Chapter 1: Giving One's Body, Possessions, and Virtues
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- Chapter 1: Giving One's Body, Possessions, and Virtues
- Chapter 2: Upholding the Dharma from the Perfection of Discipline
- Chapter 3: Perfection of Discipline: Protecting the Dharma Teacher
- Chapter 4: Perfection of Discipline: Discussion of Major Harms in the Sūtras
- Chapter 5: Perfection of Discipline: Avoiding the Harms
- Chapter 6: Protecting the Body
- Chapter 7: Protecting the Possessions and Merit
- Chapter 8: Expiation of Sinful Actions
- Chapter 9: Perfection of Patience
- Chapter 10: Perfection of Effort
- Chapter 11: Praise of Wilderness
- Chapter 12: Purifying the Mind
- Chapter 13: Mindfulness
- Chapter 14: Purification of the Body
- Chapter 15: Purification of Possessions and Merit
- Chapter 16: Enhancement of Body, Possessions, and Merit
- Chapter 17: Benefit of Prostration and Other Practices
- Chapter 18: Recollecting the Three Jewels
- Chapter 19: Enhancing Merit
Śāntideva starts his largest work, The Compendium of Training (Śikṣāsamuccaya), by giving a clear reason as to why one should listen to the teachings. One must listen to the Dharma because not hearing the Dharma results in suffering in hell, etc., and having heard it, the vigilant ones expiate past sins, avoid committing them in the future, attain happiness, and eventually obtain the supreme bliss of enlightenment. As such precious Dharma is available today, he exhorts the many kinds of sentient beings to happily come forth to listen to the Dharma.[1] This is followed by the first four verses of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra), the last of which highlights how humanhood endowed with freedom and advantages is a rare opportunity to achieve something meaningful. To this effect, Śāntideva quotes a passage from The Stem Array Sūtra (Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra).
It is difficult to come back from the eight bad rebirths. It is difficult to be born as a human. Full leisure to practice is difficult to find. The opportunity created by the birth of a Buddha is difficult to find. The opportunity of having intact senses is difficult to find. The opportunity to hear a Buddha’s teachings is difficult to find. The opportunity to associate with a holy person is difficult to find. Genuine spiritual teachers are difficult to find. The opportunity to perfect the practice of genuine religious instructions is difficult to find. Right livelihood is difficult to find. In the world of humans, the opportunity to make an appropriate effort to practice the holy teachings is difficult to find.[2]
Capitalizing on such a rare opportunity, Śāntideva argues that one must work to dispel the suffering of both oneself and others, as there is no difference between the self and others in not wanting suffering and fears. In order to end the suffering and achieve happiness for all beings, and to cultivate the intention to do so, one must first cultivate faith, which is the first main topic discussed in The Compendium of Training. Śāntideva quotes a couple pages of verses from The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch Sūtra (Ratnolkādhāraṇīsūtra) to underscore the importance of faith as the basis of enlightenment. He also cites verses from The Ten Dharmas Sūtra (Daśadharmakasūtra), Play in Full Sūtra (Lalitavistarasūtra), and Siṃha's Questions Sūtra (Siṃhaparipṛcchāsūtra) in order to substantiate the role of faith as a firm root from which the mind of awakening can arise.[3]
"Having made firm the root of faith in this manner," writes Śāntideva, "one must make firm the mind of enlightenment in order to gather all forms of merits."[4] He cites passages from The Stem Array Sūtra, comparing the mind of enlightenment to a seed from which grows all the qualities of the Buddha, to a field to grow the positive dharmas of all beings, to the earth on which the world rests, to a father who protects all bodhisattvas, to a wealth god who eliminates poverty, to a wish-fulfilling gem that grants all desires, to a wish-granting vase that fulfills all wishes, to a spear that destroys afflictive emotions, to armor that stops inappropriate mental engagement, etc.[5]
