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 phrase spend your time with dharma practice [rang mgo nyi ma chos kyis bton] means ’as long as the sun is shining on one’s head, spend your time with the dharma’ [rang gi mgo la dus tshod yod pa chos la ’bad stsol btang dgos].

Atiśa said that life is short and the fields of knowledge so many that one cannot possibly know them all. Therefore, as we do not know how much lifespan remains to us, we should not even try to study everything but rather should use our time well. Atiśa advises that we should be like the swan, said to be able to separate milk from water. Just as swans extract milk from water, practitioners should be able to extract the most essential points of practice from the vast teachings of the dharma.

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