No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
The Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryavatara, hereafter, Guide) of Śāntideva is, before all else, a practical guide for those who aspire to the life of a bodhisattva, an individual whose determining principle is the attainment of bodhi, or spiritual awakening. Not just his or her personal awakening, but rather the awakening of all, for bodhi, in the Mahāyāna Buddhism that Śāntideva espouses, is a universal principle. To become an individual determined by an orientation to awakening in this tradition, one must abandon the personal, self-centered viewpoint that is our habitual condition, in favor of a growing embrace of an all-encompassing vision.[1]
To accomplish this requires a severe ethical and spiritual discipline. Egoistical tendencies to possessiveness, impulsiveness, indolence, and the like must be overturned by a rigorous commitment to generosity, dignified behavior, forbearance, and effort, while the mind itself must be collected and calm. The goal, however, is not merely to become a well-mannered person adept in tranquility meditation, however praiseworthy that may be. For manners and meditative calm alone remain compatible with the narrow perspective of the self-regarding individual. Indeed, they may well become sources of personal pride, wherein lies an inevitable danger. For Buddhism, as for the other wisdom traditions of India, the sole
means to avert such pitfalls on the path to spiritual perfection is to be
found in the acquisition of wisdom, insight into the real nature of things.
But just how this is to be understood is by no means immediately evident. Within classical Indian thought, just what constitutes wisdom came to be
sharply contested, not only between differing schools but also within them. Debate and philosophical inquiry thus became indissociable from the pursuit of wisdom, and in the ninth chapter of Śāntideva's book his preeminently practical concerns seem sometimes to give way to wrangling over philosophical fine points. However, philosophy in this case is placed in the service of the cultivation of contemplative insight. Śāntideva's practical and theoretical concerns are found, in the end, to be one.[2]
The subject of the ninth chapter of the Guide is prajñā, often translated "wisdom," "higher knowledge," or "discrimination." As such, it is the "Perfection of Wisdom" (prajñāpāramitā), the pinnacle of the six perfections of the bodhisattva's path and identified as the goal of insight (vipaśyanā),
the contemplative "seeing through" that, conjoined with tranquility
(śamatha), forms the heart of Buddhist meditation. Prajñā, as Śāntideva expounds it, corresponds to the teaching of the Madhyamaka tradition of Buddhist philosophy, spearheaded by Nāgārjuna during the second century CE. Nāgārjuna is widely known for his emphasis on the universal "emptiness" (śūnyatā) of phenomena, but the meaning of this concept has been subject to much debate.[3] Just how Śāntideva understands it will be among the chief concerns throughout this chapter.
Notes
- I have examined Śāntideva's approach to the Mahāyāna path in relation to what French philosopher Pierre Hadot, in the context of Hellenistic philosophy, has termed "spiritual exercise," forging a passage between an inauthentic, troubled existence and authentic peace and freedom. See Kapstein, "Stoics and Bodhisattvas."
- On the relationship between the theoretical concerns of Buddhist philosophy and Buddhism's practical ends, see Kapstein, "Introduction," in Reason's Traces and Kapstein, '"Spiritual Exercise' and Buddhist Epistemologists in India and Tibet."
- A nuanced philosophical introduction, with reference to much of the earlier scholarship, can be found in Westerhoff, Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka.
