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 ...

The general belief is that ancient India had 340 different languages.

Among them were four great and special canonical languages [skad rigs chen po mi ’dra ba bzhi]:

  1. Sanskrit [legs sbyar; skr. saṃskṛt],
  2. Prākrit [rang bzhin],
  3. Apabhraṃśa [zur chag] and
  4. Piśāci [sha za].

Sūtras and treatises [bstan bcos; skr. śāstra] were written in all of these languages.

Sanskrit is considered the most important among them and is known as the divine language [lha’i skad], the language that all buddhas of the three times spoke in the past, are speaking in the present and will speak in the future. The Tibetan translators have translated the term Sanskrit with well composed [legs sbyar].

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