龍樹菩薩勸誡王頌

This counsel was composed by the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna in verse and sent to a king of South India who was his friend. This poem was first translated by people of the land of Shen-zhou (China); but for the most part it did not follow the fine words and beautiful meaning, and was not clear. In order to fix this text and make it circulate here and there, the Śramaṇa Yijing, when he came to the region of East India in the country of Tāmralipti, translated it from Sanskrit into Chinese.

Sentient beings, lacking wisdom, have their minds obscured;

Therefore, out of compassion, this is set forth and opened up.

The Greatly Virtuous Nāgārjuna, for the sake of a king,

Sent this poem to him, exhorting him to cultivate and learn.

This is precisely the counsel, which later generations recounted in verse, with the general meaning as follows.

Complete in virtue, I speak thus;

For the sake of producing merit and blessings, I recount it.

Truly good, so now you can listen;

This counsel should indeed be called a Sacred Poem.

According as the wood may be, so the image is carved;

Because the wise ones make offerings,

Even though this poem is not artfully clever,

Relying on the right Dharma it speaks—do not slight it.

Although the king before understood teaching such as this,

As soon as he hears the Buddha's words, his faith increases.

Like the moon shining on dust upon a wall—

Is it not clearly truly excellent and supreme?

The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha assembly;

Giving, moral discipline, together with the heavens;

The pathways of action of the ten good deeds—

In body, speech, and mind constantly keep them near.

Keep far away from drink and revelry,

And also a pure way of life.

Understand that money and possessions are not secure at root;

In accord with the Dharma, make offerings to the bhikṣus.

Greed-thieves and rebirth;

In the life to come they become companions.

The various virtues abide relying on moral discipline,

Just as the earth gives birth to all things.

Do not wither, grieve, suffer, or fear;

The Buddha says: constantly practice.

Giving, discipline, patience, courage, concentration,

And wisdom that cannot be fully measured—

These should be clearly understood, in order to cultivate them,

To cross beyond the ocean and become a Buddha.

If one filially supports one's father and mother,

This household has within it the Brahma King.

Seen in the present, it is called a good name;

In the life to come one is born in the realms of heaven.

Killing, stealing, lust, false speech;

Greed for food, craving, lofty seats;

Cease wine, singing, and dancing;

Wearing flowers and anointing with oils—

If men and women practice

This Eightfold Noble Path,

Within the Desire Realm's Six Heavens of Desire

They shall be born in the Heaven of Lasting Purity.

Flattery, mad greed, laziness,

Pride, lust, anger, gathered together;

Wide learning when young breeds arrogance—

Regard these as if they were enemy-thieves.

It is said the No-Birth comes from diligence;

There is death when one indulges in heedlessness.

Diligently practice that wholesome Dharma—

This is what can guard and protect you.

First one must forsake heedlessness;

Afterward, if one again diligently cultivates,

It is like an auspicious cloud covering,

Good dew that beholds the bright moon.

Sundarī and Nanda,

Who fully fulfilled the principle of Māra;

And Aṅgulimāla—

Forsaking evil, they all became good.

Advance swiftly, with patience unmatched;

Do not let anger grow strong and increase.

In the end one will not turn back;

To attain the Buddha's realization, anger must be removed.

When another person merely calls me a fool,

Or reviles me, reaching to what is mine—

To harbor anger, carrying grudge and strife;

To cast off hatred is to sleep a peaceful sleep.

The mind that traces lines in water, earth, and stone—

The minds of people are, respectively, like these.

One who gives rise to afflictions resembles the first;

One who loves the Dharma is like the last.

The Buddha spoke of three kinds of speech:

The pleasing person's words, the true, and the false.

Like the nectar of flowers, and like dung—

Discard the latter, in order to practice the former.

Bright before, also bright after;

Dark before, also dark after;

Or bright before, dark after;

Or dark before, bright after—

In this way there are four kinds of people;

The king should rely upon the first.

From one's own person, ripeness arises;

Again ripeness as though it were birthing;

Again there is ripe as though ripe;

Or again birthing as though birthing.

Within the fruit of the Āmra,

There are distinctions such as these.

People too resemble those four kinds—

Hard to understand; the king should know this.

Do not gaze upon women's chambers;

You must regard them as if they were your mother.

Think of them as elder and younger sisters according to their age;

Should craving arise, contemplate impurity.

