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 collection of canonical commentaries, the Tangyur [bstan ’gyur], includes many different interpretations and opinions about the distinction between bodhicitta of aspiration and bodhicitta of application. The Buddhist masters of India and of Tibet did not all hold the same opinion.

For instance, Master Jñanapāda [slob dpon ye shes zhabs] states that the development of bodhicitta by ordinary people [so so’i skye bo] is bodhicitta of aspiration and that the development of bodhicitta by noble people [’phags pa], those who have reached the first bodhisattva level and beyond, is bodhicitta of application.

Master Jñanapāda probably considered that the bodhicitta developed by ordinary people was not really effective and that an individual can truly help other beings only after reaching the first bodhisattva level of realization.

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