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 258-260
Bodhicitta has two aspects, compassion [snying rje] and wisdom-knowledge [shes rab].
With compassion you focus on the benefit of others [snying rjes gzhan don la dmigs pa] by committing yourself,
“I will free all mother-like sentient beings, equal to the reaches of space, from all suffering of existence and peace.”
‘Suffering of peace’ refers to the static and finite peace state of the śrāvakas. A śrāvakaarhat is free from ego-clinging [gang zag gi bdag ’dzin], subject fixation, and has attained the peace of nirvāṇa, but he still retains subtle fixations on phenomena [chos kyi bdag ’dzin], object fixations, which cause subtle fear and suffering. Bodhisattvas also have this subtle fixation. Therefore, the Mahāyāna practitioner aspires to free all beings from even the most subtle fixations.
With wisdom-knowledge you focus on perfect enlightenment [shes rab kyis rdzogs byang la dmigs pa] by committing yourself,
“I will establish them on the level of complete and perfect enlightenment.”