Ācārya Śantideva's Humanism
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- A Buddhist 'good life' Theory: Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- A Buddhist Carol
- A Critical Study of Ācārya Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (diss)
- A Dialogue between Thomas Merton on Agape and Shantideva on Karuna: Some Moral Dimensions of a Catholic and Mahayana Exchange
- A Mirror Is for Reflection
- A Response to John Pettit
- A Role for Primordial Wisdom in the Buddhist Free Will Controversy
- A Selfless Response to an Illusory World: A Comparative Study of Śāntideva and Śaṅkara
- A Short Presentation of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- A Summons to Buddhahood: The Bodhicaryavatara as Santideva's Call to Embrace the Bodhicitta
- Altruism and Reality (1998)
- Altruism and Reality-Review by Franco
- Altruism and Reality-Review by Pettit
- Altruism as Antidote to Demagoguery: Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara Chapter 3 as Method for Countering Identity Divisions
- Altruism in the Charnel Ground: Śāntideva and Parfit on Anātman, Reductionism and Benevolence
- An Intoxication of Mouse Venom: Reading the Guide, Chapter 9
- Atiśa's Introduction to the Two Truths, and Its Sources
- Bile & Bodhisattvas: Śāntideva on Justified Anger
- Blasphemie und Sakrileg im Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Verses Bodhicaryāvatāra 6.64
- Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra als Lehrschrift und Vorhaben: Zum Thema Ritual, Religion, Philosophie und Mystik im Buddhismus
- Bodhicitta and Bodhisattva: A Study of the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva
- Bodhisattva e Prajñāpāramitā nel Bodhicaryāvatāra di Śāntideva
- Buddhism as Reductionism: Personal Identity and Ethics in Parfitian Readings of Buddhist Philosophy
- From Steven Collins to the Present
- Buddhist Texts Through the Ages
- Compassion and the Net of Indra
- Compassion as a Matter of Fact: The Argument from No-Self to Selflessness in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya
- Compassion in Schopenhauer and Śāntideva
- Conclusion: The Socratic Paradigm
- Consequences of Compassion
- Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics-Review by Meyers
- Consequentialism, Agent-Neutrality, and Mahāyāna Ethics
- Consequentialism, Particularism, and the Emptiness of Persons: A Response to Vishnu Sridharan
- Cooking Living Beings: The Transformative Effects of Encounters with Bodhisattva Bodies
- Demandingness, Self-Interest and Benevolence in Santideva's Introduction to the Practice of Awakening (Bodhicaryavatara)
- Did Śāntideva Destroy the Bodhisattva Path?
- Does "Buddhist Ethics" Exist?
- Does Anātman Rationally Entail Altruism? On Bodhicaryāvatāra 8:101-103
- Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
- Ethical Revaluation in the Thought of Śāntideva
- Ethics (Garfield)
- Ethics and the Subversion of Conceptual Reification in Lévinas and Śāntideva
- Ethics in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
- Ethics in Schopenhauer and Buddhism
- Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality
- Experience and Morality: Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology
- Extreme Giving: The Vessantara Jātaka and Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
- Freedom from Responsibility: Agent-Neutral Consequentialism and the Bodhisattva Ideal
- From Madhyamaka to Consequentialism: A Road Map
- Hume as a Western Mādhyamika: The Case from Ethics
- Innate Human Connectivity and Śāntideva's Cultivation of Compassion
- La conception de la realité dans L'Entrèe dans la voie de l'illumination de Santideva
- Moderation or the Middle Way: Two Approaches to Anger
- Moral Pluralism, Skillful Means, and Environmental Ethics
- Of the Progresse of the Bodhisattva: The Bodhisattvamārga in the Śikṣāsamuccaya
- On Altruism and Rebirth: Philosophical Comments on Bodhicaryāvatāra 8: 97-8
- On the Classification of Śāntideva's Ethics in the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- On Śāntideva's Position in the History of Mādhyamika Philosophy
- Patience and Perspective
- Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice
- Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice-Review by Harris
- Reason and Knowledge on the Path: A Protreptic Reading of the Guide
- Reason, Irrationality and Akrasia (Weakness of the Will) in Buddhism: Reflections upon Śāntideva's Arguments with Himself
- René Girard, Śāntideva, and the Emptiness of Desire
- Reply to Paul Williams
- Resentment and Reality: Buddhism on Moral Responsibility
- Response to Mark Siderits' Review
- Santideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Seeing Sentient Beings: Śāntideva's Moral Phenomenology
- Self-Sceptical Ethics and Selfless Morality: A Historical and Cross-Cultural Overview
- Selfhood and the Metaphysics of Altruism
- Selfless Ethics: The Equality of Non-Existence
