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Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend

With Commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche

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Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend

By: Nagarjuna, Kangyur Rinpoche
Narrated by: Stephen Gethin
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Summary

The great Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna wrote his celebrated poem Letter to a Friend as a gift of advice to a South Indian king, and it has since become a monument in the Indian shastra tradition. Despite its short length (only 123 verses), it covers the entire Mahayana path, combining a practical approach to daily conduct with a theoretical exposition of the different stages leading to enlightenment. It has thus been an ideal source for many of Tibet’s greatest scholars seeking a scriptural authority to enhance their own descriptions of the Buddhist path.

In addition to a new English translation of the poem, this book includes commentary by the great twentieth-century scholar Kyabje Kangyur Rinpoche.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2005 Association Padmakara (P)2025 Shambhala Publications Buddhism Poetry Themes & Styles
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There is a big emphasis on the virtue and the 6 realms, Nargaguna, the eminent philosopher of emptiness, predominantly forwarns us of hellfire, throughout most of the text, and when he gets bored of that he moves on to the hungry ghost realm which is basically another hell. As a pragmatic Buddhist, who believes in enlightenment and some form of karma and rebirth, I still am exhausted by these mythologic magnified karmic unverifiable ideas being drummed into my ears. I have found almost no use or inspiration from this text as a person who is also a modern western scientific person, it basically makes me annoyed, with its excessive description of hell and ghost realms. Surely you are foolish teacher of the dharma to put your worst content forward to an English speaking audience. I find the middle length discourses in pali, much, much more palatable than this!

Letter to a Friend (Suhṛllekha) was written as advice for King Gautamiputra—a busy lay ruler managing an empire—so roughly 80% to 90% of the text deliberately focuses on foundational ethics (śīla), karma, mindfulness, and the drawbacks of saṃsāra.
However, it does shift into explicit teachings on non-self and emptiness toward the end (roughly verses 105 through 118).

A hellfire introduction to Buddhism.

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