Śāntideva points out, through citing various sūtras, that it is possible for the mind of enlightenment to arise even in ordinary beings. For example, he shows that The Basket of Jewels Sūtra (Ratnakaraṇḍasūtra) compares the mind of enlightenment in an ordinary being to the kalāpiṅka chick in an egg, as the chick is able to make the sound of the bird even before the egg has hatched. In the same way, a bodhisattva who is stuck in the shell of ignorance is still able to speak the words of the Buddha, such as teachings on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Similarly, he quotes The Evaluating Whether Progress is Certain or Uncertain Sūtra (Niyatāniyatagatimudrāvatārasūtra) in which the progress of some bodhisattvas of extremely inferior caliber is compared to the speed of the cattle cart to cross many universes.[6]
Furthermore, he discusses the four causes for generating the mind of enlightenment—namely, interest developed through good connections, exposure through study and hearing the benefits, compassion after seeing the suffering of the world, and joy after seeing the qualities of the Buddha. He then quotes The Stem Array Sūtra to present the two types of mind of enlightenment—the aspiring mind and the applied mind—which he also spells out in The Way of the Bodhisattva. He goes on to discuss how the generation of the mind of enlightenment and the taking of the bodhisattva vow are viable, even in the case of ordinary sentient beings, and how great benefit and merit will accrue from merely cultivating the aspiring mind of enlightenment. The discussion includes the advice the Buddha gave to King Prasenajit on how, amid his busy royal life, he should cultivate the aspiring mind of enlightenment, or the intense wish to benefit sentient beings.[7]
The bodhisattva vow associated with the aspiring mind of enlightenment also requires one to act according to the pledge to benefit all sentient beings and not exclude a single sentient being from benefiting from one's actions. It also requires one to eschew any evil. Given the monastic audience for his writings, Śāntideva recommends the status of a renunciate monastic for those aspiring to become bodhisattvas, citing the example of Buddha Akṣobhya, who pledged to always take up the life of a renunciate during all lifetimes.[8]
Following the discussion of the vow, Śāntideva also raises the question of what constitutes a real transgression of the vow (also called a downfall) and what could be considered an appearance of a transgression but not a real transgression. To make this distinction, he points to the general definition of a transgression or downfall. A bodhisattva commits a downfall when they do not sincerely strive to eliminate the present and future suffering of sentient beings and achieve present and future well-being for them, does not seek the conditions for this purpose, does not adopt methods for clearing away obstructions to such outcomes, does not take on minor trouble to overcome major problems, and does not prioritize the greater good over minor benefit. To forsake the greater good of sentient beings even for a moment amounts to a transgression. However, there is no downfall if it is beyond one's capacity. In fact, it could become a downfall if one strives for things that are beyond one's capacity.[9]
In another attempt to summarize the extensive precept of the bodhisattvas, Śāntideva says that there are two types of transgressions for the bodhisattvas: to start or ignore something without proper examination of whether it is right or wrong and to neglect something after having properly examined it. He also cites several sūtras to highlight the vastness and complexity of the bodhisattva vows and practices to finally summarize them in the verse which forms the central topic of The Compendium of Training.
Know these to be the essential points, By which one can avoid transgressions (root verse 3cd)
One's body and possessions And the virtues accrued in the three times, Giving them to all sentient beings Protecting, purifying, and expanding them. (root verse 4)[10]
These four activities of giving one's body, possessions, and virtues to all sentient beings, protecting them, cleansing or purifying them, and expanding or amplifying these three form the main content of Śāntideva's Compendium of Training and the structure for its nineteen chapters.
