| 🤓 Admin Zone 🛠️ hidden to non-admins | |
Guarding the Mind as a Means to Guard Our Practice
The central theme of both chapters 4 and 5 is about using mental tools such as conscientiousness and mindfulness to guard our mind. Śāntideva reminds us in the very first verse that the purpose of doing this is to protect our development of the mind of enlightenment, bodhicitta, and also to guard the trainings associated with the bodhisattva path, such as the six perfections.
Those who wish to keep the trainings Must with perfect self-possession guard their minds. Without this guard upon the mind, The trainings cannot be preserved.
Page(s) 61
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
༈ བསླབ་པ་བསྲུང་བར་འདོད་པ་ཡིས། །
རབ་ཏུ་བསྒྲིམས་ནས་སེམས་བསྲུང་སྟེ། ། སེམས་འདི་བསྲུང་བར་མ་བྱས་ན། །
བསླབ་པ་བསྲུང་བར་ཡོང་མི་ནུས། །bslab pa bsrung bar 'dod pa yis/_/
rab tu bsgrims nas sems bsrung ste/_/ sems 'di bsrung bar ma byas na/_/
bslab pa bsrung bar yong mi nus/_/In his commentary to this chapter of the Bodhicharyāvatāra, the great Gelukpa master Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen sets the scene as follows:
From the first part of Kamalaśīla's Stages of Meditation: "Likewise, a bodhisattva who has generated bodhicitta, understanding that they have to tame themselves and not others, diligently applies themselves in the accomplishments such as generosity. Without accomplishments, enlightenment will not be attained.[1]
Having aroused bodhicitta, the bodhisattva must then understand that they need to tame their own unruly mind in order to train in the path. They come to understand that training relies on making commitments and taking vows to refrain from various negative actions. Chapters 4 and 5 lay out for us the functions and methods to cultivate the three essential mental factors which aid us in controlling our minds—conscientiousness, mindfulness, and vigilant introspection.
Chapter 4 has covered conscientiousness, but that must now be allied with vigilant introspection and mindfulness in order to fully maintain the spirit of wishing to attain full enlightenment for the welfare of all sentient beings. These factors are very specifically dedicated toward the understanding of what is to be taken up on the path and what is to be avoided and abandoned along the path.
The great master Gyalse Tokme Zangpo, in his commentary to The Way of the Bodhisattva, mentions right at the beginning of chapter 5 that this is a chapter about both vigilant introspection and mindfulness. He defines vigilant introspection as becoming skilled and wise in the activities that we wish to accomplish and that we wish to abandon. Mindfulness, he explains, is being mindful of, or recalling, the things which we have made a commitment to abandon and accomplish.[2]
In his commentary to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the great Rimé master Patrul Rinpoche explains the way in which conscientiousness, mindfulness, and vigilant introspection connect.
Firstly, through mindfulness, we do not lose sight of what should be adopted or abandoned. Then secondly, because we are checking the status of our body, speech and mind with vigilance, we recognize any occasions when we are tempted to avoid something virtuous or to do something negative. At that time, because of our conscientiousness, we recall the benefits of virtuous actions and undertake them, or remember the faults of negative conduct and unwholesome actions and avoid them.[3]
Having understood these as the functions of these mental factors, we may wonder what the relationship is between them. Dungkar Rinpoche Lobsang Trinley, in his Introduction to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, makes a very interesting point regarding the causal relationship between mindfulness and vigilant introspection, stating, "From the two of mindfulness and vigilance, vigilance is the result of mindfulness. Vigilance must rely on mindfulness to come about."[4]
In a similar vein, Khenpo Kunpal makes a very important point about the need for awareness and control of our minds. He says that in terms of the discipline of keeping vows, it can be hard to maintain them over a long period if we do not guard our minds.
Indeed, if we neglect to keep a guard on our minds and manage for a time to control our body and speech merely out of fear of authority, the vows and precepts will become a burden and we will get nowhere. It is therefore essential to keep watch over our minds.[5]
We may be temporarily able to restrain ourselves from the negative actions which we have vowed to avoid, but if this feeling does not come from deep within us, and instead comes from mere fear of authority or retribution, then eventually those very vows will become a heavy weight around our necks.
Using Mindfulness to Tame Distraction
Śāntideva then goes on to explain how we use mindfulness to tame our distraction and lack of focus. He does this by employing an analogy of training a wild elephant.
If, with mindfulness’ rope, The elephant of mind is tethered all around, Our fears will come to nothing, Every virtue drop into our hands.
Page(s) 61
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཀུན་ནས་དྲན་པའི་ཐག་པ་ཡིས། །
སེམས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་དམ་བཏགས་ན། ། འཇིགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མེད་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། །
དགེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལག་ཏུ་འོང་། །kun nas dran pa'i thag pa yis/_/
sems kyi glang po dam btags na/_/ 'jigs pa thams cad med 'gyur zhing /_/
dge ba thams cad lag tu 'ong /_/Just as an elephant can be physically restrained with a strong rope tied tightly to a stake, so the mind can be tamed with the rope of mindfulness, which ensures we do forget even for a moment what must be practiced and relinquished on the path. Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk explains this mode of practice in relation to correctly engaging with the principles of the four seals of Buddhism—that all compounded phenomena are impermanent, that all contaminated phenomena are suffering, that all phenomena are selfless and empty, and that nirvana is peace.[6]
With our mind thus firmly tethered, all our sufferings of both this and future lives will be cleared away. All our fears will amount to nothing, and even the dangers of external physical enemies or dangerous situations will subside. All qualities and virtues which benefit ourselves and others will fall into our lap. In verse 5 Śāntideva makes a very important point about the role of the mind as the forerunner in determining the later actions of body and speech.
By simple binding of this mind alone, All these things are likewise bound. By simple taming of this mind alone, All these things are likewise tamed.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་འདི་གཅིག་པུ་བཏགས་པ་ཡིས། །
དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་བཏགས་པར་འགྱུར། ། སེམས་འདི་གཅིག་པུ་བཏུལ་བ་ན། །* བཏུལ་བས in the source text.
དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཐུལ་བར་འགྱུར། །sems 'di gcig pu btags pa yis/_/
de dag thams cad btags par 'gyur/_/ sems 'di gcig pu btul ba na/_/* btul bas[ in the source text. ]
de dag thams cad thul bar 'gyur/_/If we can guard the mind, then we can guard all of our other actions. As Padma Karpo reminds us, our actions of body and speech are primarily driven by the mind and follow after the mind.
Since the mind is like a king, while the body and speech are like servants, if the mind is tamed, both body and speech will by themselves be tamed. If the opposite, then they won't [be tamed].[7]
This placing of the mind at the forefront of all our actions is also reminiscent of the following verses from the first chapter of the Dhammapada:
1. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.
2. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.[8]
The importance of the mind as the forerunner of all has its scriptural source in The Cloud of Jewels Sūtra (Ratnameghasūtra), where it states the following:
The mind precedes all phenomena, so knowledge of the mind leads to knowledge of all phenomena.[9]
The larger context of that quote is as follows:
You may wonder, noble son, how bodhisattvas remain in the application of mindfulness with respect to the mind. Bodhisattvas think as follows: 'The mind fondly believes that the impermanent is permanent. It fondly believes that the painful is pleasant. It fondly believes that the lack of self is a self. It fondly believes that the unclean is pure. The mind moves, is unstable, and changes quickly. It is the root of all affliction, [F.82.a] the gateway to the lower realms, the basis for all subsidiary afflictions, and it squanders the higher realms. It is the condition for desire, anger, and dullness. It is the owner of all phenomena. The mind precedes all phenomena, so knowledge of the mind leads to knowledge of all phenomena. The world is drawn by the mind, but the mind does not see itself. It is the mind that accumulates virtuous or unvirtuous actions. The mind whirls like a firebrand, roams like a horse, consumes like a forest fire, and swells like a flood.' Thinking like this, they remain in the application of mindfulness with respect to the mind. Through such contemplation they will not be controlled by the mind. Rather, the mind will come under their control. With control of their own minds they gain control of all phenomena. Thus bodhisattvas remain in the application of mindfulness with respect to the mind.[10]
The root text explains that mindfulness will help protect us from the external dangers of tigers, elephants, and bears. This may seem a little strange to modern people, but in ancient times, and especially in rural areas, those dangers would have been very real. In a modern context, we can imagine being protected from the dangers of modern inventions, such as car accidents or plane crashes. Khenpo Shenga points out that the "simple taming of the mind" refers to developing the realization of emptiness, that all phenomena lack any kind of intrinsic existence. That singular taming of the mind is what prevents all the other fears and dangers from occurring.[11]
All Harm Comes from the Mind
In the next set of root verses, Śāntideva specifically takes a look at all the fear and suffering in the whole samsaric realm and searches for its source. He asks us, "Who or what created these three realms of suffering? Were these terrible things made purposely by a creator deity, or are they causeless?" Since that cannot be true, he argues, they must originate with the mind.
For all anxiety and fear, And pain in boundless quantity, Their source and wellspring is the mind itself, As He who spoke the truth declared.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
འདི་ལྟར་འཇིགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དང་། །
སྡུག་བསྔལ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཡང་། ། སེམས་ལས་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས། །
ཡང་དག་གསུངས་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན། །di ltar 'jigs pa thams cad dang /_/
sdug bsngal dpag tu med pa yang /_/ sems las byung ba yin no zhes/_/
yang dag gsungs pa nyid kyis bstan/_/All fears as well as the physical and mental suffering of all of our existences come from the mind. Specifically, this is a mind distracted and overcome by delusion. In the commentaries it describes how each facet of the three realms of samsaric rebirth are connected with afflictions such as hatred and desire. From the denizens of the hell realms with their sharpened instruments of torture, to the seductive beings trying to tempt us in the lands of the Shalmali trees, all of these are created by mind.
One scriptural source for this verse is The Sūtra of Close Mindfulness (Saddharmasmṛityupasthānasūtra), which reads:
The mind is the great enemy within— There is no other enemy! Just as the mountains are eventually consumed by fire, So sentient beings are ever burned by the mind.[12]
However, this does not imply that there is nothing other than the mind or that there are no objects which are external to the mind or separate from the nature of the mind. It means that the root cause of all our suffering is the mind itself.
We may wonder who created all the denizens of the burning hells and all those terrible places of suffering. We may think that perhaps they have no cause. But Śāntideva places the blame squarely on the mind.
