Bodhisattvacharyavatara

by Andreas Kretschmar | 246,740 words

The English translation of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (“entering the conduct of the bodhisattvas”), a Sanskrit text with Tibetan commentary. This book explains the bodhisattva concept and gives guidance to the Buddhist practitioner following the Mahāyāna path towards the attainment of enlightenment. The text was written in Sanskrit by Shantideva ...

To further elucidate the guidelines for one who teaches the dharma, Khenpo Kunpal quotes Śāntideva from stanza 88 of the fifth chapter of the Bodhisattva-caryāvatāra, which specifically states that one should not teach the dharma to those who do not respect the Buddha’s teachings:[1]

Do not explain the dharma to those who are disrespectful,
Nor to those who, while not being sick, wrap their heads,
Nor to those who carry parasols, staffs, or weapons,
Nor to those who cover their heads.

Echoing Śāntideva’s advice, a Tibetan proverb comments:

Never teach the dharma to people without faith.
Whoever teaches the dharma to people without faith
Will not be liberated (from the lower realms) for a thousand aeons.

ma dad pa la chos ma bshad
ma dad pa la chos bshad na
bskal po stong nas ya mtha’ med

By teaching dharma to people who lack faith, the greatness of the dharma [chos kyi che ba] will vanish. The dharma is the path to the highest of all attainments, the path to enlightenment, and should not be treated like ordinary information, or like an interesting story [lo rgyus] that can be spoken of in a casual setting.

Those who, through their motivation and conduct, disrespect the dharma and the teacher in any way should not receive any instructions. If dharma is taught to disrespectful persons, the greatness of the dharma will deteriorate, and the listeners will receive no benefit from hearing the teachings. The teachings will lose their transformative power. The purpose of the teachings, is, after all, to transform the being of the listener. Hence, a qualified teacher is one worthy of respect, an individual who has transformed and is transforming his own being through the teachings.

Moreover, a qualified teacher will never knowingly teach the dharma to people who lack respect for the teachings, because such people could accumulate negative karma for themselves if they develop wrong views [log lta] about the dharma or reject the dharma [chos spong ba’i las]. A qualified teacher will never put anyone in the situation of developing wrong views, since the negative karma that comes from this could cause the listeners to take rebirth in the three lower realms. For reasons such as these a teacher should not teach the dharma to those without respect or faith. This is an essential rule for one who teaches the dharma.

The rule for students is to respect each dharma teacher, even a teacher who has taught them only a single stanza of the dharma. In dharma study there is no place for the sort of disrespect one often finds in present day school rooms.

When listening to the dharma one should bare one’s head as a sign of respect. Thus, the scriptures state that the dharma should not be taught to people who are wearing hats, carrying parasols, staffs, or weapons. Only if the heat of the sun is unbearable or if it is raining can the audience cover their heads with shawls [gzan] or protect them with parasols or umbrellas. People who are sick or old are allowed to use canes or walking sticks, but only those who are ill should cover their heads with hats or shawls. Weapons are never permitted in a teaching situation.

Likewise, students sitting on seats higher than the teacher should not be taught the dharma. If the teacher is standing, the students are not allowed to remain seated. If the teacher is standing and the student remain sitting, the teacher should not expound the dharma. If students walk together with their teacher and he expounds the dharma to them while walking, they should walk on the teacher’s left side, with their right side facing the teacher. Also, a translator should sit on the teacher’s left. Moreover, pointing one’s feet toward the dharma teacher or turning one’s back to the teacher while he is teaching is utterly improper.

In a traditional teaching setting, students first offer three prostrations to the teacher. Then the students and teacher recite together the short praise to the Bodhisattva Mañjughoṣa called ‘Gangi Lodro’ [gang gi blo gros] in order to open the wisdom eye:

“I bow to Mañjughoṣa whose intellect, free from the clouds of the two obscurations, is brillantly illuminating and totally pure like the sun,
Perceiving all things just as they are, you hold a volume of scripture to your heart.
Your speech endowed with sixty melodious aspects, you care, as for an only child,
For those hosts of beings tormented by suffering and engulfed in the darkness of ignorance in the prison of existence.
Thundering mightily like a dragon, you shatter the sleep of afflictions and sunder the chains of karma.
Dispelling the darkness of ignorance, you wield the sword that severs the seedlings of suffering.
Primordially pure, you body is the foremost among the children of the victorious ones, those who have reached the pinnacle of the ten levels and perfected all qualities.
Adorned wih one hundred and twelve ornaments, you dispel the darkness of my mind.

Om A Ra Pa Tsa Na Dhi”

gang gi blo gros sgrib gnyis sprin bral nyi ltar rnam dag rab gsal bas //
ji snyed don kun ji bzhin gzigs phyir nyid kyi thugs kar glegs bam ’dzin //
gang dag srid pa’i btson rar ma rig mun ’thums sdug bsngal gyis gzir ba’i //
’gro tshogs kun la bu gicg ltar brtse yan lag drug cu’i dbyangs ldan gsung //
’brug ltar cher sgrogs nyon mongs gnyid slong las kyi lcags sgrog ’grol mdzad cing //
ma rig mun sel sdug bsngal myu gu ji snyed gcod mdzad ral gri bsnams //
gdod nas dag cing sa bcu’i mthar son yon tan lus rdzogs rgyal sras thu bo’i sku //
bcu phrag bcu dang bcu gnyis rgyan spras bdag blo’i mun sel ’jam pa’i dbyangs la’dud //

Oṃ a ra pa ca na dhīḥ

The students next present an offering [mchod pa phul], while reciting the ‘seven point maṇḍala offering’:

The earth is sprinkled with scented water and strewn with flowers,
Adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun, and the moon.
Imagining this as a buddha realm, I offer it
So that all beings may enjoy the pure realms.

Idam ratna maṇḍala kaṃ niryātayāṃī

sa gzhi spos chus byugs shing me tog bkram
ri rab gling bzhi nyi zlas brgyan pa ’di
sangs rgyas zhing du dmigs te phul ba yis
‘gro kun rnam dag zhing la spyod par shog

Idam ratna maṇḍala kaṃ niryātayāṃī

Finally, with joined palms, the students request the teacher to turn the wheel of dharma [chos ’khor bskor ba bskul]:

According to sentient beings’ thoughts
And specific mental capacities,
Please turn the wheel of dharma
Of the greater, lesser or common vehicle.

sems can rnams kyis bsams pa dang //
blo yi bye brag ji lta ba //
che chung thun mong theg pa yi //
chos kyi ’khor lo skor du gsol //

Now the teacher will begin to expound the dharma and the students should listen attentively to the teachings. At the end of the teaching session, the teacher and the students dedicate the merit and make the following aspiration [bsngo smon]:

Through this merit may I attain omniscience and
Defeating the foe of misdeeds,
May I free all beings from the ocean of saṃsāra
With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

bsod nams ’di yis thams cad gzigs pa nyid //
thob nas nyes pa’i dgra rnams pham byas nas //
skye rga na ’chi rba rlabs ’khrugs pa yi //
srid pa’i mtsho las ’gro ba sgrol bar shog /

May the precious and supreme bodhicitta
Arise in those in whom it has not yet arisen;
And where it has arisen may it not decrease
But ever increase more and more.

byang chub sems mchog rin po che
ma skyes pa rnams skye gyur cig
skyes pa nyams pa med pa yang
gong nas gong du ‘phel bar shog

At the end of the teachings the students may again present an offering to the teacher as a thanksgiving [btang rag gi tshul du].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For a commentary on stanza 88 see kun dpal ’grel pa (si khron mi rigs edition), pages 403-404.

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