Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The question Geshe Pema Tsering poses at the outset cuts to the heart of the path: why would Nāgārjuna need to explain suffering to a wealthy king who seemed to have everything? Drawing on Candrakīrti’s analysis — grasping at “I” generates desire, desire fuels attachment, attachment creates the causes for continued rebirth — he frames Letter to a Friend as a compact mirror of the Lamrim, covering the full arc from renunciation to Buddhahood. In this 45-minute session, Geshe Pema walks through the text’s four-part structure, unpacks the Sanskrit and Tibetan etymology of the title, explains the translator’s homage to Mañjuśrī, and reads Nāgārjuna’s opening verse to King Udayibhadra: an invitation to study because the Buddha’s path offers what royal wealth cannot.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 LF 2004 08 17.mp3
UUID: 42d8c72f-326a-48b1-95b0-4faa61c00669
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to a Friend (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-08-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.1 minutes
Words: ~3,031
So in the entry to the middle way by Chandra So that would be what he’s telling me. Okay. In the entry to the middle way by Candrakīrti, he said, beings develop a sense of I and then they develop a sense of mine or this is mine, that’s mine. And through this they develop desire and through desire they become confused and stay in saṃsāra or develop saṃsāra. So what this is referring to is, first of all, through this grasping at a sense of self identity, then we have found something that needs something else.
So then we think this is my voice, my hair, my clothes, my so and so, and so on and so forth. Through identifying things as ours, we then develop desire. Through this, we become confused. Through that confusion, we continually create the causes for Samsāra and continue to be reborn in many different rebirths in Samsāra. So this if we look at our situation, this is what we can see.
We we this is the way we are. We have this we continually think I I exist. We have a a mind that holds on to the concept of I. And through holding on to this concept of I, through thinking that we exist as inherent beings, we then think we we then develop desire. And through this desire, we become attached to objects.
And through desire and attachment to objects, we create the causes for being in Samsāra. So, we don’t know our real situation. We suffering. We don’t know what we’re experiencing. We don’t know about suffering.
We don’t know about attachment. If we look at it, can see it, but just in a general day to day way, thoughts that come up into our mind are so many times based on attachment which is again then based on this idea of self. And so, not recognizing suffering, not recognizing attachment, continually create the causes for suffering through attachment and continuing saṃsāra. And so this is what we need to develop an understanding of. We need to develop an understanding of saṃsāra, what saṃsāra is, how saṃsāra is nothing but suffering, how desire feeds saṃsāra, how there is no happiness in saṃsāra.
Samsāra is by its characteristics, suffering. Being in saṃsāra means that we experience suffering. So this is why this text that we’re going through today, Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend, is actually addressed to a king. This king, who was a friend of Nāgārjuna’s, was in charge of a whole country and had so much wealth and everything. But Nāgārjuna still had to explain to him why he was suffering, still had to talk about suffering.
So this text goes through developing renunciation from Samsāra and everything, because even though this man was a king, he still was experiencing the suffering of Samsāra. So in this description to I still can’t find the name of the king. In this description of the Dharma to this king, Nāgārjuna goes through the path describing the suffering of saṃsāra all the way up until the description of Buddhahood. This description that he gives is actually almost exactly the same as the Lamrim process, where he talks about the three different types of being, the three different types of motivation. The descriptions may be a little different and it’s not set out exactly the same, but it has the same essence to it.
It may not conform to the typical Lamrim text, but it has the same things in it. So Geshe-la thinks you’ve already meditated? Yes. Because you have meditated this morning? Okay, so I guess to say we’re going to go through this text that describes the letter to a friend by Nāgārjuna.
So, to have the right motivation to listen to this, first of all, you need to be happy about it. Be happy that you’re listening to the teachings. You don’t want to sit there go, Oh, no, have to listen to the teachings. So please try and have a happy mind about listening to the teachings. I think that you will develop understanding by doing it and you can put the teachings into practice and through this kind of motivation then you’ll listen well.
You guys are gonna have to bear with me. I learned the name of this king that he’s talking to this morning, and I’ve forgotten it. And I can’t find it anywhere. Hengesla said it in Tibetan. I was like, yes.
But that would be Tibetan. So, anyway, doesn’t matter. There was a king, an ancient Indian king. So the name of the actual commentary that we’re going to be using is the commentary to Nāgārjuna’s letter is actually called the explanation which makes completely clear the thought of the ariya Nāgārjuna in his description of dharma in a letter to his friend. Now this word that they use for friend is the same one that’s in Geshe, like she in Geshe.
And it has three different in Tibetan, there are three different words that have the same meaning as this that have a slightly different hue to the word friend. They give a slightly different hue to the word friend. Okay. So at the beginning of this text hang on a second. So at the beginning of this text, it is the same as any other Buddhist texts that you find.