- Selflessness and Normativity: Śāntideva and Emptiness Ethics
- Shantideva and Bodhicaryavatara: A Close Reading
- Spinoza through the Prism of Later 'East-West' Exchanges: Analogues of Buddhist Themes in the Ethics and the Works of Early Spinozists
- Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions
- Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (2000)
- The Absence of Self and the Removal of Pain: How Śāntideva Destroyed the Bodhisattva Path
- The Bodhisattva and the Ideal of Moral Wisdom in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya
- The Changing Way of the Bodhisattva: Superheroes, Saints, and Social Workers
- The Connection between Ontology and Ethics in Madhyamaka Thought
- The Elusive Buddhist Self: Preliminary Reflections on Its Denial
- The Ethics of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by Abramson
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by Javanaud
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by O'Leary
- The Metaphysical Basis of Śāntideva's Ethics
- The Middle Way of the Bodhisattva
- The Path of the Bodhisattva
- The Philosophical Basis of Worship in the Works of Śāntideva
- The Reality of Altruism: Reconstructing Śāntideva, A Review of Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicāryāvatāra, by Paul Williams
- The Self and the Other in Bodhicaryāvatāra: Part 1
- The Self and the Suffering Other: Levinas and Śāntideva on the Ethics of Compassion
- The Selfless Removal of Pain: A Critical Glance at Śāntideva's Argument in Bodhicaryāvatāra 8: 101–3
- The Training Anthology of Śāntideva
- The Way of the Bodhisattva: An Introduction and Commentary to Shantideva's The Way of Life of the Bodhisattva
- The Śāntideva Passage: Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII.90–103
- Theory and Comparison in the Discussion of Buddhist Ethics
- Traces of Consequentialism and Non-Consequentialism in Bodhisattva Ethics
- Uses of the Illusion of Agency: Why Some Buddhists Should Believe in Free Will
- Virtues-Pāramitās: St. Ignatius of Loyola and Śāntideva as Companions on the Way of Life
- What Is It Like to Be a Bodhisattva? Moral Phenomenology in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- What Would a Sage Do?
- Where Does the Cetanic Break Take Place? Weakness of Will in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Why War? Why Not Peace? Santideva's Answer to Einstein's Famous Question to Freud
- Zu einer zentralen philosophischen Kontroverse mit den "orthodoxen" Philosophen
- Ācārya Śantideva's Humanism
- Śāntideva (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Śāntideva (Karen Lang)
- Śāntideva (Potter, Kalupahana, and Sweet)
- Śāntideva and Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Śāntideva and Kant: An East-West Comparative Study in Ethics
- Śāntideva and the Bodhisattva Ideal
- Śāntideva and the Mādhyamika: The Prajñāpāramitā-Pariccheda of the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Śāntideva in the History of Mādhyamika Philosophy
- Śāntideva on Developing the Thought of Awakening
- Śāntideva's Ethics of Impartial Compassion
- Śāntideva's Philosophy as Expressed in the Early Version of His Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, Chapter 8
- Śāntideva, A Mystic of Buddhism
- Śāntideva, Virtue, and Consequentialism
- Śāntideva, il Bodhicaryāvatāra e le kārikā del Śikṣāsamuccaya
- Śāntideva, il Bodhicaryāvatāra e le kārikā del Śikṣāsamuccaya-Review by Pāsādika
Description
Humanism[1] of early Buddhism is apparent from what Buddha said about man as also from what he wanted to do for mankind after he became enlightened. He says that man is his own master. He is his own lord.[2] Whatever a man is, he is so by virtue of his own deeds, good or bad or both. As a matter of fact, the self of a man is made of the vipākas of his actions. These he takes with him wherever he goes. In other words, the actions performed by him follow him like a shadow.[3]
In practically all his important suttas this is the burden of his teaching. Man is what he does or he becomes what he thinks to be. Therefore, man is responsible for his pollution or purification. He is the cause of his suffering as he is the cause of his happiness. Lord Buddha never brings in 'God' or any god or any other force to account for the misery and happiness of mankind. Man creates his own chains to bind himself to the wheel of birth and death and he himself can cut them and free himself. He does not have to depend upon any power outside himself for his liberation. Lord Buddha says it again and again that man can put an and to his sufferings by his own efforts. The efforts that he makes in treading on the eightfold path enable him to achieve Nibbana (Nirvāṇa). Nobody else can tread on the path for him and end his suffering. Lord Buddha says clearly that even the Tathāgatas are there to show the path of salvation. They will not tread on the path for others.[4] Salvation depends upon his own efforts and will not be the result of blessings or boons granted by gods and Tathāgatas. Every man will have to work out his own salvation. It is, therefore, necessary that each one of us should become his own refuge. Lord Buddha wants every body to be his own refuge and his own lamp to guide himself.[5]