The hellish instruments to torture living beings— Who invented them for such intent? Who has forged this burning iron ground; Whence have all these demon-women sprung?56for meditation on compassion, the Buddhist teachings describe the various experiences of the hell realms in considerable detail. The torments that beings undergo there, as well as the topography of the hells themselves, are, as in any other realm of saṃsāra, ultimately unreal—the hallucinatory, dreamlike result of actions committed in the past. The karmic fruit of sexual misconduct is the situation in which beings find themselves upon the infernal hill of shālmali trees. There they see a vision of the former object of their passion. Climbing the hill, cutting themselves all the while on the razor-sharp leaves of the trees, they find that their former lovers turn into horrible monsters (a demoness in the case of the heterosexual male) who begin to devour them. See Patrul Rinpocheʼs The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Altamira edition), p. 67, for a vivid description of this encounter.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་ཅན་དམྱལ་བའི་མཚོན་ཆ་རྣམས། །
སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ནི་ཆེད་དུ་[p.33]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990. 
sems can dmyal ba'i mtshon cha rnams/_/
su zhig gis ni ched du [p.33]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
All are but the offspring of the sinful mind, This the mighty Sage has said. Throughout the triple world57The triple world comprises the three worlds of saṃsāra: the desire realm (Skt. kāmadhātu), the form realm (Skt. rūpadhātu), and the realm of formlessness (Skt. ārūpyadhātu). The desire realm consists of the six states of saṃsāra from the hells up to and including the six levels of the desire-realm gods. The form and formless realms are celestial existences superior to those of the desire realm. See Treasury of Precious Qualities, p. 414. therefore There is no greater bane than mind itself.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་འདྲ་དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་། །
སྡིག་སེམས་ཡིན་པར་ཐུབ་པས་གསུངས། ། དེ་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་པོ་ན། །
སེམས་ལས་འཇིགས་པ་གཞན་འགའ་མེད། །de 'dra de dag thams cad kyang /_/
sdig sems yin par thub pas gsungs/_/ de ltar 'jig rten gsum po na/_/
sems las 'jigs pa gzhan 'ga' med/_/An untamed mind is one of the greatest dangers to our practice of the six perfections, and particularly in terms of causing our bodhicitta to weaken. Untamed, our minds can wreak havoc. Misapprehending objects to be a way in which they don't actually exist, our minds are easily carried away to roam wild and unruly.
In the agrarian societies of ancient India, wild elephants were one of the greatest dangers. They could be driven wild with anger if one of their kin was harmed, and bull elephants, when overwhelmed with desire for the females, would become uncontrollable and run amok. Khenpo Kunpal also relates how, historically, elephants were used in India as a military weapon by maddening them with alcohol and then inciting them to attack the enemy.[13] However, the physical violence a crazed elephant could unleash is said to be nothing compared to that of a wild and unruly mind. Śāntideva reminds us that an untamed mind is the creator of all experience. Driven by ignorance which then fuels attachment and anger, we become overwhelmed by these afflictions. Under their sway, we engage in negative actions, which cause us immediate problems and also cause us to accumulate negative karma. Under the control of that karma, we will be led to rebirth in the worst of the hellish realms of existence.
All Virtue Comes from the Mind
But all is not lost. The mind, Śāntideva reminds us, does not cause only harm and suffering. In verses 9 to 17, he explains how all positive things, all happiness and virtuous qualities, also stem from a mind that has been tamed. This next section of the text goes on to present an implicit discussion of each of the six perfections and how the mind is instrumental in practicing each of those. Beginning with the perfection of generosity, Śāntideva notes that although many past buddhas have perfected generosity, we still see with our own eyes so many poor and destitute beings.
If transcendent giving is To dissipate the poverty of beings, In what way—since the poor are always with us— Have former Buddhas practiced it?
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གལ་ཏེ་འགྲོ་བ་དབུལ་བོར་ནས། །
སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་ཡིན་ན། ། ད་དུང་འགྲོ་བཀྲེན་ཡོད་ན་སྔོན། །
སྐྱོབ་པ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན། །gal te 'gro ba dbul bor nas/_/
sbyin pa'i pha rol phyin yin na/_/ da dung 'gro bkren yod na sngon/_/
skyob pa ji ltar pha rol phyin/_/Transcendent giving, so the teachings say, Consists in the intention to bestow on every being All one owns, together with the fruits of such a gift. It is indeed a matter of the mind itself.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
བདོག་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྲས་བཅས་ཏེ། །
སྐྱེ་བོ་ཀུན་ལ་གཏོང་སེམས་* བཏང་སེམས་ in the source text. ཀྱིས། ། སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་གསུངས་ཏེ། །
དེ་ལྟས་དེ་ནི་སེམས་ཉིད་དོ། །bdog pa thams cad 'bras bcas te/_/
skye bo kun la gtong sems * btang sems [ in the source text.] kyis/_/ sbyin pa'i pha rol phyin gsungs te/_/
de ltas de ni sems nyid do/_/We may question whether the buddhas have really brought to completion the practice of generosity. To help us answer this doubt, The Teaching of Akṣayamati (Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra) explains what the perfection of generosity is.
What is the paramita of generosity? It is the sincere wish to give to others whatever one has, together with the karmic result of such an act. [14]
At its heart it is the mind that wishes to give all away. This means training our minds to wish to give away one's own body, our possessions, the roots of virtue, including their results, and all one's merits to all sentient beings. So perfecting generosity in itself does not mean having to immediately bring about an end to all the poverty of the world. It is about developing the mindset that is willing to give away absolutely everything without the slightest stain of miserliness.
Illustrating this, Khenpo Kunpal explains how the perfections, such as generosity, rely mainly on the mind.
Generosity does not depend on the objective value of the gift. It depends on a generosity of attitude untrammeled by any kind of attachment that would prevent one from making a gift of one's external possessions or of one's inner qualities and merit. It follows that generosity is in the mind.[15]
With all of the perfections, what is stressed is that the mind is the primary factor. With a positive orientation, the virtuous actions of our body and speech will naturally follow. But there is also a sense of realism here. We will not be able to clear away everyone's poverty. But we can train to remove any trace of selfish clinging to any of our possessions or merit, and that is the deepest practice of generosity.
Another point relevant to each of the perfections is the meaning of "crossing to the other shore" embedded in the Sanskrit term pāramitā. We go beyond the ordinary practice of giving, for instance, by understanding the lack of intrinsic reality of the three spheres in relation to each individual pāramitā—the subject of the action, the object, and the action itself. Khenpo Kunpal makes this point very clearly.
The term paramita implies that the act of giving is performed in a manner free from the assumption of the real existence of the subject and object of the action, as well as of the action itself. The same is valid for the other five paramitas.[16]
Śāntideva then presents the next pāramitā of ethical discipline as follows:
Where could beings, fishes, and the rest,
Be placed to keep them safe from being killed?
Deciding to refrain from every harmful act
Is said to be transcendent discipline.[p.63]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 62
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཉ་ལ་སོགས་པ་གང་ཞིག་ཏུ། །
དེ་དག་གསོད་མི་འགྱུར་བར་བསྐྲད། ། སྤོང་བའི་སེམས་ནི་ཐོབ་པ་ལས། །
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པར་བཤད། །nya la sogs pa gang zhig tu/_/
de dag gsod mi 'gyur bar bskrad/_/ spong ba'i sems ni thob pa las/_/
tshul khrims pha rol phyin par bshad/_/In a similar way to the perfection of generosity, even with perfect ethical discipline, how could it be possible for us to save the lives of every single being? How could we prevent all theft from taking place? This is not what is meant by the perfection of ethical discipline. Mentally giving up the desire to kill, steal, or lie is the real cause of the pāramitā of ethical discipline. Illustrating this, Gyalse Thokme Zangpo quotes from The Teaching of Akṣayamati, which states, "What is the perfection of ethical discipline? It is the mind which abandons harm to others."[17]
Similarly, Thrangu Rinpoche explains the perfection of discipline in relation to abandoning killing.
The perfection of discipline is to actually develop the intention not to kill. For example, when talking about not killing, the intention is that I myself will not kill and I will avoid this action. So when you think that I am not going to kill, this is the basis of the perfection of discipline. Again we can see that the perfection of discipline is based upon the internal mind and not upon external objects.[18]
The perfection of our practice of patience, likewise, is not the complete overcoming of all harmful beings or negative forces. Neither is it the complete elimination of all the anger, pride, and jealousy in the minds of all sentient beings. Instead, the perfection of patience is the elimination of all anger, pride, and jealousy in our own minds. As Śāntideva states:
Harmful beings are everywhere like space itself. Impossible it is that all should be suppressed. But let this angry mind alone be overthrown, And it’s as though all foes had been subdued.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་ཅན་མི་བསྲུན་ནམ་མཁའ་བཞིན། །
དེ་དག་གཞོམ་གྱིས་ཡོང་མི་ལང་། ། ཁྲོ་བའི་སེམས་འདི་གཅིག་བཅོམ་ན། །
དགྲ་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཆོམས་དང་འདྲ། །sems can mi bsrun nam mkha' bzhin/_/
de dag gzhom gyis yong mi lang /_/ khro ba'i sems 'di gcig bcom na/_/
dgra de thams cad choms dang 'dra/_/There is nowhere in samsara that we can go which is completely free of the danger of harm from others. But though there may always be potential enemies to harm us, if we are able to subdue the anger and harmful intent in our own minds, then it will be as if we have overcome all these foes. Śāntideva uses a beautiful analogy to illustrate this. We cannot, he says, cover the whole world in leather in order to prevent our feet being pricked with thorns by walking. But, if we simply cover the soles of our feet with leather, then the same purpose is achieved. Similarly, although it is impossible to overcome or completely avoid all external harms, if we are able to remove the foes of anger and aggression, then there is no need to get rid of these external forces.
Again, Śāntideva notes how the next perfection of joyous effort, or diligence, is also primarily related to the mind.
A clear intent can fructify And bring us birth in such as Brahmā’s realm. The acts of body and of speech are less— They do not generate a like result.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་གསལ་གཅིག་བསྐྱེད་འབྲས་བུ་གང་། །
ཚངས་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཡིན་པ་ལྟར། ། ལུས་ངག་བཅས་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་ཡང་། །
སྤྱོད་པ་ཞན་པས་དེ་ལྟ་མིན། །sems gsal gcig bskyed 'bras bu gang /_/
tshangs la sogs pa yin pa ltar/_/ lus ngag bcas pa'i 'bras bu yang /_/
spyod pa zhan pas de lta min/_/Gyaltsap Je explains this verse as follows:
The perfecting of the familiarisation in enthusiasm also depends upon the mind. A clear mind of joy for meditating on an absorption of the first form realm brings about results contained within the grounds of absorption, such as rebirth in the place of Brahma.[19]
The reference to rebirth in Brahmā's realm relates to a passage from the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, where the Buddha tells of a story about a mother and daughter swept away together by a flood. As they were both being carried away by the swift current, they simultaneously thought "Let me be carried away and let the other be saved." Unfortunately, the mother and daughter were both carried away and died, but it is said that due these strong thoughts of love and compassion for each other, they were both born in the god realm of Brahmā.
