Nagarjuna's Precious Garland: Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation [Anglais] [Broché]

The greater part of Buddhism taught in the West is done through modern commentators. Jeffrey Hopkins offers us an alternative in his translation of one of the most revered Mahayana Buddhist scriptures: the Precious Garland by Nagarjuna. Written more than 1,500 years ago, its advice is still lucid and fresh. As counsel for a king, the text is the polar opposite of Machiavelli's The Prince; it elucidates reality, announces the way to cultivate personal virtue, and suggests ways to implement that virtue in public policy. Former interpreter for the Dalai Lama, Hopkins has translated the Precious Garland in colloquial verse that belongs with the most inspiring of spiritual scriptures. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

...superb...A veritable masterpiece of translation.

Nagarjuna is renowned for his penetrating analysis of reality. In the Precious Garland, he offers intimate counsel on how to conduct one's life and how to construct social policies that reflect Buddhist ideals. The advice for personal happiness is concerned first with improving one's 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 of wisdom realizing emptiness and compassion that lead to enlightenment. He describes a Buddha's qualities and offers encouraging advice on the effectiveness of practices that reveal the vast attributes of Buddhahood.

In his advice on social and governmental policy, Nagarjuna emphasizes education, compassionate care for all living beings, not using the death penalty but reforming criminals, and charity for the homeless. Calling for the appointment of government figures who are not seeking profit or fame, he advises that a selfish motivation will lead to misfortune.

The book includes a detailed analysis of attachment to sensual objects as a preparation for realization of the profound truth that, when realized, makes attachment impossible.

Jeffrey Hopkins is a seminal and influential scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, he is the author and translator of over thirty-five books on Tibetan Buddhism, including Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism (1999), Cultivating Compassion (2001), and, as translator-editor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama's How to Practice (2002), Kindness, Clarity, and Insight (2006), and How to See Yourself as You Really Are (2006).