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 ...

Text Sections 139-140

Khenpo Kunpal explains the title Bodhisattva-caryāvatāra by citing various quotes from the scriptures.

First, he explains the word bodhi in ’bodhisattva’.

Bodhi [byang chub] has a twofold meaning:

  1. ’purified’ [byang]
  2. and ’inclusive’ [chub].

If the buddha nature [bde gshegs snying po] is ’purified’ [byang] of the two momentary obscurations, obscurations of affliction [nyon mongs pa’i sgrib pa] and obscurations of cognition [shes bya’i sgrib pa], and of all habitual tendencies [bag chags], then all inherent qualities of the buddha nature are naturally ’included’ or ‘perfected’ [chub]. That is the meaning of the quote from the ye shes drva ba.

The word bodhi has the same connotation as the word ’buddha’ [sangs rgyas].

’Buddha’ means that all afflictive and cognitive obscurations have been ’purified’ or ’removed’ [sangs] and all wisdom qualities ’unfolded’ [rgyas]. One aspect of the term bodhi denotes absence [med pa], the absence of all that should be overcome. Another aspect of the term bodhi denotes presence [yod pa], the presence of all that should be achieved and realized.

’Bodhi’ and ’buddha’ are both names for the final goal, the ultimate fruition, the aim we wish to achieve, the state of a completely enlightened buddha.

If you wish to speak of a person’s condition in terms of what is present, you may say that a person is, for example, healthy. Describing a person’s condition in terms of what is absent, you can say that a person is not sick.

The terms ’buddha’ or ’bodhi’ indicate both presence and absence. The aspect of presence denotes that all possible wisdom qualities are present in the buddha nature. The aspect of absence denotes that all possible flaws have vanished. This is the usual dualistic approach through ideas and words that attempts to describe the utterly inconceivable, such as ’buddha’ or ’bodhi’.

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