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 Section 78
Thus, from the throne, Śāntideva asked the monks,
“Should I recite something well known, such as a sūtra previously spoken by the Ṛṣi [drang srong], by the Buddha, or should I recite something that you have never heard before, my own treatise, a composition I myself wrote?”
No one suggested reciting his own treatise on such an occasion, so the monks were more than ever certain that if they requested him to do this, he would bring exceedingly great shame upon himself.