As though hearing that one's child is hard to keep alive,

Guard and protect the mind, anxious and careful.

Birds, strong medicine, and the fear of fire—

Do not let the pleasures of desire invade.

What is created from desire brings no benefit,

Just like the fruit of the Kimpāka.

The Buddha said: these should be removed;

The prison of birth-and-death binds and shackles.

Mad arrogance constantly stirs and shakes,

And readily falls into the six consciousnesses.

You should at once sweep these enemies away—

This is precisely true courage.

The nine orifices reek foul, all holding filth;

The body, hard to satisfy, is bound within skin.

So look upon a maiden beneath her adornments,

And break apart her form—uglier than the worst.

Worms gnaw, filling her with pain and agony;

Seeking peace, in the end one is burned by fire.

Truly, it is not by indulgence;

The taint of desire is likewise so.

Because of wisdom, surpass the principle;

Direct the mind to contemplate these matters.

Though pleasant, virtue must be practiced;

The Dharma-without-remainder is easy to draw near.

If a person seeks to grow familiar with all alike—

Graceful and widely learned,

Yet lacking wisdom, breaking the moral precepts—

What is such a person fully complete in?

If a person does not seek such familiarity,

Whether beautiful or ugly, all is clearly heard;

Possessing wisdom, holding pure moral discipline—

Such a one all people wish to make offerings to.

Gain and no gain, suffering and joy;

Praise and no praise, ruin and slander—

Understand these eight worldly dharmas;

Let the petty mind forsake deceptive realms.

To be reborn in the realms of heaven, one prays;

Father and mother, together with wife and children—

Do not, for the sake of joy, commit transgressions.

The fruit of the hells—of these others are not aware.

If one commits these evil deeds,

It is not like a blade harming when near;

But wait until the moment of death's approach,

And the fruit of evil karma comes covering over.

Faith, discipline, giving, clear listening;

Conscience and shame, together with right wisdom—

The Seven Riches, the Muni declared;

All other things become as nothing.

Broadly rejoicing in every defiled and mixed realm,

Relying on evil friends and drawing near to them,

Drinking wine at improper times, doing the six deeds—

In this present life, called by name, these must be cast off.

Seeking wealth, with few desires one should seek;

Among humans, gods, and teachers, the most noble.

This is called cultivating "wanting little";

Though one craves not, one is the wealthy person.

If a person broadly seeks these matters,

In the end he is laid bare and his suffering increases.

If the wise one does not cultivate few desires,

Having received suffering, he is like one who handles serpents' heads.

She whose inborn nature is wrathful, like a murderess;

She who makes light of her husband as if meeting a stronger one;

She who orders about goods and possessions, surely turning to seduction—

You should cast away these three kinds of women.

She who is compliant like a sister, loving like a mother;

She who follows along like a close and familiar friend—

These four kinds of women you should make offerings to;

You should clearly understand: this is a house of the heavens.

Eat and drink as though they were medicine;

Understand the measure, and avoid greed and anger.

Not for the sake of growing fat, nor for arrogance,

But only wishing to maintain this body.

Diligently exert the body to pass through the day;

In the early, middle, and late watches of the night.

Sleep, with dreams as though one still sees—

Do not act so that life is no more.

Loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and right equanimity—

Practice and cultivate these; you must constantly train.

Even if the higher streams have not yet been entered,

Still one is born in the Brahma World Heaven.

Casting off defilement, desire, and suffering, seek joy and bliss;

According to karma, one will be born in four realms:

Great Brahmā, Ābhāsvara, and Śubhakṛtsna,

Bṛhatphala Heaven—being born there, and the like.

If one is able to cultivate the antidotes,

With surpassing virtue, loving sentient beings—

These five matters are wholesome;

Not to do them is great evil.

A rain of salt-acid, a little water—

How could it be a flood within a pond?

Even if one commits small evil karma,

The great wholesomeness must be clearly understood.

Anger and delusion create evil deeds;

Deep sleep, desire, greed, and doubt—

Like playing with the bandits of the five hindrances.

Constantly, together with the various wholesome matters,

There are five most excellent and supreme dharmas:

Faith, vigor, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.

Diligently cultivate and practice in them;

They can strengthen all the faculties powerfully.

The pain of sickness, death, and separation from loved ones—

All come from one's own karma.

Come, then, and diligently cultivate;

With this, forget arrogance and pride.

