Nick Lashaw

The String of Precious Jewels, written by Master Nagarjuna consists of advices given to a king both on how to rule and how to practice the teachings of the Greater Way.  While generally considered by scholars to be one of Arya Nagarjuna’s Six Great Works on Logic, it is also regarded as an early presentation of a genre known as Steps on the Path to Enlightenment.

The work is divided into the different goals that one could achieve through practice and  contains a detailed discussion of the true meaning of the idea of liberation from suffering.   Gyaltsab Je’s commentary to the text unlocks the meaning of Master Nagarjuna’s verses and presents practical details on how to use the wisdom contained within the work to live a better life and to transcend suffering altogether.

The Sixty Verses on Reasoning by Arya Nagarjuna are considered by scholars to be one of Master Nagarjuna’s Six Great Works on Logic, and as such, consists of philosophical arguments designed to prove to the so called “lower” schools of Buddhism that although they don’t realize it, they already accept the profound explanations of emptiness that have been offered previously by Shakyamuni Buddha, Master Nagarjuna, and are accepted by the Middle Way school.

The commentary written by Gyaltsab Je, one of Je Tsongkapa’s main disciples, is a thorough elucidation of the meaning of the many arguments put forth by Arya Nagarjuna illustrating the true meaning of emptiness and the fact that accepting any other idea of the concept of emptiness would be mistaken.  He also goes into great detail on several subjects including the differences between the two branches of the Middle Way School, why the Buddha taught lower viewpoints, among many others.

In addition to Gyaltsab Je’s commentary, we have translated as part of this work notes that Gyaltsab Je took to a teaching on the Sixty Verses given by his own teacher, Je Tsongkapa Lobsang Drakpa (1357-1419).