Jealous of Myself: Liberative Uses of the Self in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryavatara
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Jealous of Myself: Liberative Uses of the Self in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryavatara
Journal Article
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Description
Śāntideva's classic work on the bodhisattva path, the Bodhicaryāvatāra, contains a famous passage in which he commands "exchanging self and other." This passage has become the basis for Buddhist meditative practices, in which one imaginatively looks back upon one's self as an "other," from the positions of those whose status is relatively advantaged, relatively disadvantaged, or similar. These practices are notable for their encouragement of the use of negative emotions of envy, rivalry, and contempt, in service of loosening the grip of our exclusive identification with our own egos. This essay explores the value of Śāntideva's text for Christians, and their attempts to love their neighbors as themselves.
Citation
Heim, Stephen Mark. "Jealous of Myself: Liberative Uses of the Self in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryavatara." Buddhist-Christian Studies 41 (2021): 177-83.
Interconnections
1 Scholarship on
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.
