Correspondence · Essential works
Letter to a Friend (Suhṛllekha)
सुहृल्लेख (Suhṛllekha); tib. Bshes pa'i spring yig; chin. 龍樹菩薩為禪陀迦王說法要偈 / 勸發諸王要偈
A letter in some 123 verses to a royal friend, identified by tradition as a Sātavāhana (the Chinese title transcribes his name as 禪陀迦). It sums up Buddhist ethics for a layman —the six perfections, the precepts, guarding the senses—, describes the sufferings of the cycle of existences and the hells, and exhorts to the practice of the path. It is one of the most widely read texts of Tibetan Buddhism.
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Authorship note
Traditional ascription accepted by the SEP and Lindtner. The Sanskrit original is lost; it survives in Tibetan and in three Chinese translations (Guṇavarman 431, Saṅghavarman 434, Yijing 7th c.). Yijing relates that in India it was learned by heart.
Editions and translations
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English
Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend, with Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche
Snow Lion, 2005
Translation: Padmakara Translation Group
ISBN 9781559392273
Chino clásico · 文言
Nāgārjuna
龍樹菩薩為禪陀迦王說法要偈
The Conscious Library龍樹菩薩為禪陀迦王說法要偈
Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, 431
Translation: Guṇavarman
Traducción china antigua, T32 n.º 1672; texto en zh.wikisource.org
Nāgārjuna
勸發諸王要偈
The Conscious Library勸發諸王要偈
Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, 434
Translation: Saṅghavarman
Traducción china antigua, T32 n.º 1673; texto en zh.wikisource.org
Other works by Nāgārjuna
- Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way · 190
- The Dispeller of Disputes (Vigrahavyāvartanī)
- Seventy Verses on Emptiness
- Sixty Verses on Reasoning
- Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakaraṇa)
- Proof of Convention (lost)
- Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī)
- The Four Hymns (Catuḥstava)
- Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination
- Compendium of Sūtras
- Treatise on the Requisites of Awakening
- Commentary on the Awakening Mind
- Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom
- Commentary on the Ten Stages
- Twelve Gate Treatise
- Akutobhayā ("Fearless" commentary on the Verses)
- Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle
- Treatise of One Verse
- Heart of Means Treatise
- Hymn to the Dharmadhātu
- Treatise on Transition between Existences
- The Staff of Wisdom (maxims)
- Compendium of Doctrinal Terms
- The Five Stages (Pañcakrama)
- Rasaratnākara (alchemical treatise)
- Yogaśataka (a hundred medical formulas)
Sources
- Kangyur Rinpoche (comentario) y Padmakara Translation Group (trad.). Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend, with Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005. ISBN 9781559392273.
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