You usually have the what’s called the oath to compose, which is followed by a homage. So they all start with a homage. The homage in this instance being by Karampa Geshe Losang Suri? And he was a Karampa Geshe and his homage is to Mañjuśrī inseparable from his teacher. So he starts off by saying, to Mañjuśrī who is inseparable from my teacher, I prostrate.
And Having prostrated and asked for blessings in this way, he then creates an oath to compose, which says, From the point of view or from the motivation of great love, of great compassion, I commit to completing this text. This follows the usual pattern of the text where, first of all, there is a prostration to the object of refuge, followed by the commitment or the oath to compose the text. So then he starts off the text also with a praise to different people. The first verse is a praise to Śākyamūni Buddha. He describes Śākyamūni Buddha as being from amongst the hundred Buddhas of a fortunate eon.
So the eon that we are in at the moment is said to be a fortunate eon because a hundred Buddhas are supposed to manifest in their Nimmanaka form to perform twelve deeds. So Buddha is supposed to have been the fourth Buddha of this eon. Because there s one hundred in it, s the fortunate eon. So it says, From amongst the Buddhas of this fortunate eon, who through compassion have performed the deeds in order to benefit sentient beings. Okay.
So they do this in order to benefit all sentient beings, including the gods, only in a divine way. So then, through doing this, they get rid of the two obscurations, and it says they kind of blind them by being so brilliant that the two obscurations are obliterated. And then it says, I prostrate to you. So the next people he’s he’s going through all the people he’s praising. The next person he’s praising is Nāgārjuna, who is described as being in charge of the Nagas and holding power of the holding the eight powers and being in charge of the nagas, his description of Nāgārjuna.
Then also the expert on logic and scripture, who is said to be Rendawa, who wrote an original commentary to this, and then also to the second Buddha, Lobsang Drakpa, which is another way of saying Lama Tsongkhapa. It says, To these three, the jewels of earth I prostrate. So he’s a Gadam Geshe, but because he came after Lama Tsongkhapa, then he’s a Geluk Gadam, which is another way of saying Gelugpa. So then in the final verse of this description of what he’s going to do in this text, the author says, This is very hard because I’m trying to translate poetry on the spot. He says that Nāgārjuna the Aryan Nāgārjuna described the way to behave well to his friend, the king.
In this text, he’s actually going to expound on this to give an explanation or a commentary on this text that Nāgārjuna wrote to his friend, the king. Heis going to do this in a form that’s called a middling form, which means it’s not in a very brief way, but it’s not in an extended form. A middling commentary is the type of commentary it’s said to be. He says, Through the excellent guidance of the commentary that Nāgārjuna gave to his friend, he’s going to expound on that in this commentary. So it’s a commentary talk commentary.
After then saying that this is what he was going to do, he says that if people listen to it, it will be of benefit to them. They will be able to get rid of obscurations that they may have, so therefore try and listen well or read well this teaching that he is going to give. Then he describes what he’s actually going to do in his text. The first thing is to give an unmistaken commentary to this letter to a friend that’s based on two different parts. The first one is to definitely achieve a higher rebirth, and the second part is how to achieve certain goodness, which is another way of saying liberation and Buddhahood.
This is divided then into four parts, so we’re going to go through four parts in text. Okay. So this text then has four parts. The first one explains the title of the text, that being Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend, and its etymology in Sanskrit and in Tibetan. The second part of the text is describing how it was translated, who translated it into Tibetan, and their homage.
Then, the third part is actually a description of the text itself. And finally, the fourth part is a dedication of the merit from writing the text and having studied it. Okay, the first bit then. I’m just finding my notes. I brought the wrong book in.
Anyway, the first thing is how it is pronounced and how it’s said in Sanskrit and then in Tibetan. So in Sanskrit, this text is pronounced Suhṛllekha. And in Tibetan, it is pronounced the sebe dring yik. The way that these two different translations link up is that this Sanskrit word, suhrl lekha, actually in pure Sanskrit form because there were four main languages in ancient India at this time in terms of the composition of Buddhist texts. And the most grammatically correct of these was said to be Sanskrit.
Therefore, it’s called the correct language or the good language. In this language, this title is called suhrl lekha. In Tibetan, the way it translated into the language of the land of snows is sebe dringyik. Now, sebe being friend and dringik being a letter. Therefore, we have in Sanskrit a word suhrl, which is in Tibetan sebe, and in English friend.
Also, we have in Sanskrit a word lekha, which is in Tibetan, and in English, letter, or that which is carried to someone. Right? Got all that? I found the king’s name. Alright.
Woah. Not that it’s gonna help you that much. Okay. So the reason that this is called Nāgārjuna’s letter to a friend is because Nāgārjuna, who is described as the second Buddha, the protector Nāgārjuna, was trying to explain the Dharma to his friend whose name in Tibetan is Gyalpo, meaning king, Lhendrup Zangpo, meaning literally he with the good behavior or the pleasant behavior. His name in Sanskrit is Udayibhadra.