Śāntideva continues with the theme of the mind being the forerunner for practicing the perfections. Next, he turns his attention to the perfection of meditative absorption.
Recitations and austerities, Long though they may prove to be, If practiced with distracted mind, Are futile, so the Knower of Reality has said.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
བཟླས་བརྗོད་དང་ནི་དཀའ་ཐུབ་ཀུན། །
ཡུན་རིང་དུས་སུ་སྤྱད་བྱས་ཀྱང་། ། སེམས་གཞན་གཡེངས་པས་བྱས་པ་ནི། །
དེ་ཉིད་རིག་པས་དོན་མེད་གསུངས། །bzlas brjod dang ni dka' thub kun/_/
yun ring dus su spyad byas kyang /_/ sems gzhan g.yengs pas byas pa ni/_/
de nyid rig pas don med gsungs/_/Commenting on this verse, Khenpo Kunpal cites The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitāsūtra), which states the following:
Through my mind's distraction, I fail to accomplish my own good, let alone the good of others. Therefore, I will not allow my mind to be distracted even slightly.[20]
He quotes from The Great Mother Sūtra (Āryaśatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra, i.e., The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra in One Hundred Thousand Lines), where it says:
With the mind distracted, even our own aims will not be accomplished.[22]
Wisdom Depends on the Mind
Having understood the central importance of the mind in developing concentration, Śāntideva then explains the importance of mind in relation to developing wisdom.
All those who fail to understand The secret of the mind, the greatest of all things, Although they wish for joy and sorrow’s end, Will wander to no purpose, uselessly.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གང་གིས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོ་མཆོག །
སེམས་ཀྱི་གསང་འདི་མ་ཤེས་ན། ། བདེ་ཐོབ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཞོམ་འདོད་ཀྱང་། །
དེ་དག་དོན་མེད་གྱི་ནར་འཁྱམས། །gang gis chos kyi gtso bo mchog_/
sems kyi gsang 'di ma shes na/_/ bde thob sdug bsngal gzhom 'dod kyang /_/
de dag don med gyi nar 'khyams/_/Here, Śāntideva makes reference to the "secret of the mind." The commentaries differ slightly in their interpretation as to the meaning of this phrase. Some suggest that the supreme meaning of the Dharma is nothing other than knowing the nature or essence of the mind, which is devoid of self, a union of clarity and emptiness, and luminous. Other scholars present it as the suchness of the mind, the lack of any intrinsic nature.
Thrangu Rinpoche explains how the very essence of the practices of the Great Seal (Mahāmudrā) or the Great Completion (Dzogchen) are to look into this nature of mind, through which the practice of wisdom is perfected.[23]
Other connotations of the word secret here refer to how it is hidden away in the depths of the mind. It is also said to be secret because it is the supreme meaning and beyond the words and concepts of childish beings. Such beings are not suitable recipients for its teachings, and so it cannot be revealed to them.
Thubten Chokyi Drakpa quotes from an unidentified sūtra to highlight the point that when we search for what we call mind, it cannot be found, and therefore it neither exists nor not exists.
Kaśyapa, the mind is unfindable on search. And whatever is unfindable cannot be observed. Whatever cannot be observed is beyond the three times, and neither exists nor not exists.[24]
He also quotes from the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras to explain the nature of mind.
Mind does not exist in mind. The nature of mind is luminous.[25]
If we do not understand this secret, then although we may wish for happiness and hope to destroy all our suffering, those wishes can never become a reality, and we will be doomed to wander throughout samsara.
The Need to Keep Watch over the Mind
In the next section of the text, Śāntideva instructs us on the importance of keeping guard over our minds as the most important of all the disciplines.
Therefore I will take in hand
And well protect this mind of mine.
What use to me are many disciplines,
If I can’t guard and discipline my mind?[p.64]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Khenpo Kunpal expands on the importance of a disciplined mind in whatever we do in our lives.
All the sorrow and fears of this and future lives, as well as all merits and virtues, arise from the mind. We should therefore, by applying mindfulness (in other words, not forgetting the principle of adopting and rejecting), take possession of our minds and guard them well with vigilant introspection, repeatedly examining our physical and mental behavior. All trainings are contained in such an endeavor.[26]
Furthermore, Śāntideva reminds us of how much more important it is to protect our minds at all times, whether alone or out in the world among difficult company.
When in wild, unruly crowds, I’m careful and attentive of my wounds; Likewise, when in evil company, This wound, my mind, I’ll constantly protect.
Page(s) 64
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
མ་གྲངས་གྲོལ་བའི་ཁྲོད་གནས་ན། །
བསྒྲིམས་ཏེ་རྨ་ཡི་བག་བྱེད་བཞིན། ། སྐྱེ་བོ་ངན་ཁྲོད་གནས་པས་ཀྱང་། །
སེམས་ཀྱི་རྨ་འདི་རྟག་ཏུ་བསྲུང་། །ma grangs grol ba'i khrod gnas na/_/
bsgrims te rma yi bag byed bzhin/_/ skye bo ngan khrod gnas pas kyang /_/
sems kyi rma 'di rtag tu bsrung /_/For if I carefully protect my wounds Because I fear the pain of minor injuries, Why should I not protect the wound that is my mind, For fear of being crushed beneath the cliffs of hell?58These are the cliffs and mountains that repeatedly rush together and overwhelm the beings caught between them. See Patrul Rinpocheʼs The Words of My Perfect Teacher, p. 64.
Page(s) 64
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རྨ་ཡི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆུང་ངུ་ཡིས། །
སྐྲག་པའང་རྨ་ཡི་བག་བྱེད་ན། ། བསྡུས་འཇོམས་རིས་འཇོམས་སྐྲག་པ་ཡིས། །
སེམས་ཀྱི་རྨ་ལྟ་ཅིས་མི་སྲུང་། །rma yi sdug bsngal chung ngu yis/_/
skrag pa'ang rma yi bag byed na/_/ bsdus 'joms ris 'joms skrag pa yis/_/
sems kyi rma lta cis mi srung /_/He uses an analogy of protecting a wound to encourage us to protect the mind. If we are nursing a sensitive wound and have to enter a boisterous crowd with many inattentive people, we will make every effort to shield that wound from further injury. Likewise, if we are in an environment that is likely to arouse our afflictions, then we can use these mental tools of mindfulness and vigilant introspection to stand guard over our mind. If we can do this, then whether we find ourselves with difficult people who might arouse our anger, or when among attractive people that may arouse our desire, we will not lose our observance of our vows and precepts.
In his commentary on verse 21, Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk captures the power of this ability to protect ourselves in even the most challenging environments:
If a person is able to abide in the practices that guard the mind, such as conscientiousness, mindfulness, and vigilance, there will be the benefit of there being no way that their stable commitment will weaken. This is because of the strong effort to very carefully guard the vows in our mindstream that they are training in. Even if they abide in the midst of terrible beings like flesh-eating spirits (rakshas) who give rise to violent anger, or abiding in a crowd of very beautiful women who are likely to cause attachment to arise, then it is alright for them.[27]
How to Rely on Mindfulness and Vigilant Introspection to Guard the Mind
In his Annotated Commentary to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the great Nyingma master Khenpo Shenga divides Śāntideva's root verses into sections with the use of a textual outline. Khenpo Shenga presents the next section of the text on using mindfulness and mental introspection as tools to guard the mind into two—a summarized explanation and a more extensive explanation of how to guard the mind.[28]
Summary
In his summary, Khenpo Shenga focuses on Śāntideva’s teaching that we should never give up our practice of guarding the mind so that we can continue to follow the precepts and training that we have vowed to follow.
My property, my honor—all can freely go, My body and my livelihood as well. And even other virtues may decline, But never will I let my mind regress.
Page(s) 64
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
བདག་གི་རྙེད་དང་བཀུར་སྟི་[p.35]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
ལུས་དང་འཚོ་བ་མེད་བླ་ཞིང་། ། དགེ་བ་གཞན་ཡང་ཉམས་བླ་ཡི། །
སེམས་ནི་ནམ་ཡང་ཉམས་མི་བྱ། །bdag gi rnyed dang bkur sti [p.35]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
lus dang 'tsho ba med bla zhing /_/ dge ba gzhan yang nyams bla yi/_/
sems ni nam yang nyams mi bya/_/Even if we lose all our property, all honor and respect, our livelihood, food, and clothes, or even our very own lives, the one thing he urges us to hold on to is our discipline, which keeps us on the path. This is reminiscent of early verses in the text, where we swear not to allow our bodhicitta to decline, even at the cost of our own lives.
Extensive Explanation
Within his extensive explanation, Khenpo Shenga again divides the text into two main outlines: (1) an explanation of the faults of lacking vigilant introspection and (2) the actual explanation of the way to rely on mindfulness.
The Faults of Lacking Vigilant Introspection
Having discussed the methods of guarding the actions of body and speech, in verses 24 to 28 Śāntideva moves on to describe the faults of allowing mindfulness and vigilant introspection to decline. He also describes how to use positive mental qualities to ensure that we are able to protect our mind.
Even if we are doing spiritual practices such as contemplating the deepest nature of reality, if vigilance is not there and we are distracted by inferior objects, however much study, contemplation, and meditation we do, many of the things we have learned or realized can get diluted, like water that quickly leaks out of a jar that has a hole in the bottom.
For those who have no introspection,
Though they hear the teachings, ponder them, ormeditate,
Like water seeping from a leaking jar,
Their learning will not settle in their memories.[p.65]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 64
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཤེས་བཞིན་མེད་པའི་སེམས་ལྡན་པའི། །
ཐོས་དང་བསམས་དང་བསྒོམས་པ་ཡང་། ། གློ་རྡོལ་བུམ་པའི་ཆུ་བཞིན་དུ། །
དྲན་པ་ལ་ནི་དེ་མི་གནས། །shes bzhin med pa'i sems ldan pa'i/_/
thos dang bsams dang bsgoms pa yang /_/ glo rdol bum pa'i chu bzhin du/_/
dran pa la ni de mi gnas/_/This verse reminds us that wisdom is nothing if vigilant introspection is lacking. Khenpo Kunpal also makes the point that we still need vigilant introspection, even if we have wisdom and mindfulness. Without it, mindfulness alone will be powerless to retain what we have understood.
Similarly, the three kinds of wisdom will not remain long in people who have only mindfulness. They will be forgotten. For when there is no vigilant introspection, mindfulness alone is powerless to retain them.[29]
As well as preventing us from retaining all that we have studied and mediated upon, Śāntideva explains how a lack of vigilant introspection will occur when mindfulness diminishes, and this can steal away all the positive potential which we have been accumulating.
Lack of introspection is a thief; It slinks behind when mindfulness abates. And all the merit we have gathered in It steals; and down we go to lower realms.
