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 272-273

This is the Maitrakanyakāvanāna [mdza’ bo’i bu mo’i rtogs par brjod pa], ’the Story of Maitra’s Daughter’, found in Kalpalatā [dpag bsam ’khri shing] written by Kṣemendra

[dge ba’i dbang po] as story 92. In former times, in the city of Vārāṇasī, there lived a wealthy leader [ded dpon] of the sea-going merchant caste named Maitra [mdza’ bo], ’Friend’.[1] It was his profession to undertake dangerous journeys by sea in order to fetch precious gems.

His wife gave birth to a son. To prevent their son from following his father’s dangerous occupation, Maitra and his wife named him Kanyaka, ’Daughter’ [bu mo]. Thus, he became known as Maitrakanyaka, ’Daughter of Maitra’ [mdza’ bo’i bu mo]. Soon after his son was born, Maitra died at sea.

Maitrakanyaka’s mother did everything she could to keep her son from becoming captain of a ship but to no avail. When finally Maitrakanyaka was about to go to sea, his mother tried to physically hold him back, and he kicked her in the head. The karmic ripening for this deed was an iron wheel that came spinning down on his head, cutting into it and causing him unbearable pain. Due to the merit of his previous lifetimes, he developed compassion and thought,

“In the realms of saṃsāra many other beings are suffering like me for kicking their mothers in the head. May all their suffering ripen on me and may I alone bear it for all of them. May none of the others ever again experience such pain in any of their lifetimes.”

Due to the power of his compassion and this benefiting intention, the wheel flew into the air, his agony ceased, and he was reborn in the realms of the gods.

When Maitrakanyaka thought,

“May all the suffering of those who experience the fruition of kicking their mothers in the head ripen on me, and may none of them experience such suffering again,”

he had developed compassion, not bodhicitta.[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The Tibetan term mdza’ bo can also be translated with ’Vallabha’, a Sanskrit synonym for ’Maitra’. But in the context of the Maitrakanyakāvanāna, the proper translation of mdza’ bo is Maitra or Mitra.

[2]:

For a translation of the Sanskrit version written by Ārya Śūra see Maitrakanyakāvadāna. Paltrül Rinpoche paraphrases Kṣemendra’s version in Words of My Perfect Teacher, pages 224-226.

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