Shantideva A TRANSLATION OF THE Bodhicharyavatara TRANSLATED #ROM THE TIBETAN BY THE PADMAKARA TRANSLATION GROUP FOREWORD BY THE DALAT LAMA ¢ nga, te 4 SHAMBHALA Boston & London 1997FOREWORD ‘The Bodhicharyavatara was composed by the Indian scholar Shantideve, renowned in Tibet as one of the most reliable of teachers. Since it mainly focuses on the cultivation and enhancement of Bodhichitta, the work belongs to the Mahayana. At the same time, Shantideva’s philosophical stance as expounded particularly in the ninth chapter on wisdom, fol- tows the Prasangika Madhyamika viewpoint of Chandrakict. ‘The principal focus of Mahayana teachings is on cultivating a mind wishing to benefit other sentient beings. With an increase in our own sense of peace and happiness we will naturally be better able to contrib- ute to the peace and happiness of others. Transforming the mind and cultiveting a postive, altruistic and responsible attitude is beneficial right now. Whatever problems and difficulties we may have, we can thereby face them with courage, calmness and high spicits, Therefore it is also the vety root of happiness for many lives to come. Based on my own litle experience 1 can confidently say thet the teachings and instructions of the Buddhadharma and particularly the ‘Mahayana teachings continue to be relevant and useful today. If we sin- cerely put the gist of these teachings into practice, we need have no hesitation about their effectiveness. The benefits of developing qualities Tike love, compassion, generosity, and patience are not confined to the ‘personal level alone; they extend to all sentient beings and even to the maintenance of harmony with the environment, It is not as if these (8)‘teachings were useful at some time in the past but are no longer relevant in modern times. They remain pertinent today. This is why T encourage people to pay attention to such practices it isnot just so that the tradi- tion may be preserved. ‘The Bodhicharyavatara has been widely acclaimed and respected for more than one thousand years. It is studied and praised by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, I myself received transmission and expla- nation of this important, holy text from the late Kunw Lame, Tenzin Gyaltsen, who received it from a disciple of the great Dzogehen master, ze Patrul Rinpoche. It has proved very useful and beneficial to my mind. Tam delighted that the Padmakare Translation Group has prepared 4 fresh English translation of the Bodhicharyavatara. They have tried to combine an accuracy of meaning with an ease of expression, which can only serve the text's porpose well. I congratulate them and offer my prayers that their efforts may contribute to greater peace and happiness among all sentient beings. Texziw Gratso THE FOURTEENTH DALAT LAMA 17 October 1996 { viii F ae INTRODUCTION rans KY) GS naa Cooma ‘The Way of the Bodhisattva! is one of the great classics of the Mahayana, the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle. Presented in the form of a personal meditation, but offered in friendship to whoever might be interested, it is an exposition ofthe path ofthe bodhisattvas—those beings who, turn- ing aside from the futility and sufferings of samsira, nevertheless re- nnounce the peece of an individual salvation and vow to work for the deliverance of all beings and to attain the supreme enlightenment of buddhehood for their sake. As such, Shantideva’s work embodies a definition of compassion raised to its highest power and minutely lays ‘out the methods by which this is to be achieved. It is an overwinelming demonstration of how concern for others, in a love that wholly tran scends desire and concern for self, lis at the core of all true spiritual ‘endeavor and isthe very heart of enlightened wisdom. ‘The author of The Way of the Bodhisattva was @ member of the ‘monastic university of Nalanda, which, like the other great university of ‘Vikramasha, was one of the most celebrated centers of learning in an- cient India, Little is known about him, although a number of colorful legends have come down to us over the centuries—tantalizing half-ights that give us a glimpse of a highly unusual and independent personality. Tt would seem that Shantideva was very much his own master, tempera- mentally impervious to social and cclesiastical pressures, and able to pursue his insights irrespective of conventional expectations and public tyopinion. He was drawn at an early age to the wisdom teachings of the ‘Mahayana, as embodied in the bodhisettva Masjushri, and thus to the ‘Madhyamika or Centrist school of Buddhist philosophy, renowned for its profundity and dialectic subtlety, Ye as his work reveals, Shantideva ‘was by no means a dry academic Like Nagirjuna before him, he pos- sessed to 2 remarkable degree the umusual combination of a powerful intelligence linked witha keen appreciation ofthe sufferings ofthe world and a deep sense of tenderness toward others. Itis impossible here to give an adequate description of Shantideva’s great poem, but it is hoped that with the passage of time it will be possible to make available translations of the commentaries by the great masters of the past. The following introduction is intended only as a guideline to help readers find their bearings, especially those who are ‘unfamiliar with fundamental Buddhist ideas. Tt is a frequent practice among commentators to divide ‘The Way of the Bodhisattva into three main sections, along the lines of a famous prayer attributed to Nagarjune: May bodihichits, precious and sublime, Arise where it has not yet come to bei ‘And where it has arisen may it never fail But grow and flourish ever more and more. According to this scheme, the fist three chapters (“The Excellence of Bodhichitta,” “Confession,” and ““Commitment”) ate designed to stimulate the dawning of bodhichita in the mind, The following three chapters (“Awareness,” “Vigilance,” end “Patience”) give instructions (on how to prevent the precious attitude from being dissipated, while the seventh, eighth, end ninth chapters (“Heroic Perseverance,” “Medita- tion,” and “Wisdom”) prescribe ways in which bodhichitta may be pro- gressively intensified. The tenth chapter is a concluding prayer of dedication, @® Tue Daww of Bopsrcusrra ‘What is bodhichitts? The word has many nuances and is easier to under~ stand, perhaps, than to translate. For this reason we have used the San- skxit term, in the hope that by dint of careful definition it may be (a) INtRoDueTION incorporated into and allowed to entich our language. Chista means “mind,” “thought,” “attitude.” Bedi means “enlightenment,” “awak- ening,” and is cognate with the term buddha itself. This gives us “mind of enlightenment,” “awakening mind”—the attitude of mind that tends toward, and is imbued with, enlightenment, the specific characteristic of bbuddhahood. It should be noted that bodhichitea is not a synonym for compassion, iis a broader term in which compassion is implied, ‘According to tradition, bodhichita is said to have two aspects, or rather to exist on two levels. Fist, one speaks of absolute bodhichitta, referring to the direct cognizance of reality. This isthe wisdom of empti- ness: an immediate, nondual insight that transcends conceptualization. Second, there is relative bodhichitt, by which is meant the aspiration to attain the highest good, or buddhahood, for the sake of all, together ‘with all the practical steps necessary to achieve this goal, The connection between these two bodhichittas—the wisdom of emptiness on the one hand, the will to deliver beings from suffering on the other—is not per- haps immediately clear. But within the Buddhist perspective, as Shanti- ddeva gradually reveals, absolute and relative bodhichitta ate two interdependent aspects ofthe same thing. The true realization of empti- ness is impossible without the peactice of perfect compassion, while no compassion can ever be perfect without the realization of the wisdom of ‘At frst sight, this suggests an impasse in which bodhichita is logi- cally impossible to realize, for how could one ever penetrate the closed circle? It is nevertheless the startling ssertion of Buddhist teaching that the mind itself, even the mind in samsir, is never, and never has been, ultimately alienated from the state of enlightenment. Bodhichita is in fact its true nature and condition. The mind is not identical with the defilement and distraction that beset and sometimes overwhelm it, and thus it may be freed frorn thems itis capable of growth and improvement and may be trained. By using methods and tools grounded in the duality ‘of subject and object, the mind bas the power to evolve toward a wisdom and a mode of being (infact its own true nature) that uteriy transcends ‘his duality, At present, of course, for most of us, this is something thet remains to be seen, something to take on trust. And so it is with an extraordinary didactic ski, and with an immediacy and relevance that {3}