Page(s) 65
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཤེས་བཞིན་མེད་པའི་ཆོམ་རྐུན་དག །
དྲན་པ་ཉམས་པའི་རྗེས་འབྲངས་པས། ། བསོད་ནམས་དག་ནི་ཉེར་བསགས་ཀྱང་། །
རྐུན་པོས་འཕྲོག་བཞིན་ངན་འགྲོར་འགྲོ། །* ཕྲོགས་ in the source text.shes bzhin med pa'i chom rkun dag_/
dran pa nyams pa'i rjes 'brangs pas/_/ bsod nams dag ni nyer bsags kyang /_/
rkun pos 'phrog bzhin ngan 'gror 'gro/_/* phrogs [ in the source text.]In his commentary to this verse, Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk explains the example used here, of the thief stealing away our possessions, and how allowing our mindfulness and vigilance to decline steals away our merit.
Our previous merits from hearing, contemplation, and meditation and the like may be temporarily accumulated, but just like the thief who plunders [our possessions], all our virtuous wealth is stolen away, such that even our life in the fortunate realms is cut off, and in future lives we will go to the lower realms. It is said to be just like the example of some wealthy individuals who, if they do not take care, may have thieves and bandits enter their treasure house, and not only take away all of their accumulated wealth, but even endanger their lives.[30]
While a lack of mindfulness and vigilance is described as being like a thief which steals away our merit, in the next verse Śāntideva also points out that the defilements themselves are like a group of bandits just waiting to harm us by stealing away our virtue.
Defilements are a band of robbers Looking for their chance to injure us. They steal our virtue, when their moment comes, And batter out the lives of happy destinies.
Page(s) 65
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཉོན་མོངས་ཆོམ་རྐུན་ཚོགས་འདི་ནི། །
གླགས་སྐབས་ཚོལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་སྟེ། ། གླགས་རྙེད་གྱུར་ནས་དགེ་འཕྲོག་ཅིང་། །
བདེ་འགྲོའི་སྲོག་ཀྱང་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད། །nyon mongs chom rkun tshogs 'di ni/_/
glags skabs tshol bar byed pa ste/_/ glags rnyed gyur nas dge 'phrog cing /_/
bde 'gro'i srog kyang 'joms par byed/_/In relation to his verse, the contemporary meditation master Geshe Yeshe Tobden, in his commentary to the Bodhicaryāvatāra titled The Way of Awakening, continues this theme—just as our external enemies may lie in wait for us, how much more so the internal enemy of the afflictions are constantly there in the background waiting for an opportunity to lead us astray.
In everyday life too, our enemies are constantly lying in ambush , ready to strike us. In the same way our mental afflictions are ready to catch us unaware so that they can lead us to do what they want, which is to perform nonvirtuous actions. If we want to control the mind, we must perform only meritorious actions without allowing mindfulness to leave the doorway of our mind. Even if this does happen, we must immediately recognize the situation and bring the mind back. For example, if we perform a positive action and realize we are being diverted from it and are turning it into a negative one, we must recognize this process right away with discriminating alertness and re-establish mindfulness.[31]
The Actual Explanation of the Way to Rely on Mindfulness
In verses 29 to 33, Śāntideva moves on to the main body of explanation about how to rely on mindfulness. He mentions one very unnerving factor that he hopes will make us uncomfortable about committing nonvirtue—that is, since the buddhas and bodhisattvas possess pure vision which is unobstructed, they are therefore able to see clearly with one of five eyes (pañcacakṣus) all the deeds that beings perform.
"The Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas both Possess unclouded vision, seeing everything: All lies open to their gaze, And likewise I am always in their presence.”
Page(s) 65
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་དག །
ཀུན་ཏུ་ཐོགས་མེད་གཟིགས་པར་ལྡན། ། དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤྱན་སྔ་ན། །
རྟག་པར་བདག་ནི་གནས་སོ་ཞེས། །sangs rgyas byang chub sems dpa' dag_/
kun tu thogs med gzigs par ldan/_/ de dag thams cad spyan snga na/_/
rtag par bdag ni gnas so zhes/_/And in the narratives of the former lives of the Buddha, The Jātaka Tales (Jātakamālā), it relates how not just the buddhas, but even gods and humans who possess strong powers of concentration, have pure eyes to see the minds and deeds of others.
For those who conduct their evil actions out of sight, How can they be happy, when it's like eating poison? It's not possible for them to not be seen By the completely pure eyes of gods and humans with yogic powers.[32]
Therefore, if we accept that these great beings can see exactly what we do, and if many of the actions that we perform will be stained with selfishness and negativity, Śāntideva encourages us to feel a sense of shame.
One who has such thoughts as these
Will gain devotion and a sense of fear and shame.
For such a one, the memory of Buddha
Rises frequently before the mind.[p.66]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 65
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་བསམས་ནས་ངོ་ཚ་དང་། །
གུས་དང་འཇིགས་ལྡན་དེ་བཞིན་མནོས། ། དེས་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་རྗེས་དྲན་པའང་། །
དེ་ལ་ཡང་དང་ཡང་དུ་འབྱུང་། །de ltar bsams nas ngo tsha dang /_/
gus dang 'jigs ldan de bzhin mnos/_/ des ni sangs rgyas rjes dran pa'ang /_/
de la yang dang yang du 'byung /_/He encourages us to be aware of the "eyes of the Buddha" watching over us, and he implores us to remember the buddhas at all times and to develop a sense of devotion toward them. But how is this connected with mindfulness? Sonam Tsemo, in his commentary, points out that if we feel that we are continually in the presence of the buddhas, then we will maintain respect for the trainings and use mindfulness and vigilance to guard our minds from future negativity.
For oneself, i.e. from one's own self-perspective, one should have shame by being humble, and have respect for training and fear of downfalls. What causes that? It comes from thinking that at all times one is in the presence of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. How is one in their presence? In the sense that their vision is completely unobstructed.[33]
How to Train in Guarding the Mind with Mindfulness and Vigilance
The Discipline of Abandoning Negative Actions Related to the Body
Having presented the general need for mindfulness and vigilance in the early verses of the chapter, from verses 34 to 58 Śāntideva presents the practical methods through which we guard the mind using these mental factors. This section is presented mainly in terms of physical and verbal actions.
According to Śāntideva, when beginning any action, before we begin to act, we should examine our minds and see if the thought to engage in that activity is stained by any fault.
If at the outset, when I check my mind, I find that it is tainted with some fault, I shall be still and self-possessed, Unmoving like a piece of wood.
Page(s) 66
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རེ་ཞིག་དང་པོར་འདི་འདྲའི་སེམས། །
འདི་ནི་སྐྱོན་བཅས་ཤེས་བྱས་ནས། ། དེ་ཚེ་བདག་གིས་ཤིང་བཞིན་དུ། །
ཟུངས་ཐུབ་པར་ནི་གནས་པར་བྱ། །re zhig dang por 'di 'dra'i sems/_/
'di ni skyon bcas shes byas nas/_/ de tshe bdag gis shing bzhin du/_/
zungs thub par ni gnas par bya/_/In this verse Śāntideva is not encouraging us to get frozen in action but instead calls on us to analyze carefully what we are doing and why. If we find the action or the motivation to be negative, we must stop it immediately.
In his commentary to this verse, Thrangu Rinpoche explains the need to check our motivation since abandoning the negative actions of the body is still primarily related to awareness of the motivation driving that action.
Before we do anything, we first need to think, "I am going to do something. I want to go someplace. I need to stay." If we are practicing mindfulness and attentiveness they arise with the thought, surround it, and accompany it. In doing this they enable us to look at the reason we are going to do something—the reason we need to go somewhere to perform a particular action. With mindfulness and attentiveness we will know whether we are doing something to harm another being or solely for our own benefit or is to harm someone else then we should not do them.[34]
The Discipline of Abandoning Negative Actions Related to the Mind
Having presented how to physically conduct ourselves under the influence of mindfulness and vigilant introspection, Śāntideva now points us in the direction of the mind. When we check, we find the mind to be wild and unruly, akin to a crazed elephant. In order to follow the bodhisattva trainings and prevent our vowed restraints in relation to that from declining, we must tie this unruly mind tight to the post of the Dharma.
This rampant elephant, my mind, Once tied to that great post, reflection on the Teachings, Must now be watched with all my strength That it might never slip away.
Page(s) 67
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་ཀྱི་གླང་ཆེན་མྱོས་པ་ནི། །
ཆོས་ལ་སེམས་པའི་ཀ་ཆེན་ལ། ། ཇི་ལྟར་བཏགས་པ་མི་འཆོར་བར། །
དེ་ལྟར་འབད་པ་ཀུན་གྱིས་བརྟག །sems kyi glang chen myos pa ni/_/
chos la sems pa'i ka chen la/_/ ji ltar btags pa mi 'chor bar/_/
de ltar 'bad pa kun gyis brtag_/Those who strive to master concentration Should never for an instant be distracted. They should always watch their minds, inquiring, "Where is now my mind engaged?”
Page(s) 67
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཅི་ནས་ཏིང་འཛིན་བརྩོན་པ་ནི། །
སྐད་ཅིག་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མི་འཆོར་བར། ། བདག་གི་ཡིད་འདི་གར་སྤྱོད་ཅེས། །
དེ་ལྟར་ཡིད་ལ་སོ་སོར་བརྟག །ci nas ting 'dzin brtson pa ni/_/
skad cig gcig kyang mi 'chor bar/_/ bdag gi yid 'di gar spyod ces/_/
de ltar yid la so sor brtag_/We must be constantly vigilant, always asking ourselves, "Where is my mind currently engaged? What is it thinking? Is it positive or negative?" We should never for a moment allow our minds to get distracted, since even in a moment they can carry us away toward negative actions, for which we will have to suffer the negative consequences.
Special Dispensation to Relax Our Vigilance
Since constant vigilance of all our actions can be difficult to maintain, Śāntideva mentions that there are times when it is suitable to let down our guard a little and relax this discipline slightly.
When this becomes impossible, In case of danger or festivity, I’ll act as it seems best. For it is taught that rules of discipline May be relaxed in times of generosity.59In other words, when monks are engaged in charitable work, it is not necessary for them to stick rigidly to all the minutiae of monastic observance.
Page(s) 67
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
འཇིགས་དང་དགའ་སྟོན་སོགས་འབྲེལ་བས། །
གལ་ཏེ་མི་ནུས་ཅི་བདེར་བྱ། ། འདི་ལྟར་སྦྱིན་པའི་དུས་དག་ཏུ། །
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བཏང་སྙོམས་བཞག་པར་གསུངས། །jigs dang dga' ston sogs 'brel bas/_/
gal te mi nus ci bder bya/_/ 'di ltar sbyin pa'i dus dag tu/_/
tshul khrims btang snyoms bzhag par gsungs/_/Khenpo Kunpal goes on to explain this verse further by saying that there are certain occasions where we are permitted to slightly loosen our discipline, such as when our lives are in great danger, at times of great celebration, or at times when we are engaged in activities for the greater good of others.
