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 author of a treatise must cast away his pride because if one writes out of a prideful motivation, such a book will bring no benefit to sentient beings. Śāntideva, although highly realized and learned, casts away pride by stating that in the Bodhisattva-caryāvatāra he teaches nothing that the buddhas and bodhisattvas did not teach before. He also states that he is not learned in prosody and poetry.

Again Khenpo Kunpal quotes the Indian scholar Vibhūticandra’s metrical prologue to his commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra:[1]

In the (history of) the Victor’s doctrine
Many great beings and persons have appeared,
But I have found none
Whose experience and realization compare with Śāntideva’s.

Thus, Vibhūticandra states that many great masters [bdag nyid chen po] and great persons [skyes bu chen po] appeared in the history of Indian Buddhism, but none could compare with Śāntideva in meditation experience and realization. Śāntideva was indeed a very great master, but he, nonetheless, assumes a position of humility, casting away his pride at the beginning of composing this treatise. While he states that he has no skills in poetry, in fact, the Bodhisattva-caryāvatāra is an outstanding poetic masterpiece.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See vibhūti dgongs ’grel, page 236, folio 229b.

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