If one fears, the heavens bring liberation;

Therefore cultivate right view.

Tell people to do good deeds;

Wrong view, together with evil fruits.

Without joy, permanence, without self,

Impurity—to the one with wisdom—

Deluded thoughts: the four inverted views.

The calamity of suffering lies within the body.

It is said that form is not the self;

The self is not within form;

Form and self are not jointly existent—

Understand clearly that the four aggregates are empty.

They are not born from a fixed season;

Nor from a spontaneous fundamental nature;

Not without cause, nor from a sovereign self.

When they meet, karma and craving arise.

Attachment to precepts and rites, the view of the body;

And the dispute over knowing the Vinaya—

You should understand these three kinds of fetters;

They will bind shut the gate of moral discipline.

Liberation thereafter relies upon this;

Not because of them does one become a companion.

Exhorting to cultivate, listen to discipline and concentration;

The Four Noble Truths thereupon arise.

The higher moral discipline, the mind, and wisdom—

Through study one can constantly cultivate them.

The hundred-and-fifty precepts are supreme,

Or one returns to the three categories of restraint.

Dwelling in the body, with mindfulness;

Through the wholesome path, constantly cultivate.

As one dwells in this right mindfulness,

All dharmas are utterly extinguished.

The span of life has many calamities and disasters,

Like wind blowing froth upon water.

If one obtains a pause in the breath—

To lie or sit again is truly difficult.

In the end one is like charcoal;

Foul and filthy, hard to keep for long.

Contemplate the body: it is not a true, real dharma;

When destroyed, it then disperses and separates.

The great earth, like the vast ocean—

Seven suns will scorch and burn it.

How much more this small body—

How could it not become ashes?

In this way impermanence comes, and does not last long;

No refuge, no rescue, no house of shelter.

The realms of birth-and-death and of humankind one at once departs and flees;

Truly, no different from a plantain tree.

The sea-turtle's head enters the wood—

Even once it is truly hard to meet.

To cast that off and gain this human body,

Yet doing evil deeds, the fruit returns again.

A golden bowl does not hold filth;

To deceive in this is great folly.

If born a human and committing transgressions,

In the end, in youth, one is slothful and remiss.

Born among good friends,

Again give rise to right resolve and aspiration.

The former body, by reason of merit-karma,

The four great elements revolve and circle around.

The Buddha said: draw near to good friends;

The whole of the holy life one should contemplate.

The good one relies upon the Buddha;

For the most part one realizes complete quiescence.

Wrong view gives birth to ghosts and beasts;

In Niraya, the Dharma is not heard.

In the borderlands one dies and abandons the corpse;

One is born into a nature of deluded darkness.

Or one is born in the Long-Life Heaven;

Apart from the eight conditions, nowhere is there

Ease and leisure that can be readily obtained—

That state will then be born.

Separation from loved ones, aging, sickness, death;

The joy therein is within a place of suffering.

The wise one should give rise to weariness;

Whether spoken of little or much, one should listen.

The mother is perhaps changed into a wife;

The father is perhaps transformed into a son;

The foe becomes a companion—

Drifting and floating, with no fixed assignment.

Each person has drunk his mother's milk

More than the waters of the four seas.

Transferring and receiving another body of birth,

One then drinks even more in those places.

In the past, each and every body and bone of birth,

Changed and accumulated, stacks up to Mount Sumeru.

The earth, round like a bright pearl—

Could the count of each and every form be exhausted?

The Lords of Brahmā, of the world, are all made offerings to;

By the power of karma, in the end they fall to the earth.

One becomes a Wheel-Turning King;

When that body is finished, one is transformed into a servant.

In the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, courtesans bring joy;

Having enjoyed the three portions, one falls into Niraya.

Departing pain, then the poison passes through much suffering—

The body rubbed, bones in pain, the feet put in fetters.

One enjoys pleasure like Mount Sumeru;

The hells follow, fully equipped.

Transferring, one receives the suffering of burning and roasting,

Passing through the hell of dung and urine.

Joyfully one is in the rear garden;

The heavenly maidens come to play and delight.

Then one falls into the forest of swords,

Cutting off hands, feet, ears, and nose.

Or one enters the wondrous Mandākinī lake and pool;

Heavenly maidens with golden flowers beautifully adorned—

Then casting off the body, one at once receives the suffering of Niraya,

Burning, with no way to run free from the heat.