On all such occasions, when it is impossible to remain one-pointedly in meditation, one is allowed to act in the manner that seems best, provided one does so without distraction and in a spirit of mindfulness and vigilant self-scrutiny. For although it is taught that discipline is superior to generosity, it is nevertheless true that in times when offerings on a vast scale are being made, one may relax the lesser precepts of one's discipline.[35]
Discipline is generally taught to be a higher form of practice than generosity, but in these unique situations discipline can be relaxed in order to act out of generosity. This is not a dispensation to become lax about our practice. It is not an excuse to allow us to stop maintaining alertness about our actions. It is a balanced and realistic approach to situations when it is not possible to remain in single-pointed focus. The special dispensation to relax our vigilance mentioned in the last two lines of this verse may well take their source from The Teaching of Akṣayamati, where it says "One can overlook the maintenance of moral conduct at the time of giving."[36] In his commentary, the Sakya master Sonam Tsemo points out that this applies to "minor attendant misdeeds, but not to inherent misdeeds or downfalls."[37]
Distraction and inattention are rife in modern societies. Surrounded by a barrage of information and entertainment, many of us struggle to concentrate on the task at hand. It is rare to find people who start a task and are able to stick to it until it is complete. In verse 43 Śāntideva speaks to this important need to not let our attention slide once we have set out on a particular course of action.
When something has been planned and started on, Attention should not drift to other things. With thoughts fixed on the chosen target, That and that alone should be pursued.
Page(s) 67
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གང་ཞིག་བསམས་ཏེ་བྱར་བརྩམས་པ། །
དེ་ལས་གཞན་དུ་མི་བསམས་ཏེ། ། དེར་གཏད་པ་ཡི་བསམ་པ་ཡིས། །
དེ་ཉིད་རེ་ཞིག་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ། །gang zhig bsams te byar brtsams pa/_/
de las gzhan du mi bsams te/_/ der gtad pa yi bsam pa yis/_/
de nyid re zhig bsgrub par bya/_/In his commentary, Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk puts this verse into context, explaining that it is not just about ordinary activities but also relates to how once we have started a particular practice or the study of a particular text we should then follow that through to the end before engaging in a new practice or text.
When it says "something" we could take, for example, this text, The Way of the Bodhisattva, firstly we listen to it in the presence of our spiritual teacher. Then we may set our minds, thinking, "I need to train in this" and start to engage in hearing and contemplation of those ways of conduct. Until those activities are complete, we should not think of engaging in other meditational practices or think to engage in study and contemplation of other texts. Instead, from the beginning, our minds should be focused single-pointedly on a text like The Way of the Bodhisattva and through study and contemplation train according to that. Only when we have had some accomplishment is it suitable to proceed step by step to then engage in study and contemplation or the meditational practice of other texts.[38]
In the modern world we're often required to multitask, called upon to juggle many balls at once. But Śāntideva warns us that this way of working can easily lead to inattention, the opposite of the positive mindset of vigilant introspection.
Behaving in this way, all tasks are well performed, And nothing is achieved by doing otherwise. If thus we act, the secondary defilement, Lack of introspection, will not grow.
Page(s) 67
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟ་ན་ནི་ཀུན་ལེགས་བྱས། །
གཞན་དུ་གཉིས་ཀར་[p.38]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
de lta na ni kun legs byas/_/
gzhan du gnyis kar [p.38]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
If we are able to follow our tasks in this way, one by one, completing each one as we go, then our projects and activities will be successful. If we do not proceed in this way, then it will be very hard to achieve anything concrete. Khenpo Kunpal reinforces this point by quoting a Tibetan proverb about doing tasks in a grounded way.
If we act in this way, a whole succession of tasks will be brought to term. By contrast, if we fail to follow such a plan of action—if after beginning one thing, we stray to something else—neither task will be accomplished. As the proverb says, "Always leave one foot upon the ground; you'll fall if you lift both." If, however, we proceed in stages as described and properly complete the earlier task before launching into the next, this will prevent the fault of inattention, the lack of introspection (one of the twenty lesser defilements), from growing.[39]
Protecting Our Precepts from Degenerating
From verses 45 to 58, Śāntideva helps us with methods to protect our training in the practices of the bodhisattva path. In particular, this involves having awareness of what we are doing but also, crucially, why we are doing something. This highlights the need to check our motivation behind everything we are doing at all times, lest we fall prey to selfish motivations and unskillful actions.
As Khenpo Kunpal points out, the verses in this section, from 48 to 53, actually cover what is termed the twenty-seven doors of mistaken conduct. These include wrong forms of conduct such as attachment and aversion but also states of mind such as arrogance, intolerance, laziness, and wishing to be looked up to or to be waited upon and served by others. They also include actions such as criticizing others and using insulting words, picking quarrels, speaking highly of our own perceived qualities, and being infatuated with ourselves.
For Bodhisattvas, those with stable minds, must act correctly and with due reason. In other words, they must reject negative action and engage in good works. If the twenty-seven sources of mistaken conduct—even the most subtle ones—are truly absent from the mind, the faults and downfalls related to the Individual Liberation, Bodhisattva, and Secret Mantra vows will not occur. It is therefore important to make an effort to find out what exactly these "sources" are and commit them to memory and then to make an effort in correct conduct.[40]
In all these cases, one of Śāntideva's primary pieces of advice is to stop acting and to be still or silent so that we do not involve ourselves in any of these unwholesome forms of behavior. His first target of mistaken conduct is delight for what we like, such as friends and family, and aversion to those things we dislike and despise.
When the urge arises in your mind To feelings of desire or angry hate, Do not act! Be silent, do not speak! And like a log of wood be sure to stay.
Page(s) 68
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གང་ཚེ་རང་ཡིད་ཆགས་པ་དང་། །
ཁྲོ་བར་འདོད་པ་དེ་ཡི་ཚེ། ། ལས་སུ་མི་བྱ་སྨྲ་མི་བྱ། །
ཤིང་བཞིན་དུ་ནི་གནས་པར་བྱ། །gang tshe rang yid chags pa dang /_/
khro bar 'dod pa de yi tshe/_/ las su mi bya smra mi bya/_/
shing bzhin du ni gnas par bya/_/The following verses then cover a whole series of actions that we need avoid, such as pride and deceit, in order to protect our practice:
And when your mind is wild or filled with mockery, Or filled with pride and haughty arrogance, Or when you would expose another’s secret guilt, To bring up old dissensions or to act deceitfully,
Page(s) 68
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རྒོད་དང་ག་ཞར་བཅས་པ་འམ། །
གལ་ཏེ་ང་རྒྱལ་རྒྱགས་ལྡན་པའམ། ། མཚང་འབྲུ་བ་ཡི་བསམ་པ་དང་། །
གལ་ཏེ་སྐྱོར་འབྱིན་བསླུ་སེམས་སམ། །rgod dang ga zhar bcas pa 'am/_/
gal te nga rgyal rgyags ldan pa'am/_/ mtshang 'bru ba yi bsam pa dang /_/
gal te skyor 'byin bslu sems sam/_/Or when you want to fish for praise, Or criticize and spoil another’s name, Or use harsh language, sparring for a fight, It’s then that like a log you should remain.
Page(s) 68
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གང་ཚེ་བདག་བསྟོད་ལྷུར་ལེན་པའམ། །
གཞན་ལ་སྨོད་པ་ཉིད་དང་ནི། ། གཤེ་བཅས་འགྱེད་དང་བཅས་གྱུར་པ། །
དེ་ཚེ་ཤིང་བཞིན་གནས་པར་བྱ། །gang tshe bdag bstod lhur len pa'am/_/
gzhan la smod pa nyid dang ni/_/ gshe bcas 'gyed dang bcas gyur pa/_/
de tshe shing bzhin gnas par bya/_/In summary to this section, Śāntideva implores those of us who aspire to follow in the footsteps of the bodhisattvas to never allow ourselves to get caught up in any of these twenty-seven sources of mistaken conduct.
Examine thus yourself from every side. Take note of your defilements and your pointless efforts. For thus the heroes on the Bodhisattva path Seize firmly on such faults with proper remedies.
Page(s) 69
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་དང་། །
དོན་མེད་བརྩོན་པའི་ཡིད་བརྟགས་ནས། ། དེ་ཚེ་དཔའ་བོས་གཉེན་པོ་ཡིས། །
དེ་ནི་བརྟན་པོར་གཟུང་བར་བྱ། །de ltar kun nas nyon mongs dang /_/
don med brtson pa'i yid brtags nas/_/ de tshe dpa' bos gnyen po yis/_/
de ni brtan por gzung bar bya/_/If we notice that we have allowed ourselves to stray into these negative ways, we should immediately rely upon the appropriate antidote. This will aid us in maintaining an undistracted mind and help us to keep away from harmful or meaningless activities. We must seize control of our minds and never entertain bad thoughts or act carelessly in word or deed.
Employing the Antidotes
With this mental control and awareness of what states of mind are arising, we are now well-placed to employ the antidotes to all these faulty forms of thought and behavior. Verses 55 and 56 describe the specific antidotes to individual faults.
With perfect and unyielding faith, With steadfastness, respect, and courtesy, With conscientiousness and awe, Work calmly for the happiness of others.
Page(s) 69
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཤིན་ཏུ་ངེས་དང་རབ་དད་དང་། །
བརྟན་དང་གུས་དང་ཞེ་སར་བཅས། ། ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་དང་འཇིགས་བཅས་དང་། །
ཞི་ཞིང་གཞན་དགའ་བྱེད་ལ་བརྩོན། །shin tu nges dang rab dad dang /_/
brtan dang gus dang zhe sar bcas/_/ ngo tsha shes dang 'jigs bcas dang /_/
zhi zhing gzhan dga' byed la brtson/_/In order to protect the mind, we must be clear about what it is that needs to be adopted and what needs to abandoned; we must cultivate strong faith in the Three Jewels; we must be steadfast in applying the antidotes with an intent to consistently practice; we should be always respectful and humble with everybody; me must maintain a sense of shame in relation to ripening results of bad conduct and be afraid of the ripened results by contemplating their shortcomings; having pacified the senses, we must strive for the purpose of making others happy.
Another very important point Śāntideva makes to keep us from becoming weary when we are involved in worldly situations is to understand that most ordinary people are under the power of the mental afflictions and are therefore suitable for our compassion, not our derision and scorn.
Let us not be downcast by the warring wants Of childish persons quarreling. Their thoughts are bred from conflict and emotion. Let us understand and treat them lovingly.