I don’t know if that helped at all. Udayibhadra. And so he was trying to explain to Udayibhadra the dharma, and he did through so through this letter. So that was the description of the title of this text. The next thing is who was the translator, and also to describe the translator’s homage at the beginning of the text.
Geshe-la says that Lotzawa is a Tibetan word, meaning a very honorific word for translator. So Geshe-la says the translator of this text was Lotsawa Pende Pelzik, yes? He was teasing me and he said, So it wasn’t Lotzawa Ruth? I was like, Thanks, Kayla. Me tell you, you were really lucky it wasn’t.
Pende Pelzik was the Tibetan translator of this text. At the beginning of this text, Bende Belzik prostrates or makes homage to Mañjuśrī, or the young Prince Mañjuśrī, given his full name here. There are two main reasons why he makes this homage to Mañjuśrī. The first one is so that he can translate properly, with the inspiration of Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom. Having propitiated Mañjuśrī before he starts writing this text, he’s asking for help to get through the process of translating the text.
That’s the first reason that he would make this homage to Mañjuśrī. The second reason that he would make this homage to Mañjuśrī is that in the three different baskets of the Buddhist canon, so this is what’s usually called the Tripitaka, the three baskets of Buddha’s teachings. You have the Sūtra, the Vinaya and the Abhidharma. For each one of these baskets, there is a different Buddha, Bodhisattva or deity that looks after inspires them and is the protector of those teachings. Amongst these, the Abhidharma is the collection of wisdom.
From the collection of wisdom texts, the person who looks after these texts is Mañjuśrī. So not only does this homage give the author a focus for inspiration to compose the text, but also lets anyone reading it know that this text should be included within the Abhidharma basket. Okay, so now we’re up to the actual text itself, a description of the text. That was the third heading from four, if you remember what we just mentioned before. From amongst the third heading, it’s like a big family tree, then you have three more headings.
The first of these is the reasons for which you should study this text, the benefits you’ll get from studying it and the logical explanation of the benefits or the reason that you should generate respect for this text. That’s the first one out of these three. The second one is the actual description of the text, the commentary of the text and commentary on the actual text itself. The third is the way to dedicate the merits or the outcomes of studying this text to the greater good. Again, to continue this outline or the table of contents of this text, the first section of so we’re doing within the first section of the third section, which was the description of the actual text itself.
The first section of that is the reasons why or the logic for why you should study this text and develop respect for it. Again, within that, there are three sections. The first one is the inspiration to listen. It’s the first section. Then the second section is, by way of example, showing why you shouldn’t give up studying this text or reading this text halfway through it.
The third one is by way of example, showing why you should stop going over and over this text before you develop realization of it. Third one was by example, showing why you shouldn’t give up going over and over this text until you develop realization of it. Okay? So then we’ll go on to the first one of these, which was the inspiration to listen. To start off with, it is the reasons why you should listen.
The actual first section of this comes from the root text, which was written by Nāgārjuna. In this, Nāgārjuna said to the king, Virtuous one, worthy by nature of the good, I have composed these noble rhymes to instil aspiration for merit derived from the Sugata’s teachings. It is a short piece which you should heed. What he is saying in this verse is that although this king has much virtue and much positive karma because he’s the king, then he should still listen to this teaching by Nāgārjuna. The reason he should still listen to this teaching by Nāgārjuna is that Nāgārjuna is inspired by Mañjuśrī and is actually teaching the Buddha’s teachings.
So even though this man is a king, he should still listen to this teaching because it comes from the Buddha. It comes from the teachings of the Buddha, and therefore, is a way for him to truly become happy. And it is also not that long. Now, what this then it goes on to describe or give an explanation of what this verse actually means. So the first thing it refers to is that Nāgārjuna, Ārya Nāgārjuna, says that he is teaching in accordance with the words or the vast teachings of the Tathāgata, which is the Buddha.
Through doing this, what he is going to explain describes how to achieve good rebirth and also to achieve definite goodness, which is liberation or Buddhahood. Even for a king with all of the qualities and all of the merit as Udayibhadra, this is beneficial. It’s for the benefit of the king but also for the benefit of all sentient beings without exception. That’s the reason that Nāgārjuna composed this text for the king but also for all other sentient beings. He is also explaining the words of the Buddha, the intent of the Buddha, in a very compacted way, not in a very vast way.
For those who don’t have the time to study all of the different texts, they can understand it through this. Therefore, if people have a capacity to understand, the faculty to understand, then they should listen logically. Please do this, he says, because if you have the ability to do this, then you will be shown the unmistaken path to Buddhahood and a good rebirth according to the teachings of the Buddha.