In the heavens one receives the Dharma-bliss;

But for failing to remove craving, the Great Brahma King

Then falls into Avīci—

Like burning grass, the fire spreads.

Or one is born as the sun or moon,

The body's light pervading the four continents.

Each dawn it again grows dark and dim;

Lifting one's hand, one sees no reason for it.

The merit of the three kinds of bright lamps—

After death they will be retained.

One encounters every kind of darkness,

Where sun and moon do not shine through.

There are lives bound with hot ropes,

Crying out without ceasing or rest.

That deception—suffering binds and shackles,

Burning those who have done evil deeds.

Or there is suffering in Māpo;

Or one is chopped fine like powder;

Or with an axe one splits the firewood,

Just as one splits piece by piece.

A strong fire burns with equal scorching;

One is forced to drink molten copper.

Upon the body, knives and swords hack;

On the body, an iron bed is set ablaze.

Or at the time one raises one's hand high,

Iron-tongued ones, fierce as dogs—

Vulture-eagles peck at the toes and nails,

Biting and tearing apart both bowels and liver.

Flies, gnats, and the various worms—

Their number surpasses a thousand koṭi.

They can bite and rend the body;

Falling swiftly, all cast off the flesh.

If a person commits all these evil deeds,

He hears the suffering of body and flesh a hundred thousand times.

In this way, how grievous and painful it is!

When Niraya is ended, one meets a fierce fire.

One must contemplate the utter transformation, listen, and so remember;

Recite and chant the sūtras and treatises, constantly seeking;

Hearing of Niraya alone is already terrifying—

How then could deceit escape being burned?

Among those joys, who has the most fully?

The exhaustion of craving, the no-birth, is joy surpassing all.

Among those sufferings, who is foremost?

The unrelenting Niraya, suffering that harms the body.

People of the world, reciting each day,

Are chopped and cut three hundred times.

In this hell the suffering is slight;

Each single hair is pierced through.

In this place one receives extreme suffering,

Passing a hundred autumns of koṭis.

When this evil is at last exhausted—

Life is cast off, and there is no reason left.

In this way the various evil fruits

Are planted by body, speech, and mind.

So one is exhorted: aid with the power of loving-kindness;

A speck of dust of evil—do not commit it.

Or one enters the realm of the Animal Births;

Killing, binding, suffering, and harming one's kin.

Keeping far from the quiescent and wholesome,

One then suffers that pain and agony.

Or one is killed, bound in suffering,

As though by tail, horn, and hide.

One is strung up, bound, and hung aloft;

Sat upon, grasped, held, and ridden.

One receives the kind of suffering of ghosts;

Without cease, suffering constantly comes.

Hunger, thirst, and cold and heat;

Distress, fear, and suffering ever invade.

The mouth small as the eye of a needle,

The belly large as a mountain;

The suffering of hunger reeks like dung—

Gaining a little, one cannot bear it.

The form is like a withered, dried-up tree;

That skin is made into garments.

The mouth of fire burns night after night;

Butterflies in flight too one wishes to eat.

Bloody, fishy stench, together with impurity;

Merit so scant it is never enough,

Causing the mouth to be in misery,

And one must again eat hot food.

The moon's shining only adds to the heat;

The heavens make the body cold again.

One wishes for fruit, but there is no tree;

The river's water too is wholly dried up.

In this way one receives the various sufferings,

Passing ten thousand years, a thousand years.

For a long time this body is beaten,

All because of that root of suffering.

If one is born among the hungry ghosts,

One meets the deceptive single taste of suffering.

There is no one who loves and cherishes;

The Buddha said it is because of stinginess.

Born in the heavens, though one enjoys bliss,

When the merit is spent, suffering is hard to measure.

In the end one encounters falling and ruin;

Do not delight—one must clearly understand.

Wearied of sitting in the high place,

The light upon one's body is lost;

Sweat flows from the body and the armpits;

Upon the head the flowers wither away.

When in this way the five signs appear,

In the heavenly realm, death is beyond doubt.

If one is born again as a human,

One is apt to be born confused and full of doubt.

If one falls from the heavenly realm,

That wholesomeness has already run out.

One falls into the realm of the Animal Births,

Niraya, and according to that, abides.

The fundamental nature of the Asuras

Makes them turn entirely against awakened wisdom.