Page(s) 69
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཕན་ཚུན་མི་མཐུན་བྱིས་པ་ཡི། །
འདོད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་སྐྱོ་ཞིང་། ། ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱེས་པས་འདི་དག་གི །
སེམས་འདི་བྱུང་སྙམ་བརྩེར་ལྡན་དང་། །phan tshun mi mthun byis pa yi/_/
'dod pa rnams kyis mi skyo zhing /_/ nyon mongs skyes pas 'di dag gi_/
sems 'di byung snyam brtser ldan dang /_/Gyaltsap Je quotes the following verse from Āryadeva's Four Hundred Verses (Catuḥśataka) to point out that there is no ordinary being who is not governed by their negative emotions:
Just as a physician is not upset with Someone who rages while possessed by a demon, Subduers see disturbing emotions as The enemy, not the person who has them.[41]
In his commentary to this verse, Thrangu Rinpoche eloquently describes how bodhisattvas should conduct themselves when faced with people whose minds are motivated by negative emotions.
When working with these people, conflicts may arise and at that time it is important not to let ourselves become upset. We should remember that these are just ordinary sentient beings and it is not really their fault that they sometimes fall under the influence of great attachment or great anger or great ignorance or great pride. Remember that they engage in negative actions because they are just individuals who have not eliminated these negative emotions. Instead of being upset, we should develop love and compassion for them because they have not yet gained control of their negative emotions.[42]
In verse 57 Śāntideva mentions a crucial point. Even as we are trying to apply the correct antidotal forces, we must always remind ourselves of the Buddhist perspective of selflessness—that is, all that we have done, are doing, and will do has the nature of an apparition. This is described in the commentaries as the "common antidote."
When acting irreproachably, For our sake or the sake of others, Let us always bear in mind the thought That we are self-less, like an apparition.
Page(s) 69
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་མེད་དངོས་ལ། །
བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་དབང་བྱས་ཤིང་། ། སྤྲུལ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་ང་མེད་པར། །
ཡིད་འདི་རྟག་ཏུ་གཟུང་བར་བྱ། །kha na ma tho med dngos la/_/
bdag dang sems can dbang byas shing /_/ sprul pa bzhin du nga med par/_/
yid 'di rtag tu gzung bar bya/_/We should thus be without clinging to a sense of "I" or "mine." This helps also to ensure that we act without conceit so that we do not develop egoistic feelings, thinking, "I am doing these deeds of the bodhisattva as the great practitioners do."
The Discipline of Gathering Virtue
Having discussed how to prevent our practice from declining using mindfulness and vigilant introspection, Śāntideva then explains the importance of accumulating virtue and the methods to do that.
A big obstacle to our training correctly in the precepts is our attachment to our bodies. We cherish our bodies, and when they are hungry or thirsty, we must provide for them. Much of our daily lives are spent taking care of our bodies' needs. Buddhism espouses the middle way, so we should keep our bodies healthy and not harm our bodies in any way, but this should only be for the purpose of practicing the path. This attitude of overprotecting the body is a state of mind that needs to be abandoned. Verses 59 to 70 deal with methods to help us overcome our overriding obsessive attachment to the body.
In his commentary, Sonam Tsemo describes five characteristics of the body that we should contemplate in order to reduce our attachment to it: (1) it is inanimate, (2) it is impure, (3) it is essenceless, (4) it serves no function, (5) nevertheless, it can serve a purpose.
Verses 59 and 60 discuss the inanimate nature of the body.
Why, O mind, do you protect this body,
Taking it to be your own?
You and it are each a separate entity;
How ever can it be of use to you?[p.70]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 69
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ལུས་འདི་བདག་གིར་བཟུང་* བདག་གིས་གཟུང་ in the source text. བྱས་ནས། །
ཡིད་ཁྱོད་ཅི་ཕྱིར་སྲུང་བར་བྱེད། ། ཁྱོད་དང་འདི་གཉིས་སོ་སོ་ན། །
དེས་ཀོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཅི་ཞིག་བྱ། །lus 'di bdag gir bzung * bdag gis gzung [ in the source text.] byas nas/_/
yid khyod ci phyir srung bar byed/_/ khyod dang 'di gnyis so so na/_/
des ko khyod la ci zhig bya/_/Here, Śāntideva is pointing to the difference between the material and the immaterial. The argument is that the mind and body are two separate entities. The body comes from the sperm and egg of our parents. It is not as pure as we think, so what possible use can it be for us? We may counter that we have this precious human rebirth, and with that we can practice the Dharma, so it does have some use. This seems contradictory, but Thrangu Rinpoche explains to us that this is not the case.
When we have attachment to this body, it becomes a vehicle for creating our own suffering. But when we use our body for Dharma practice, the body is the support that can allow us to practice Dharma and reach enlightenment. So as long as we view this body with attachment and hold it in high esteem and cherish it, this attitude prevents us from doing Dharma practice.[43]
In discussing the nature of the body, Śāntideva then says to us, "If you, the mind, think that the body does not seem so impure when we look at it from the outside, then take a look inside. Try to find some enduring essence inside, by peeling back the layers of skin."
First, with mind’s imagination, Shed the covering of skin, And with the blade of wisdom, strip The flesh from off the bony frame.
Page(s) 70
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཐོག་མར་པགས་པའི་རིམ་པ་འདི། །
རང་གི་བློ་ཡིས་ཐ་དད་ཕྱེ། ། ཤ་ཡང་རུས་པའི་དྲ་བ་ལས། །
ཤེས་རབ་མཚོན་གྱིས་གུད་དུ་ཕྱེ། །thog mar pags pa'i rim pa 'di/_/
rang gi blo yis tha dad phye/_/ sha yang rus pa'i dra ba las/_/
shes rab mtshon gyis gud du phye/_/And when you have divided all the bones, And searched right down amid the very marrow, You yourself should ask the question: Where is the essential core?
Page(s) 70
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རུས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་དབྱེ་བྱས་ནས། །
རྐང་གི་བར་དུ་བལྟ་བྱ་ཞིང་། ། འདི་ལ་སྙིང་པོ་ཅི་ཡོད་ཅེས། །
བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནི་བརྟག་པར་གྱིས། །rus pa rnams kyang dbye byas nas/_/
rkang gi bar du blta bya zhing /_/ 'di la snying po ci yod ces/_/
bdag nyid kyis ni brtag par gyis/_/"What do you find there?" he asks us. "Can you find some essential core?" When we analyze like this with discriminating wisdom, we find that not the slightest essence can be found. "And if you are not able to find some essence," Śāntideva argues, "then why do you have so much attachment and desire for it? Why do you expend so much energy to care for it and protect it?"
If, persisting in the search, You see no underlying essence, Why do you protect with such desire The body that you now possess?
Page(s) 70
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་འབད་དེ་བཙལ་ཀྱང་དེར། །
ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་སྙིང་པོ་མ་མཐོང་ན། ། ད་དུང་ཅི་ཕྱིར་ཆགས་ཚུལ་གྱིས། །
ཁྱོད་ནི་ལུས་འདི་སྲུང་བར་བྱེད། །de ltar 'bad de btsal kyang der/_/
khyod kyis snying po ma mthong na/_/ da dung ci phyir chags tshul gyis/_/
khyod ni lus 'di srung bar byed/_/However, this body still has a use. If we pay a salary to employees, then we would expect them to provide some service for us. Likewise, having paid the body its wages of food and clothing, we should get some benefit from it and put it to work now for one's purpose—that is, creating virtuous karma.
So pay this body due remuneration, And then be sure to make it work for you. But do not lavish everything On what will not bring perfect benefit.
Page(s) 71
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
འདི་ལ་གླ་རྔན་བྱིན་ནས་ནི། །
ད་ནི་རང་གི་དོན་བྱེད་ཆུག ། ཕན་པ་མེད་པར་འདི་ལ་ནི། །
ཐམས་ཅད་སྦྱིན་པར་མི་བྱའོ། །di la gla rngan byin nas ni/_/
da ni rang gi don byed chug_/ phan pa med par 'di la ni/_/
thams cad sbyin par mi bya'o/_/With this in mind, Śāntideva exhorts us to regard this physical body as a mere vessel that can help us to cross over the ocean of samsara and attain liberation. He encourages us to transform this body into the wish-fulfilling jewel of a buddha's body, which will then be able to spontaneously achieve the welfare of all beings.
Regard your body as a vessel, A simple boat for going here and there. Make of it a thing that answers every wish To bring about the benefit of beings.
Page(s) 71
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
འགྲོ་དང་འོང་བའི་རྟེན་ཙམ་དུ། །
ལུས་ལ་གྲུ་ཡི་བློ་བཞག་སྟེ། ། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། །
ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནི་ལུས་སུ་བསྒྱུར། །gro dang 'ong ba'i rten tsam du/_/
lus la gru yi blo bzhag ste/_/ sems can rnams don sgrub pa'i phyir/_/
yid bzhin gyi ni lus su bsgyur/_/In his commentary to this verse, Geshe Yeshe Tobden explains how we should not desire to attain another coarse body of flesh and blood like the one we already have, since this is in the nature of suffering.
In spite of the body's crucial role in acquiring definitive happiness, we should not desire to possess a coarse body in our next rebirth, as this is a cause of suffering. Instead, we should strive to create the causes for acquiring more subtle forms, which do not produce suffering. The type of bodies we have are the basis of suffering and we should not, therefore, be too pleased with them.[44]
Mindfulness in Post-Meditation
Although meditation plays a central role in the Buddhist tradition, what we do outside of the meditation session is also very important, as our actions can affect the very quality of our meditation and also have an impact on all those around us. In regard to this, Śāntideva explains the importance of being open and friendly when interacting with others and not going about with a stern or angry countenance. We should try to be a true friend to all and always be straightforward and honest.
Be the master of yourself And have an ever-smiling countenance. Rid yourself of scowling, wrathful frowns, And be a true and honest friend to all.
Page(s) 71
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་རང་དབང་ཡོད་གྱིས་ཏེ། །* ཡོད་ཀྱིས་ in the source text.
རྟག་ཏུ་འཛུམ་པའི་བཞིན་དུ་གྱིས། ། ཁྲོ་གཉེར་ངོ་ཟུམ་ཡོངས་ཐོང་ཏེ། །
འགྲོ་བའི་བཤེས་དང་གསོང་པོར་གྱིས། །de ltar rang dbang yod gyis te/_/* yod kyis [ in the source text.]
rtag tu 'dzum pa'i bzhin du gyis/_/ khro gnyer ngo zum yongs thong te/_/
'gro ba'i bshes dang gsong por gyis/_/We are encouraged to be soft and humble in all of our activities and not to move around in a noisy or violent way, which creates disturbance for others. Śāntideva gives us an example of creatures such as cats, or, indeed, even thieves, all of whom will go about their business silently and unobserved. If this is the case for ordinary beings, then what need is there to speak of bodhisattvas, who must go about their business of working for others quietly and with great discipline.
