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 seventh and final episode of Śāntideva’s biography recounts how he tamed the tīrthikas [mu stegs can btul ba], those who follow non-Buddhist paths. Śāntideva journeyed to the South, to Śrīparvata [dpal gyi ri] where he practiced the ’Uccuṣma conduct’ [u tsa ma’i spyod pa], a special mode of ‘yogic conduct’ or ‘conduct of discipline’ [brtul zhugs spyod pa] requiring one to abstain from normal food and live instead on leavings [tshig ma], that which have been thrown out [pho ba] with the dishwater [khrud ma].

While living this way, Śāntideva went about naked like a beggar who could not even afford rags as clothing. Although ordinary people would quickly die if they tried to live in such a fashion, Śāntideva followed this special yogic conduct as a skillful means designed to destroy fixation on and attachment to concepts such as ’clean’ and ’dirty’.

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