Chapter 3: Perfection of Discipline: Protecting the Dharma Teacher

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Chapter 3: Perfection of Discipline: Protecting the Dharma Teacher
Article
SSC Chapter Summaries


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Abstract
Chapter 3 of the Śikṣāsamuccaya focuses on protecting the body of a Dharma upholder by avoiding harm, detailing how bodhisattvas should conduct themselves with joy and compassion while avoiding distractions from kings, non-Buddhists, and various worldly influences. The chapter extensively discusses the workings of Māra (the evil force), who attempts to discourage virtuous activities, presents the four white and four dark dharmas as core bodhisattva precepts, and concludes with warnings about the karmic consequences of misusing monastic authority and resources.
Citation
Phuntsho, Karma. "Chapter 3: Perfection of Discipline: Protecting the Dharma Teacher." Śikṣāsamuccaya in-depth chapter overviews. Bodhicitta: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, September 2, 2025.

Having discussed the general ways of protecting one's body, possessions, and virtues, the third chapter delves into the actual topic of protection. Śāntideva states, "What is the protection of the body in this case? It is the avoidance of harm."[1] The specific case, he points out, is the case of an upholder of Dharma and how the body of such a person should be protected by avoiding harm. Citing The Treasury of Space Sūtra (Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra), he explains how an upholder engages with joy in seeking Dharma even at the cost of one's life, ignoring all kinds of hardships, and propagates Dharma out of intense love and compassion. He lists the humble, peaceful, and joyful conduct such an upholder of Dharma adopts and the effort such a person makes to teach Dharma to others. He also quotes The Sacred Dharma of White Lotus Sūtra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra), which recommends that the upholder of Dharma live in a clean environment without distraction and avoid familiarity with kings, princes, courtiers, outcastes, alcohol sellers, non-Buddhists, arrogant people, undisciplined monks, boisterous nuns, unreliable laypeople, women, homosexuals, brides and girls at home, pig dealers, butchers, masseuses, musicians, and so forth. It is clear Śāntideva is thinking of the monastic audience of his writing in these recommendations. "When the wise teach Dharma to women, never travel with them alone or laugh with them,"[2] goes one specific piece of advice, which we also find in Śāntideva's other work, The Way of the Bodhisattva.

In discussing other types of harm to the upholder of Dharma, Śāntideva brings up the acts of Māra, the evil force, by referring to the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras. The evil force works to harm the upholder of Dharma by bringing down shooting meteors or forest fires so as to scare the bodhisattva and diminish his or her courage to work for other beings. The evil force distracts the bodhisattva by making him or her lose the hope of spiritual development, think of teachers, parents, friends, and relatives, think of thieves or of food and clothes. The evil force makes the teacher, who is teaching Dharma, and the disciple, who is listening, have conflicting interests and plans to disrupt the teachings. He also lists many other ways the evil force engages to harm the upholder of Dharma by citing The Treasury of Space Sūtra and The Questions of Sāgaramati Sūtra (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra). In brief, any circumstance in which the bodhisattva is discouraged from doing virtuous activities that serve the benefit of oneself and others but is encouraged to engage in nonvirtuous actions or remain in solitude with diffidence and a narrow mind (engaged in small activities such as being a caretaker who is told that he or she does not have the diligence to be a bodhisattva) is an act of the evil force. Anyone promoting such action is the evil force in the guise of a righteous teacher.

In pursuing the path of the bodhisattva, one must engage with the diligence of an unwary mind and unwary body, adopting what is known as the consistent diligence of a bodhisattva, and taking up great difficulties such as even giving one's own flesh. Yet, it is not proper to let one's body be used before one is ready, as it could lead to the bodhisattva becoming dejected and remorseful. Thus, according to The Treasury of Space Sūtra, it is a work of the evil force to expect the gift of the body or its parts before the bodhisattva is ready to give them. The body, like a beautiful medicinal plant with roots and seeds, should not be unnecessarily harmed.

Furthermore, Śāntideva cites The Jewel Cloud Sūtra (Ratnameghasūtra) to present the many ways through which one can avoid the works of the evil force, one of which is to avoid many types of nonvirtuous teachers. The sūtra also recommends avoiding nonvirtuous teachers cordially and compassionately, without hate or contempt, recognizing them as people of different interests and temperaments. Following this, the text lists the four white dharmas and the four dark dharmas as presented in The Jewel Heap Sūtra (Ratnakūṭasūtra). These four white and dark dharmas are often enumerated as the main dos and don'ts of the bodhisattva precept. The four dark dharmas include:

  1. Deceiving venerable figures, such as abbots, teachers, and masters.
  2. Causing remorse or guilt where none is warranted.
  3. Criticizing and defaming persons who have entered the noble path.
  4. Cheating other sentient beings.

The four white dharmas, which function as an antidote to the dark dharmas, are:

  1. Not speaking falsehoods, even at the cost of one's life or as a joke.
  2. Being sincerely benevolent to all beings without deception.
  3. Praising and applauding bodhisattvas.
  4. Encouraging beings on the superior path when they are ready.

Many more sūtras are cited to elaborate on the dos and don'ts of bodhisattvas, with particular reference to monastic life and its affairs. A monk-teacher or meditator is valued more than a monastic administrator or steward, who must offer timely provisions to the meditator or arrange things for the teacher to deliver the teachings. These directives are followed by a long list of cases showing how monk-administrators or officials were born in unhappy rebirths and states of misery due to their abuse of monks and monastic resources in their previous lifetimes. The last passages in this chapter highlight how monks, particularly monastic officials with institutional power and resources, must be cautious to not abuse their positions and misuse monastic resources, lest they incur serious karmic consequences.


  1. See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 234: དེ་ལ་ལུས་བསྲུང་གང་ཞེ་ན། །གནོད་འགྱུར་སྤོང་པ་གང་ཡིན་པའོ། །
  2. See Karma Phuntsho, ed., རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་བཞུགས་སོ།། The Written Works of Śāntideva (Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2026), 254: མཁས་པས་བུད་མེད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་། །གང་གི་དུས་ན་ཆོས་འཆད་པ། །དེར་ནི་གཅིག་པུ་མི་འགྲོ་སྟེ། །དགོད་ཅིང་འདུག་པར་མི་བྱའོ། །
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Śikṣāsamuccaya (T. Bslab pa kun las btus pa; C. Dasheng ji pusa xue lun; J. Daijōjū bosatsugakuron; K. Taesǔng chip posal hak non 大乘集菩薩學論). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Training," a work by the eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master Śāntideva. It consists of twenty-seven stanzas on the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva, including bodhicitta, the six perfections (pāramitā), the worship of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benefits of renunciation, and the peace derived from the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). The topic of each of the stanzas receives elaboration in the form of a prose commentary by the author as well as in illustrative passages, often quite extensive, drawn from a wide variety of Mahāyāna sūtras. Some ninety-seven texts are cited in all, many of which have been lost in their original Sanskrit, making the Śikṣāsamuccaya an especially important source for the textual history of Indian Buddhism. These citations also offer a window into which sūtras were known to a Mahāyāna author in eighth-century India. The digest of passages that Śāntideva provides was repeatedly drawn upon by Tibetan authors in their citations of sūtras. Although Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra and Śikṣāsamuccaya both deal with similar topics, the precise relation between the two texts is unclear. Several of the author's verses appear in both texts and some of the sūtra passages from the Śikṣāsamuccaya also appear in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. One passage in the Bodhicaryāvatāra also refers readers to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, but this line does not occur in the Dunhuang manuscript of the text and may be a later interpolation. (Source: "Śikṣāsamuccaya." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 821. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)