Living Ethically: Advise from Nagarjuna's Precious Garland

In Knowing How to Live, Sangharakshita delves into Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland text and extracts the gems of wisdom relevant to the Buddhist practitioner of today, from the beginner to one who is more experienced. The text, originally written for King Satavahana, a spiritual disciple of Nagarjuna’s, is a layman’s guide to Enlightenment. Though originally intended to be studied by a leader of men, in this democratic era Buddhists of all walks of life can learn from the insights of this enlightened teacher of the past.

Principally, readers will learn that the path to true joy can be discovered through helping others. This is true not only for private individuals but for governments, corporations, and institutions as well. What is true for oneself and one’s personal ethics proves to be equally true in the realm of social ethics—that actions, for good or ill, will have consequences and the practice of ethics is the key to a happy, human life.

O King, it would be right for you
Each day to think about this advice
So that you and others may achieve
Complete and perfect Enlightenment.
—Nagarjuna

After reading the Diamond Sutra, an ancient Buddhist text, at the age of sixteen, Sangharakshita realized that he was a Buddhist. He served in the British Army in Southeast Asia during World War II and remained there, but after spending twenty years in India, Sangharakshita returned to England and established the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (1967) and Western Buddhist Order (1968). Sangharakshita is considered one of the foremost expositors of the Buddha’s teachings to the modern West.