Chapter 1: Verses 76-80
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Teachings at Sravasti Abbey 
Sep 24, 2015 Chapter 1 addresses what to abandon and what to practice to attain upper rebirth and highest good. Part of a series of talks on Nagarjuna's Precious Garland of Advice for a King.
- The fault of being afraid of emptiness
- The importance of listening to teachings on emptiness to create positive imprints
- Four ways that people go astray when they hear about emptiness
- Uninterested in emptiness
- Think that emptiness is nonsense
- Reject emptiness outright thinking it’s nihilistic
- Misunderstand emptiness thinking there is no existence or nonexistence
- Conventional and ultimate truths are one nature but different isolates, they are nominally different
- Saying things are empty of inherent existence only negates one type of existence, not all existence
- Looking at money and football as examples of fabrication by conception
- The person and other phenomena don’t have the slightest existence from their own side and are merely posited through the force of nominal conception
- Emptiness is an ultimate truth but it isn’t ultimately existent
Precious Garland 21: Verses 76-80 (download)
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