Wrathful at the heavens, they give rise to suffering of mind;

Joy gradually comes upon seeing the principle.

In this way, drifting and wandering in birth-and-death—

Gods, humans, beasts, and Asuras—

Base karma gives birth to those sufferings;

The ghost-beings, together, enter Naraka.

Cast off, one enters fire that burns upon the head;

Burning clean the garments that wrap around the whole body.

This suffering cannot all be told in full;

Unborn, abiding within Nirvāṇa.

One must seek the virtue of discipline, together with concentration and wisdom,

Quiescent and gentle, departing from defilement and impurity.

Nirvāṇa is inexhaustible, without aging or death;

The four great elements, the sun and moon, all alike pass away.

Mindfulness, the discernment of dharmas, diligence;

Concentration, wisdom, joy, and lightness-and-ease—

These seven factors of Enlightenment

Can lead one to attain Nirvāṇa.

Without wisdom, there is no concentration;

With resolve, wisdom then becomes weak.

If one accomplishes both of these,

There is an ocean, like the footprint of an ox.

The fourteen dharmas-not-to-be-toyed-with,

In days near the place of speech—

Here you should not think upon them,

Nor should you act so that awakening is lost.

From non-wisdom, karma arises;

Through karma, consciousness is again born;

Consciousness conditions name-and-form;

Name-and-form gives rise to the six bases;

The six bases condition contact;

Contact conditions the arising of feeling;

Feeling then conditions craving;

Through craving, grasping arises;

That grasping again conditions becoming;

That becoming gives rise to the condition;

The condition of birth conditions aging-and-death;

Sorrow, sickness, and seeking what cannot be obtained—

The great aggregate of suffering in the cycle of rebirth.

That deception should be cut off and removed;

As this arises, suffering is extinguished.

Those sufferings are not lacking;

The Most Supreme One spoke and taught:

The profound and subtle dependent origination arises.

As one relies upon this right view,

One then beholds the Unsurpassed Honored One.

Right view, right livelihood, right mindfulness;

Right concentration, speech, action, and thought—

This is the Eightfold Noble Path;

For the sake of quiescence, cultivate and keep it.

Not arising through the practice of craving,

Which causes the body and suffering to be born;

Removing deception, realizing liberation—

The Eightfold Noble Path should be practiced.

This indeed is the work of Yoga;

The four kinds of causes of the Noble Truths

Lie solely in the place of solemn adornment.

When wisdom covers, afflictions are saturated.

Not from the non-realm does one fall;

Like rice growing from the earth.

The one who first realizes the Dharma is the person;

All are ordinary beings with afflictions.

Why recount so much in particular?

Removing affliction, let me speak briefly in passing.

Matters arise from that disposition and thought;

The Sage said the mind is the root.

As above, distinguishing the dharmas,

The bhikṣu finds it hard to understand completely.

According as one cultivates a single matter,

Do not let it give birth to the Empty Heaven.

In all wholesome deeds, rejoice along;

The three wondrous conducts cultivate for oneself.

Dedicate them for the sake of attaining Buddhahood;

The accumulation of merit, use it just so.

In the after-birth one receives the immeasurable;

Broadly delivering the places of gods and humans,

Just like Avalokiteśvara.

Truly difficult, with both foe and kin,

Birth, aging, sickness, death—the poison of mind removed,

In a Buddha-land one takes rebirth as a World-Father.

The measure of the span of life—all is hard to know,

Equal to the Greatly Awakened Buddha Amitābha.

Opening and revealing the moral precepts and the wisdom of relinquishment,

Heaven and earth and empty space—the name covers all.

The great earth's dwelling people and the heavenly host—

Do not let love of beauty, the affection of women's craving,

The afflictions bind tightly the sentient beings.

Cutting off the stream of birth-and-death, realizing right awakening,

Surpassing and delivering the world, ever bearing a name,

Because of attaining the No-Birth, departing from the dust of defilement.

Āryanāgārjunabodhisattvasuhṛllekha. "Ārya" is precisely "Sacred." "Nāga" is dragon, is elephant. "Arjuna" is translated as "strong." "Bodhisattva" means "Enlightening Sentient Being." "Suhṛd" is precisely "intimate." "Lekha" is precisely this book. The preceding is what the venerable Nāgārjuna transformed into being.

The Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna's Exhortation to Kings

The End