Chapter 1: Verses 81-82
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Teachings at Sravasti Abbey 
Oct 8, 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.
- Why the conclusion of the four point analysis is explicitly emptiness and implicitly dependent arising
- It’s tempting to think that the collection of non-car parts is the inherently existent car, but how can a collection of things that are non-cars become a car?
- When you analyze, you can’t find the person, but you can’t say the person is non-existent
- Just as the person is not inherently existent, so to the constituents are not inherently existent
- Analyzing the relationship between the person and the aggregates
- If there were an inherently existent person we would be able to find it in one of five ways
- If the self and the aggregates were inherently one and the same, you would have a number of absurd consequences that are untenable
Precious Garland 23: Verses 81-82 (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.
