A Mahāyāna Liturgy

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A Mahāyāna Liturgy

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Bodhicitta

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

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Buddhism is not lacking in rites of passage, calendric rituals, and festivals, but some Buddhist rituals are meant to be performed at the discretion of individuals and more than once, even on a daily basis. The following selection is a sampling from a classical Mahāyāna liturgy meant to be performed once as a rite of passage (the adoption of the vows of the bodhisattva) and repeatedly as a rite of confirmation or affirmation (as a way of cultivating the mind-set of a bodhisattva and as the starting point for other practices).
      The selection is from the first four chapters in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (about seventh century C.E.). This text, in over seven hundred stanzas divided into ten chapters, is meant as an "introduction" (avatāra) to the bodhisattva path. It outlines the main practices of Mahāyāna conceived as stemming from an initial grasping of "the thought of awakening" (bodhicitta), growing in the practice of "the precepts" (saṃvara or śikṣā), and culminating in the perfect practice of compassion and wisdom. Briefly stated, "the thought of awakening" is threefold: the first instant of thought in which a person conceives of the possibility or desirability of seeking buddhahood for the sake of all living beings; the subsequent will to seek buddhahood; and the attitudes and mind-set that accompany the quest for buddhahood. Often "the thought of awakening" is considered to be somehow identical with enlightenment (awakening) itself. For Śāntideva, the first moments of the thought of awakening have to be protected and nurtured until they grow into full-blown awakening. The prescribed forms of behavior that protect and nurture the thought of awakening are "the precepts," a notion that encompasses ritual, demeanor, mental attitudes, monastic rules, and moral principles. The precepts form the basis for the practice of the perfections: perfect generosity, perfect morality, perfect patience, perfect energy, perfect meditation, and perfect discernment. The passages selected emphasize the importance of devotion, worship, and ritual in first consolidating the thought of awakening and laying the foundation for the practice of the precepts.
      Perhaps the most important connection between the ritual and the ideal conduct of the bodhisattva is the vow (praṇidhāna): a solemn promise to pursue the goal of perfect awakening (that is, full buddhahood), in order to relieve the suffering of all living beings. In a certain manner of speaking, the ritual may be seen as a frame for this solemn vow. But it is also possible to see the liturgy as a variant on the "dedication of merit," perhaps the most common and most important form of Mahāyāna ritual. In this interpretation (which could be justified by quoting several passages from the following selection), the ritual is a means toward acquiring merit and then relinquishing it, dedicating it to one's own awakening and to the awakening of all living beings. Conceived in this manner, the ritual is a skillful means toward increasing merit and detachment.
      The basic structure of the ritual described in this text is used in many other texts and is sometimes called "the sevenfold incomparable worship" (saptavidhā anuttarā pūjā), although the liturgy often has more or less than seven parts, and although there is some disagreement as to what the seven parts should be. The structure of the liturgy has some scriptural basis in Mahāyāna texts like the Bhadracarī-praṇidhāna (in the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra) and the Triskandhaka (in the Upāliparipṛcchā and other Mahāyāna sūtras). This structure is also represented in many tantric rituals (see Chapter 27).
      The Bodhicaryāvatāra was very popular, at least in monastic circles, during the later Mahāyāna period in India (about eighth to thirteenth centuries C.E.). It also had a lasting influence in Tibet, where Śāntideva's ritual formulas have been incorporated into actual liturgies. The Bodhicaryāvatāra is often quoted by the Dalai Lama as an important authority on the cultivation of compassion. It has been translated a number of times into modern languages, including thrice into English and twice into German and French.
      The passages from the Bodhicaryāvatāra included in the following selection are complemented here with selected portions of a late commentary by Prajñākaramati (about eleventh century c.E.). These extracts serve to illustrate the concerns and tenor of scholastic interpretations of the ritual and the style and tone of classical Indian commentaries. They are translated from the edition of La Vallée Poussin, Bibliotheca India (Calcutta: Bibliotheca Indica, 1902-1914), which contains both Śāntideva's verses and Prajñākaramati's commentary. On occasion the Tibetan text in the Peking edition of the Tanjur had to be consulted to fill lacunae in the extant Sanskrit text. Needless to say, all headings have been introduced to help punctuate a text that is very terse and disconnected. (Gómez, "A Mahāyāna Liturgy," 183–84)

Citation

Gómez, Luis O. "A Mahāyāna Liturgy." In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 183–96. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

Classical WorksAbout this item

An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.