Herons, cats, and burglars Achieve what they intend By going silently and unobserved. Such is the constant practice of a sage.
Page(s) 71
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཆུ་སྐྱར་བྱི་ལ་ཆོམ་རྐུན་དག །
སྒྲ་མེད་འཇབ་ཅིང་འགྲོ་བ་ཡིས། ། མངོན་པར་འདོད་པའི་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ། །
ཐུབ་པས་རྟག་ཏུ་དེ་བཞིན་སྤྱད། །chu skyar byi la chom rkun dag_/
sgra med 'jab cing 'gro ba yis/_/ mngon par 'dod pa'i don sgrub pa/_/
thub pas rtag tu de bzhin spyad/_/The Benefit of Making Others Happy
The goal of all our actions is happiness, but it is hard to find real, stable happiness. If we act out of selfishness for our own purposes, it will be very hard to find any long-term joy. Śāntideva reminds us that real joy comes from helping others and particularly from taking delight in their good qualities. Without a trace of jealousy, if we can delight in others and their virtue, it will bring us only positive results, both in the short and long term. We can take pleasure both in their worldly virtues as well as in the qualities that come from their study, contemplation, and meditation on the teachings.
The goal of every act is happiness itself, Though, even with great wealth, it’s rarely found. So take your pleasure in the excellence of others. Let them be a heartfelt joy to you.
Page(s) 72
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རྩོམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དགའ་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །
དེ་ནི་རིན་གྱིས་ཉོ་ནའང་དཀོན། ། དེ་ལྟས་གཞན་བྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས། །
དགའ་བའི་བདེ་བ་སྤྱད་པར་བྱ། །rtsom pa thams cad dga' phyir te/_/
de ni rin gyis nyo na'ang dkon/_/ de ltas gzhan byas yon tan gyis/_/
dga' ba'i bde ba spyad par bya/_/By acting thus, in this life you’ll lose nothing; In future lives, great bliss will come to you. Wrongdoing brings not joy but pain, And in the future dreadful torment.
Page(s) 72
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
བདག་ལ་འདིར་གོད་ཡོང་མེད་ལ། །
ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཡང་བདེ་བ་ཆེ། ། ཉེས་པས་མི་དགའ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཞིང་། །
ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཡང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེ། །bdag la 'dir god yong med la/_/
pha rol tu yang bde ba che/_/ nyes pas mi dga' sdug bsngal zhing /_/
pha rol tu yang sdug bsngal che/_/We may feel that somehow we lose something by merely taking pleasure in others' virtue, that somehow this will compromise our own happiness or take up too much of our time and energy without providing any benefit to us. But Śāntideva tells us that there is nothing to lose in this approach, and it will not lessen our happiness in this life. On the other hand, when we see others experiencing wealth, abundance, and fortuitous circumstances, we may become irritated by them or filled with envy. A sense of jealousy or competitiveness may arise in our minds. But these emotions will only be the cause of the exhaustion of our positive qualities in this life and drag us down to lower states of existence in the future. In his commentary, Khenpo Kunpal describes how envy affects us, saying, "the weapon of such an evil state of mind will turn against us."[45]
Whenever we encounter others, whether of higher or lower status, whether powerful or weak, we often tend to immediately categorize them into friends, strangers, or enemies, and then we respond accordingly to them with attachment or aversion. But Śāntideva reminds us that the correct way to encounter others is to remember that it is through them, whoever they are, that we are able to engender bodhicitta.
When you look at others think That it will be through them That you will come to Buddhahood. So look on them with frank and loving hearts.
Page(s) 72
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
མིག་གིས་སེམས་ཅན་ལྟ་ན་ཡང་། །
འདི་དག་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་བདག ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་དུ་འགྱུར་རོ་ཞེས། །
དྲང་ཞིང་བྱམས་པའི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་ལྟ། །mig gis sems can lta na yang /_/
'di dag nyid la brten nas bdag_/ sangs rgyas nyid du 'gyur ro zhes/_/
drang zhing byams pa'i tshul gyis lta/_/We must remember that it is through these other beings that we have the opportunity to practice all the trainings of the bodhisattva path. Without them, we would never be able to develop the mind of enlightenment or practice the path. And, therefore, we would never be able to attain our ultimate goal of reaching complete enlightenment. We must look at others with eyes that see them as helpers on the path and never view them with anger or frustration.
Gyaltsap Je beautifully describes this way of looking at others with a loving heart as being like taking a refreshing drink when our thirst is in need of quenching.
When we look at sentient beings then, similar to the happiness we receive from drinking a refreshing drink after having been thirsty, we think, "In dependence on this very sentient being I will attain enlightenment", and look at them with a clear mind in a loving manner.[46]
We may wonder if there is a sequence in which we should practice the six perfections, or whether some of the perfections should be prioritized over others. Śāntideva explains the gradual progress in importance of them, from the perfection of giving up to the perfection of wisdom, and how to decide what is most appropriate to engage in at a particular time.
The perfections,62The six perfections (Skt. pāramitā) form the essential practice of the Mahāyāna. They are generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom. giving and the rest, Progress in sequence, growing in importance. The great should never be abandoned for the less, And others’ good should be regarded as supreme.
Page(s) 73
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་ལ་སོགས། །
གོང་ནས་གོང་དུ་ཁྱད་ཞུགས་སྤྱད། ། ཆུང་ངུའི་ཕྱིར་ནི་ཆེ་མི་གཏང་། །
གཙོ་ཆེར་གཞན་གྱི་དོན་བསམ་མོ། །sbyin pa'i pha rol phyin la sogs/_/
gong nas gong du khyad zhugs spyad/_/ chung ngu'i phyir ni che mi gtang /_/
gtso cher gzhan gyi don bsam mo/_/In relation to the last two lines of this verse, Gyalse Thokme Zangpo explains what the meaning of one perfection being greater than another is and what factors we should take into account when deciding what to focus on.
From the Great Commentary it says, "If we need to choose which of the six perfections [to practice], the latter ones are superior [to the former], so since the latter ones are superior we should practice in that way. There is a sequence from lower to higher, but just as in the previously cited example, we should not put aside a smaller form of ethical discipline, for a greater form of generosity. How do we define what is great or small? The main factor is that we should engage in whatever [practice] has the greatest intent of the greatest benefit to others."[47]
The Discipline of Working for the Benefit of Others
Having understood the need for the discipline of avoiding negativity and the importance of the discipline of accumulating virtue, the next main section of the text informs us of the discipline of working for the welfare of other beings.
In verse 84 Śāntideva raises an interesting ethical issue regarding a special concession allowing great bodhisattvas to commit the seven negative actions of body and speech, actions which are normally proscribed for all other practitioners, such as practitioners of the lower vehicle and novice bodhisattvas. This is because they are possessed of such deep compassion for living beings and are devoid of any form of selfishness.
Therefore understand this well, And always labor for the benefit of beings. The Compassionate One farsightedly permits, To this end, even what has been proscribed.63According to Mahāyāna teaching, in extreme circumstances and when the motives are exclusively those of compassion, actions of body and speech (though not of mind), normally proscribed in the list of ten nonvirtues (see note 44) may be performed.
Page(s) 73
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་རིག་བྱས་གཞན་དོན་ལ། །
རྟག་ཏུ་བརྩོན་པར་གནས་པར་བྱ། ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་མངའ་བ་རིང་གཟིགས་པས། །
བཀག་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལ་གནང་། །de ltar rig byas gzhan don la/_/
rtag tu brtson par gnas par bya/_/ thugs rje mnga' ba ring gzigs pas/_/
bkag pa rnams kyang de la gnang /_/Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen investigates the reason behind this special allowance with a question about whether it is a fault for these bodhisattvas when they commit these acts.
Query: Bodhisattvas strive to always abide in working for others on the basis of having understood what needs to be practiced and what needs to be abandoned. But since they need to engage into a variety of actions to achieve the welfare of others, do they not receive faults?
Answer: The compassionate buddhas also see directly the phenomena hidden very far in the future. Out of this knowledge they permit the seven non-virtuous actions of body and speech, which they prohibited for hearers and self-liberators who work primarily for their own purpose, for bodhisattvas when necessary. As a result, bodhisattvas not only do not incur a fault, but for them it becomes a great accumulation when they engage in these actions.[48]
This is mentioned in one of Śāntideva's other main works, The Compendium of Trainings (Śikṣāsamuccaya), where it says the following:
This is thought about in relation to one who has already attained the bodhisattva grounds, and who is carrying out the six perfections, and not other than this.[49]
At higher levels of practice, the great bodhisattvas may even give away their own bodies to help others, but those special circumstances apply to bodhisattvas on the pure grounds. For those who are novice bodhisattvas, Śāntideva reminds them that it is still important to take care of the body and protect it from harm. If we eat enough food and dress sufficiently to be healthy, then this precious body will be able to work most effectively for the good of others.
The body, used to practice sacred teachings, Should not be harmed in meaningless pursuits. By acting thus the wishes of all beings Will swiftly and completely be attained.
Page(s) 73
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ནི་སྤྱོད་པའི་ལུས། །
ཕྲན་ཚེགས་ཆེད་དུ་གནོད་མི་བྱ། ། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི། །
བསམ་པ་མྱུར་དུ་རྫོགས་པར་འགྱུར། །dam pa'i chos ni spyod pa'i lus/_/
phran tshegs ched du gnod mi bya/_/ de ltar byas na sems can gyi/_/
bsam pa myur du rdzogs par 'gyur/_/Protecting the Minds of Sentient Beings
In verses 91 to 96, Śāntideva explains how bodhisattvas should avoid any kind of activity that will give scandal to others, the results of which could encourage nonvirtuous minds and actions in them. He discusses many fairly mundane activities, such as how to eat, where to sleep, and how to point the way when giving directions. And there are also some factors which were more relevant in the historical context in which he wrote the text, such as how to dispose of tooth sticks and where to go to the toilet. Khenpo Kunpal sums up the basic principles of all this advice in the following statement:
In short, any behavior that the Bodhisattva understands to be offensive in a given social setting—whether on the basis of personal experience or as a result of advice solicited from knowledgeable sources—should be abandoned.[50]
At the end of this section, Śāntideva mentions a very interesting point about the posture in which the bodhisattvas should lie down to sleep.
Lie down to sleep in the preferred direction, In the posture of the Buddha when he passed into nirvāṇa. And first with vigilance decide That you’ll be quick to rise again.