Another aspect of the humanism of early Buddhism is closely allied to what has been said above. Man cannot blame others for his miserable state and for what he does. He is cent per cent responsible for all that he does. He will also have to reap the consequences of his actions. But at the same time it should be borne in mind that man is not helpless. He is not like a straw tossed on the angry waves of a stormy sea. On the other hand, he has immense potentiality to do good and at the same time, he is equally capable of doing too many evils. It depends upon his wisdom and energy to do good and shun evil. In short, Lord Buddha has spoken gloriously of man and his potentiality. He agrees with Protagoras[6] and other Greek philosophers who regard man as the measure of all in the universe and anticipates the view held by thinkers and poets like Chandidas who raises man to a lofty position.[7]
Yet another aspect of The humanism of early Buddhism is its altruism. A man should not think only of his own self but he should rise above narrow selfishness and think of doing good to others. Inspired by this noble and sublime feeling Lord Buddha exhorted his Bhikkhus to go from one place to another in all directions and work for the welfare and happiness of all.[8]
The four Brahmavihāras (love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity) are the cardinal sublime attitudes a man must develop in order to love all creatures, to sympathise with all suffering creatures, have compassion on them, to be happy at their achievements and successes and lastly to develop equanimity towards all, even towards his enemies. Thus, early Buddhism exhorts man to ennoble himself so that he can practise altruism in the world.
Śantideva's humanism takes up this aspect of early Buddhism and lays great emphasis on it. From this point of view his humanism is not very different from the humanism of early Buddhism but it is definitely a long way from that from the view points of other aspects of early Buddhism. Lord Buddha did not consider himself a superman, let alone God. He did not want others to depend upon God for blessings or upon him for help for his own liberation. But Śantideva has deified Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha has now become the embodiment of all that is good and great. He is, therefore, fit for being worshipped and revered. Man must worship him in order to achieve spiritual heights. By worshipping Buddhas and Bodhisattvas he will achieve power and strength to help all suffering creatures get rid of suffering. In other words, a man may have altruistic motive to serve others but he will derive strength by making offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In the second chapter of Bodhicaryāvatāra Śantideva is seen offering all flowers and fruits, gems and waters, all trees laden with fruits, all kinds of incenses and perfumes and all lotuses to Buddhas and is seen praying to them to accept them and grant him blessings.[9] It is clear from this that Buddhism at the time of Śantideva has come a long way from early Buddhism. As early Buddhism did not believe in the existence of God, it gave a supreme place to man whose dignity was upheld, but with the deification of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas man came to have a subservient place, although his welfare has become the primary concern of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. (Chaudhary, preliminary remarks, 47–49)
Notes
- It is a view in which interest in human welfare is central. It also includes August Comte's "worship of Humanity". It also refers to Religious Humanism which does not consider belief in a deity vital to religion. It is based on respect for the dignity of man, concern for his welfare and all round development.
- Attā hi attano nātho ko hi nātho paro siyā /
Attanā hi suantena nātham labhati dullabhaam //
Dhammapada, 12.4. - Ubho punnam ca pāpam ca, yam macco kurute idha /
Tam hi tassa sakam hoti tam vā ādāya gacchati /
Tam vassa anugam hoti chāyā va anapāyini //
S.N. Kosala saṁyutta. - Tumhehi kiccamātappam, akkhātāro tathāgatā /
Paṭipannā pamokkhanti jhāyino mārabandhanā // D.P., 20.4. - Attadipā viharatha attasaranā anaññasaranā. D.N.I. Mahāparinibbāna Sutta.
- Man is the measure of all things-Protagoras.
- Sabār upara mānusa satta tahār upara nei. Candidasa.
- Caratha,. Bhikkhave, cārikam bahujana hitāya bahujana sukhāya.
- Yavaṇti puspāṇi phalāni caiva bhaisajyajatani ca yani santi /
Ratnani yavanti ca santi loke jaiani ca svacchamanoraman i/3
Devadilokesu ca gandhakupah kalpadruma ratnamayasca vrksah /
Saransi cambhoruhabhusananai hansasvaratyantamanoharani //
