Śāntideva on Developing the Thought of Awakening

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

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The bodhisattva path, in the Mahāyāna tradition, has been elaborately described in a number of ways. Reference is usually made to the practice of the six (or ten) perfections (pāramitā) (see 4.4.3). Sometimes these are correlated to the schema of progression through ten bodhisattva stages (bhūmi), whereby one moves from the first, the "Joyous Stage," through to the last, the stage of Buddhahood known as the "Cloud of Dharma Stage." Before embarking on either of these courses, however, a bodhisattva must first develop the thought of enlightenment (bodhicitta) or, more precisely, the "mind fixed on enlightenment by means of a vow" (bodhipraṇidhicitta). This event marks the start of one's aspiration to Buddhahood, and it can be understood as the initial experience of embarking on the path, akin to the step taken by the Buddha Gautama, in his previous life long ago, under the past Buddha Dipaṃkara (see 1.7.1 ). What was legendary and biographical in the case of Gautama, however, became ritual and meditational in the Mahāyāna and extended to everyone. This is significant, for though the arousing of bodhicitta was theoretically something to be done once at the start of the bodhisattva path, in fact, ritually, it became something to be repeated often, the repetition serving to renew one's dedication.
There are several preliminary phases to the act of arousing the mind set on enlightenment. The following selection from the Bodhicaryāvatāra [Entering the Path of Enlightenment], by the eighth-century poet Śāntideva, describes them well. The ritual begins with praise and worship of the Buddhas (magnified by the visualization of tremendous offerings), followed by a number of steps: reaffirming refuge, confessing one's faults and sins, expressing thanks for the merits of others, supplicating the Buddhas for help, and making a declaration of altruism leading up to a more formal bodhisattva vow. (Strong, "Śāntideva on Developing the Thought of Awakening," 175-76)

Citation

Strong, John S. "Śāntideva on Developing the Thought of Awakening." In The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations, 175–78. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008.

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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.