kadam school and its core mind training (lojong) teachings influenced the subsequent development of bodhicitta cultivation in the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk schools. Bodhicitta is not a static concept but a dynamic, multifaceted principle that functions as the soteriological core of the Mahāyāna path, embodying the indivisible union of universal compassion and the profound wisdom that realizes emptiness.
This book is a commemorative edition that was produced especially for the occasion of H.H. the Dalai Lama's teachings in Los Angeles in June 1997.
