Nagarjuna: Praise To Satisfying Sentient Beings

Nagarjuna: If one benefits sentient beings, that is the best of offerings to me.

Nagarjuna: Praise To Satisfying Sentient Beings

In the Indian language: Sattva radha nastavam.

In the Tibetan language: sems can mgu bar bya ba’i bstod pa

In the English language: Praise to Satisfying Sentient Beings

Homage to Manjushri!

1 Respecting me is [to work for] the welfare of sentient beings,

because respect [for me] is not otherwise.

Whoever did not give up compassion, that one respects me; Continue reading »

Nagarjuna: A Commentary on the Awakening Mind, Bodhicittavivarana

Nagarjuna

BODHICITTA VIVARANA

A Commentary on the Awakening Mind

Nagarjuna

Sanskrit title: Bodhicittavivarana

Tibetan title: byang chub sems kyi ‘grel pa

Homage to glorious Vajrasattva!

It has been stated:

Devoid of all real entities;

Utterly discarding all objects and subjects,

Such as aggregates, elements and sense-fields;

Due to sameness of selflessness of all phenomena,

One’s mind is primordially unborn;

It is in the nature of emptiness. Continue reading »

Nagarjuna: Letter to a Friend

Nagarjuna (1st – 2nd century CE), the great Indian Buddhist master, wrote this letter of advice Suhrllekha, in verse, to a king that was a friend. Although short at only 123 verses, it is considered to be a monument in the Indian Buddhist tradition, and covers the Mahayana path with uncommon clarity, and is for this reason much quoted by many great Tibetan masters. Continue reading »

Nagarjuna: Sunyatasaptati

SUNYATASAPTATI

by

Arya Nagarjuna

Translated by Christian Lindtner

[1] Though the Buddhas have spoken of duration, origination, destruction, being, non-being, low, moderate, and excellent by force of worldly convention, [they] have not done [so] in an absolute sense.


[2] Designations are without significance, for self, non-self, and self-non-self do not exist. [For] like nirvana, all expressible things are empty (sunya) of own-being.


[3] Since all things altogether lack substance — either in causes or conditions, [in their] totality, or separately — they are empty.

[4] Being does not arise, since it exists. Non-being does not arise, since it does not exist. Being and non-being [together] do not arise, due to [their] heterogeneity. Consequently they do not endure or vanish. Continue reading »

Nagarjuna: Great Praise of the Ten Acts of the Buddha

Arya Nagarjuna

Arya Nagarjuna

Great Praise of the Ten Acts of the Buddha

by Arya Nagarjuna

With skilful means and compassion, you were born in the Shakya clan,

Unconquerable by others, you vanquished Mara’s hordes,

Your physical form resplendent, like a mountain of gold.

To you, the King of the Shakyas, I pay homage!

You I shall praise, who first awakened the mind of enlightenment,

Then completed the accumulations of merit and wisdom, Continue reading »

Nagarjuna: Seventy Verses on Emptiness

Nagarjuna: Seventy Verses on Emptiness

Nagarjuna (who lived during the second century C.E) is regarded as the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. His most important work was the Mulamadhyamaka-karika (‘Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way’). Other important works included the Yuktisastika (‘Sixty Verses on Reasoning’), and the Shunyatasaptati (‘Seventy Verses on Emptiness’).

Continue reading »

Nāgārjuna: In Praise of the Twelve Deeds

Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) the founder of Madhyamika School.

Ārya Nāgārjuna: In Praise of the Twelve Deeds

In the language of India: Dvādaśakāra-nāma-stotra
In the language of Tibet:
mdzad pa bcu gnyis kyi tshul la bstod pa

Homage to the Buddha Śākyamuni!

You I shall praise, who first awakened the mind of enlightenment,
Then completed the accumulations of merit and wisdom,
And now in this age, through the vast sway of your actions,
Have become the lord and protector of living beings.

Homage to you who, having taught the gods,
Knew the time had come to tame the human world, and
Descending from the god realm like a great elephant,
Foresaw the family of your birth and entered the womb of Māyādevī.
Continue reading »

Nāgārjuna: Great Praise of the Twelve Acts of the Buddha

Buddha Sakyamuni

Ārya Nāgārjuna: Great Praise of the Twelve Acts of the Buddha

༈ཐབས་མཁས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཤཱཀྱའི་རིགས་སུ་འཁྲུངས།།

tabkhé tukjé shakyé rik su trung

With skilful means and compassion, you were born in the Śākya clan,

གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་བདུད་ཀྱི་དཔུང་འཇོམས་པ།།

shyen gyi mitub dü kyi pung jompa

Unconquerable by others, you vanquished Māra’s hordes,

གསེར་གྱི་ལྷུན་པོ་ལྟ་བུར་བརྗིད་པའི་སྐུ།།

ser gyi lhünpo tabur jipé ku

Your physical form resplendent, like a mountain of gold. Continue reading »