Table of Contents
Precious Garland (Skt. Ratnāvalī or Ratnamāla; Tib. རིན་ཆེན་ཕྲེང་བ་, Wyl. rin chen phreng ba) — a shastra written by Nagarjuna and belonging to his Collection of Advice.
In the Precious Garland, Nagarjuna offers advice on how to conduct our lives and how to construct social policies that reflect Buddhist ideals.
The advice for personal happiness is concerned first with improving our condition over the course of lifetimes and then with release from all kinds of suffering, culminating in Buddhahood. Nagarjuna describes the cause and effect sequences for the development of happiness within ordinary life, as well as the practices that lead us to enlightenment–the practices for developing wisdom, or the realization of emptiness, and compassion. He also describes the qualities of the buddhas.
In his advice on social and governmental policy, Nagarjuna emphasizes education and compassionate care for all living beings, and states his opposition to the death penalty, and appeals for charity for the homeless. Calling for the appointment of government figures who do not seek profit or fame, he advises that a selfish motivation will lead to misfortune.
Outline
The text has five chapters:
Tibetan
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Tibet: Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Jonang, Gelug), Vajrayana, Tibetan, Tibetan Language, Tibetan People, GitHub Tibet, Awesome Tibet. (navbar_tibet - see also navbar_buddhism)
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Buddhism (Buddha-Dharma-Sangha): Buddhist Masters (See navbar_buddhist_masters), Buddha Dharma topics, Buddhist glossary, Being a Buddhist means Taking Refuge with Triple Jewel, Buddhas (The Buddha - Shakyamuni - Gautama Buddha - Maitreya - Amitabha - Medicine Buddha - Bhaisajya Guru - Amoghasiddhi - Ratnasambhava), Buddha Dharma - Buddhist Paths - Tripitaka (Sutra - Shastra - Sutrayana - Mahayana - Sravakayana - Pratyekabuddhayana - Pratyekabuddhas - Vinaya-Pratimoksha - Tantra - Buddhist Tantra - Vajrayana - Mantrayana - Mantras, Dharani), Sangha (Buddhist Monks - Buddhist Nuns - Buddhist Laypersons - Upasaka and Upasika), Buddhist Morality and Vows in Buddhism (Five Moral Precepts - Vinaya Buddhist Monk Vows - Buddhist Nun Vows - Pratimoksha - Bodhisattva Vows - Tantric Samaya Vows, Paramitas - Ten Perfections, Four Immeasurables, Four Noble Truths, Two Collections (Merit and Virtue and Wisdom), Blessings, Merit, Virtue; (Vajrayana Buddhism: Tibetan Buddhism, Mongolian Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism: Chinese Buddhism, Vietnamese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism, Korean Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism: Thai Buddhism, Cambodian Buddhism, Sri Lankan Buddhism, What the Future Holds: European Buddhism, American Buddhism), Awesome Buddhism, Buddhism Mobile App. (navbar_buddhism - see also navbar_buddhist_masters, navbar_sangha, navbar_noble_truths, navbar_paramita, navbar_precepts, navbar_immeasurables, navbar_tantra)
Buddha with you. © Beginningless Time - Infinity by The Gurus, The Triple Jewel, The Buddhas, The Bodhisattvas, The Sangha; or Fair Use, Disclaimers
Buddha with you. © Beginningless Time - Infinity by The Gurus, The Triple Jewel, The Buddhas, The Bodhisattvas, The Sangha; or Fair Use, Disclaimers
- མངོན་པར་མཐོ་བ་དང་ངེས་པར་ལེགས་པ་, mngon par mtho ba dang nges par legs pa
- སྤེལ་མ་, spel ma
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་བསྡུས་པ་, byang chub kyi tshogs bsdus pa
- རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཚུལ་, rgyal po'i tshul
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་, byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa
Tibetan text
(The Dalai Lama taught on the third chapter of this text 2008 in Nantes, s.b. for Tibetan, English and French)
Commentaries
Indian
- Ajitamitra, Extensive Commentary on the Ratnāvalī (Skt. Ratnāvaliṭīka; Tib. རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བཤད་པ་, Wyl. rin po che'i phreng ba rgya cher bshad pa)
Tibetan
:
- Lala Sönam Chödrup, དབུ་མ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་གཏམ་བྱ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལུང་གི་གསལ་བྱེད་, dbu ma rgyal po la gtam bya ba rin po che'i phreng ba lung gi gsal byed
Translations
English
- Nagarjuna's Precious Garland, translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications, 2007
- The Precious Garland: An Epistle to a King, translated by John Dunne and Sara McClintock, Wisdom Publications, 1997
- The Precious Necklace, Chapter 3, translated into French and English by the Padmakara Translation Group (according to the commentary of Lozang Pelden Tendzin Nyendrak (also known as Drak Kar Tulku) and following the teaching tradition of Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen) and published on the occasion of the teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nantes, 15—20 August 2008. Available at www.oceandesagesse.org
Further Reading
- Leonard van der Kuijp, 'Notes on the Transmission of Nagarjuna's Ratnavali in Tibet', in The Tibet Journal, Summer 1985, vol. X, No.2,4
- Michael Hanh, 'On a Numerical Problem in Nāgārjuna's Ratnāvalī', in Indological and Buddhist Studies: Volume in Honour of Professor J.W. de Jong on his Sixtieth Birthday, Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies, 1982, 161-185