Prajñādaṇḍa

Prajñādaṇḍa (T. shes rab sdong po), or "Staff of Wisdom," is an Indian treatise (shastra) attributed to Nagarjuna.

The full title for the treatise is:

• Nītiśāstra prajñādaṇḍa (T. lugs kyi bstan bcos shes rab sdong po ལུགས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཤེས་རབ་སྡོང་པོ་), "The Staff of Wisdom: A Treatise on Ethics"

This is a “treatises on worldly affairs" (nītiśāstra) in 260 verses. It belongs to Nagarjuna’s Collection of Advice.

The original Sanskrit text has been lost. The Tibetan translation is preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur (Toh 4329 in the Dergé Tengyur).

Text and translation

Tibetan text

• །ལུགས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཤེས་རབ་སྡོང་བུ།, gyalyongsachen.com
• lugs kyi bstan bcos shes rab sdong po

Translation

• Dr. C .T. Dorji, Commentary of Manners Called the Tree of Wisdom, Composed by Saint Nagarjuna, Prominent Publishers (Delhi 2000). (Includes Tibetan text and English translation).
• W. L. Campbell (1919), She-rab dong-bu or Prajnya Danda, Calcutta University
  • Title page
  • Preface
  • Main section (English only), Sacred-texts.com

Quotation

The Staff of Wisdom states:

Sublime beings do not make many commitments,
Yet if they commit themselves to something difficult,
It is as if the pledge were carved in stone;
Even in the face of death or other perils, they will not waver.