The first chapter, however, continues discussing the vows and commitments of the bodhisattvas before delving into an elaborate presentation of the act of giving, or generosity. Śāntideva lists five immeasurable acts of bodhisattvas as follows:
- Having cultivated the mind of enlightenment, to not give rise to selfish minds of hearers and solitary realizers,
- Having generated the thought of giving away everything, to not give rise to stinginess,
- Having thought of protecting all beings, to not be discouraged or dejected about it,
- Having thought of mastering the unborn and unceasing nature of things, to not cling on to any belief or view,
- Having resolved to reach enlightenment through instantaneous pristine wisdom, to not disrupt it or discontinue it.[11]
Unlike the more commonly known five immeasurable acts which are heinous negative actions, such as matricide, patricide, killing of an arhat, hurting the Buddha, and creating schism, these five immeasurable acts are highly powerful positive actions of a bodhisattva. Given these commitments, Śāntideva writes: "Therefore, one must practice as required the giving, protection, purification, and enhancement of the body, possessions, and merits without interruption."[12]
The first chapter, from this point on, discusses the practice of giving in detail, including its reasons, manner, various recipients, and the prayers and aspirations appropriate to it. Śāntideva quotes sūtras containing advice that one should give to all sentient beings with the same affection as one would have toward a loving child, and that one should give because everything will eventually be taken away from oneself. He lists ways to reprimand oneself when one fails to give and ways to boost one's generosity.[13]
If one is not able to give, he advises how one should apologise and politely explain to the prospective beneficiary that (1) one is a beginner on the path without the courage to forsake everything, (2) one is still with strong attachment and desires, and (3) that one will diligently work on fulfilling the wishes of sentient beings. However, this should not be used as an excuse to prolong stinginess for a bodhisattva must eschew stinginess, deception, jealousy, and diffidence.
Śāntideva cites The Sūtra of Vajradhvaja elaborately on how one should give one’s body, parts of the body, possessions, country, and even family members without reserve, regret, and expectation of return, and to do so with love, kindness, respect, joy, and generosity. The sūtra also teaches how one should give away the virtues one has accumulated, particularly through the practice of giving one’s body and possessions. One practices the giving of virtues mainly through dedicating the virtuous actions and merits to the benefit of all sentient beings and through the numerous aspirations presented in the sūtras.[14]
Finally, Śāntideva cites The Teachings of Akṣayamati to briefly discuss how one can give away the virtues of the past and future by recollecting the virtuous actions from the past and anticipating the virtuous actions of the future and dedicating them to the full awakening of all sentient beings. [15]
Notes
- ↑ Śāntideva. "བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།." In བསྟན་འགྱུར། སྡེ་དགེ, edited by ཞུ་ཆེན་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རིན་ཆེན་, translated by རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་ and སྣ་ནམ་བཙུན་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་, 111:page#s. Delhi: Delhi Karmapae Choedhey, Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1982–1985. Accessed April 12, 2024. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_3940. [BDRC bdr:MW23703_3940]
- ↑ མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་ལྡོག་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། མིར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། དལ་བ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། སངས་རྒྱས་འབྱུང་བ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། དབང་པོ་མ་ཚང་བ་མེད་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མཉན་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་དང་འགྲོགས་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། ཡང་དག་པའི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་རྣམས་ཀྱང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། ཡང་དག་པའི་ཚུལ་རྗེས་སུ་བསྟན་པ་ཉེ་བར་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། ཡང་དག་པར་འཚོ་བ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། མིའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ཆོས་དང་རྗེས་སུ་མཐུན་པའི་ཆོས་ལ་ནན་ཏན་བྱེད་པ་ཡང་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ་ན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན་ནོ། ། For the Tibetan text, see Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 178–79. This is Charles Goodman's translation. See Charles Goodman, trans. The Training Anthology of Śāntideva: A Translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 2.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 179–84.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 182: དེ་ལྟར་དད་པའི་རྩ་བ་བརྟན་པར་བྱས་ལ། བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུད་པའི་ཕྱིར་ན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་བརྟན་པར་བྱའོ།།.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 182-83
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 184.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 189-90.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 197.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 198.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 202: གང་གིས་ལྟུང་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བ། །གནད་ཀྱི་གནས་རྣམས་འདིར་རིག་བྱ། །བདག་གི་ལུས་དང་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང་། །དགེ་བ་དུས་གསུམ་སྐྱེས་པ་རྣམས། །སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་བཏང་བ་དང་། །དེ་བསྲུང་དག་པ་སྤེལ་བ་འོ། །
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 203-4.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 204: དེ་ལྟ་བས་ན་ལུས་དང་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང་བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པར་གཏང་བ་དང་བསྲུང་བ་དང་དག་པ་དང་སྤེལ་བ་ཅི་རིགས་པར་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱའོ།།
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 204.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 212-32.
- ↑ See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 233.
