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 114-115

Khenpo Kunpal’s explanation of the six stains [dri ma drug] further acquaints us with the potential defects of a listener, according to the explanation tradition of Paltrül Rinpoche. If your mind is not free from the six stains, then in this life you will experience many difficulties in your attempts to practice meditative concentration [bsam gtan], to gain knowledge [shes rab], and to attain complete liberation [rnam par grol ba] because of not understanding the perfect nature of the words and their meaning.

The perfect nature of the words and meaning [tshig don phun sum tshogs pa’i rang bzhin] refers to ’the perfect nature of the words and meaning of the teachings of the buddhas and the treatises’ written about them [bka’ dang bstan bcos kyi tshig don phun sum tshogs pa’i rang bzhin].

The ‘perfect words’ [tshig phun sum tshogs pa] refers to the dharma, conveyed without any additions or omissions [lhag chad med pa].

The ‘perfect meaning’ [don phun sum tshogs pa] refers to the noble topic [brjod bya bzang ba], which is free from any error [ma nor ba] or faults.

If your mind is not free from the six stains, you will be unable to meditate on the perfect nature of Buddha’s words and their meaning and will fail to gain knowledge-wisdom. Nor will you gain liberation from afflictions [nyon mongs las rnam par grol ba] through the acquisition of knowledge and the practice of meditation. Furthermore, these defects will keep you from having the opportunity to meet the dharma in your next lifetime but will instead keep you circling endlessly in saṃsāra.

Therefore, listening to the dharma properly is of the utmost importance.

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