Page(s) 75
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
མགོན་པོ་མྱ་ངན་འདས་གཟིམས་ལྟར། །
འདོད་པའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཉལ་བར་བྱ། ། ཤེས་བཞིན་མྱུར་དུ་ལྡང་སེམས་ལ། །
ཐོག་མ་ཉིད་དུ་ངེས་པར་སྦྱར། །mgon po mya ngan 'das gzims ltar/_/
'dod pa'i phyogs su nyal bar bya/_/ shes bzhin myur du ldang sems la/_/
thog ma nyid du nges par sbyar/_/The position mentioned here is called the "lion posture" and is considered the posture of a sleeping lion, where we lie on our right side, with our head pointing to the north and our face pointing to the west, although this can be any direction which is without danger. With our right side to the ground, we lay one leg on the other and place our right hand beneath our cheek, with the left arm stretched out along the top of our abdomen and thighs. This helps us to draw the Buddha to mind as we are falling asleep. Ideally, as we fall asleep, we should focus on the luminous nature of mind and also remember impermanence and death, holding a strong wish to rise quickly the next morning to practice. If we do this, even our sleep will be virtuous.
Perfecting Our Practice
Verses 98 to 107 discuss methods to ensure that our practice is not adversely affected by faulty ways of thought or action.
One crucial part of our practice should be the confession and purification of any transgressions of our discipline. Confession is dealt with more fully in chapter 2, but here Śāntideva gives a method of purification—to recite The Sūtra of the Three Heaps (Triskandhakasūtra) three times during the day and three times at night.
Reciting thrice by day and thrice by night, The Sūtra in Three Sections,70The Sūtra in Three Sections, the Triskandhaka-sūtra, consists of confession before the thirty-five Buddhas, verses in praise of virtue, and a dedication of merits. Relying on the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, Purify the rest of your transgressions.
Page(s) 75
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཉིན་དང་མཚན་[p.45]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
ཕུང་པོ་གསུམ་པ་གདོན་བྱ་ཞིང་། ། རྒྱལ་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བརྟེན་ནས། །
ལྟུང་བའི་ལྷག་མ་དེས་ཞི་བྱ། །nyin dang mtshan [p.45]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
phung po gsum pa gdon bya zhing /_/ rgyal dang byang chub sems brten nas/_/
ltung ba'i lhag ma des zhi bya/_/In his commentary Sonam Tsemo explains what the three heaps are in the following way:
The three heaps are confession of nonvirtues, rejoicing and dedication. These skilful means for swiftly attaining perfect enlightenment can be used to confess downfalls. . . . It says in the Sutra of the Great Lion's Roar of Maitreya,
- Because one should exhaust nonvirtues previously committed, one should recite the dharma liturgy of the Three Heaps. If one does so, though there are remnant downfalls, one confesses the faults. Merely by doing so, they are purified and henceforth one will not break the vows.[51]
The person through whom we receive all our trainings and instruction is the virtuous spiritual guide (kalyāṇamitra), who has received the unbroken lineage and who maintains the bodhisattva vow and all the disciplines of the Mahāyāna path. Therefore, Śāntideva tells us, at all times, even at the cost of our lives, we should never forsake our Buddhist masters, who have imparted to us all the precious instructions.
Never, at the cost of life or limb, Forsake your virtuous friend, your teacher, Learned in the doctrine of the Mahāyāna, Supreme in Bodhisattva discipline.
Page(s) 75
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
རྟག་པར་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ནི། །
ཐེག་ཆེན་དོན་ལ་མཁས་པ་དང་། ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་མཆོག །
སྲོག་གི་ཕྱིར་ཡང་མི་གཏང་ངོ་། །rtag par dge ba'i bshes gnyen ni/_/
theg chen don la mkhas pa dang /_/ byang chub sems dpa'i brtul zhugs mchog_/
srog gi phyir yang mi gtang ngo /_/In order to perfect our practice, Śāntideva then refers us to other important texts, particularly the Sūtras, to expand our knowledge of the path and to learn how to embrace the conduct of the bodhisattvas.
Indeed within these sūtras all the practices are found; Therefore read and study them. The Sūtra of the Essence of the Sky72The Ākāshagarhha-sūtra. Is the text that should be studied first.
Page(s) 76
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
མདོ་སྡེ་རྣམས་ལས་བསླབ་པ་སྣང་། །
དེ་བས་མདོ་སྡེ་བཀླག་པར་བྱ། ། ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ་སྡེ་ནི། །
ཐོག་མ་ཉིད་དུ་བལྟ་བར་བྱ། །mdo sde rnams las bslab pa snang /_/
de bas mdo sde bklag par bya/_/ nam mkha'i snying po'i mdo sde ni/_/
thog ma nyid du blta bar bya/_/Here, The Sūtra of the Essence of the Sky refers to the Ākāśagarbhasūtra. Besides the Sūtras, he directs us to other works, including his own work The Compendium of Trainings, translated in verse 105 as The Digest of All Disciplines, to guide us further in how to embrace the conduct of the bodhisattvas.
All that must be practiced constantly Is clearly and extensively explained Within the Digest of All Disciplines,73The Shikṣhāsamucchaya. See references to Shāntideva, appendix 1, and in the bibliography. So this is something you should read repeatedly.
Page(s) 76
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གང་ཕྱིར་རྟག་ཏུ་སྤྱད་པ་ནི། །
དེ་ལས་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རབ་སྟོན་པས། །
བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་[p.46]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
gang phyir rtag tu spyad pa ni/_/
de las rgya cher rab ston pas/_/
bslab pa kun las [p.46]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
Śāntideva also recommends reading The Compendium of Sūtras (Sūtrasamuccaya) along with The Compendium of Trainings and advises us to read them again and again with great diligence.
From time to time, for sake of brevity, Consult the Digest of the Sūtras.74According to Kunzang Pelden, Shikṣhāsamucchaya and Sūtrasamucchaya are the names of two treatises composed by Shāntideva and two treatises composed by Nāgārjuna. Whereas Shāntidevaʼs Shikshāsamucchaya still exists, his Sūtrasamucchaya has been lost. By contrast, the existence of Nagarjunaʼs Sūtmsamucchaya is attested to in the Madhyamakashāstra-stuti attributed to Chandrakīrti (see Ruegg, p. 8.), whereas the Shikṣhāsamucchaya, attributed to him here, seems to be unknown in other sources. And those two works peruse with diligence That noble Nāgārjuna has composed.
Page(s) 76
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཡང་ན་རེ་ཞིག་མདོར་བསྡུས་པའི། །
མདོ་རྣམས་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པར་བལྟ། ། འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པའི། །
གཉིས་པོའང་འབད་པས་བལྟ་བར་བྱ། །yang na re zhig mdor bsdus pa'i/_/
mdo rnams kun las btus par blta/_/ 'phags pa klu sgrub kyis mdzad pa'i/_/
gnyis po'ang 'bad pas blta bar bya/_/There is an interesting note to these two verses: texts in both these names exist for both Śāntideva and also for Nāgārjuna, but for The Compendium of Sūtras, Nāgārjuna's text can be found in the Tengyur, whereas Śāntideva's text of the same name has been lost. However, the reverse is true of The Compendium of Trainings, where Śāntideva's text is extant but Nāgārjuna's text of that name has been lost.
Summary of the Chapter
In concluding the fifth chapter, which primarily concerns itself with how to correctly cultivate mindfulness and vigilant introspection, Śāntideva reminds us of the principal characteristic of this vigilant state of mind—that it is there to continually and repeatedly examine the state of our minds and the quality of the actions that flow from those states of mind.
Examining again and yet again The state and actions of your body and your mind— This alone defines in brief The maintenance of watchful introspection.
Page(s) 76
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ལུས་དང་སེམས་ཀྱི་གནས་སྐབས་ལ། །
ཡང་དང་ཡང་དུ་བརྟག་བྱ་བ། ། དེ་ཉིད་ཁོ་ན་མདོར་ན་ནི། །
ཤེས་བཞིན་བསྲུང་བའི་མཚན་ཉིད་དོ། །lus dang sems kyi gnas skabs la/_/
yang dang yang du brtag bya ba/_/ de nyid kho na mdor na ni/_/
shes bzhin bsrung ba'i mtshan nyid do/_/Right at the end of the chapter, Śāntideva stresses a very important point about spiritual practice—that is, we actually need to implement the teachings that we have received. It is not just a matter of paying lip service to all that we have heard and read in the great texts. We must take all the instructions and wisdom that have been passed on to us and put that into actual practice.
But all this must be acted out in truth, For what is to be gained by mouthing syllables? What invalid was ever helped By merely reading in the doctor’s treatises?
Page(s) 76
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ལུས་ཀྱིས་འདི་དག་སྤྱད་པར་བྱ། །
ཚིག་ཙམ་བརྗོད་པས་ཅི་ཞིག་འགྲུབ། ། སྨན་དཔྱད་བཀླགས་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ནི། །
ནད་པ་དག་ལ་ཕན་འགྱུར་རམ། །lus kyis 'di dag spyad par bya/_/
tshig tsam brjod pas ci zhig 'grub/_/ sman dpyad bklags pa tsam gyis ni/_/
nad pa dag la phan 'gyur ram/_/As he says in this verse, which patient has ever recovered from their disease by merely reading the doctor's prescription but without actually taking the medicine prescribed.
This concludes the fifth chapter of the Bodhicharyāvatāra on vigilant introspection.
Notes
- ↑ Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen, The Gateway for the Children of the Conquerors: An Extensive Explanation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad rgyal sras 'jug ngogs (Taiwan: Gaden Jangtse Thosam Norling Dratsang, 2007), 135.
- ↑ Ngul Chu Thokme Zangpo, An Ocean of Excellent Explanation: A Commentary on Entering into the Conduct of the Bodhisattva, Byang chub sems spa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i rtsa ba dang 'grel pa legs par bshad pa'i rya mtsho (Varanasi: Sakya Students Union, 2003), 180.
- ↑ Adam Pearcey, trans., The Brightly Shining Sun, by Patrul Rinpoche (Lotsawa House, 2019), https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/patrul-rinpoche/bodhicharyavatara-brightly-shining-sun.
- ↑ Dungkar Rinpoche Lobsang Trinley, An Introduction to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Spyod 'jug gi gzhung gi ngo sprod (Dharamsala: Sara Tibetan Publishing House, 2017), 48.
- ↑ Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans., The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva, by Kunzang Pelden (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2010), 165.
- ↑ Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, A Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Theg pa chen poi do'i dgongs don gyi bstan bcos byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa zhes bya ba'i 'grel pa (Taiwan: Chos kyi blo gros rtsom sgrig khang, 2016), 242.
- ↑ Pema Karpo, A Lamp for the Middle Way: A Commentary on the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, Spyod 'jug gi 'bru 'grel dbu ma'i lam gyi sgron ma (Kathmandu: Shree Gautam Buddha Vihara, 2017), 31 (e-book), https://dharmacloud.tsadra.org/library/?post_types=book,book_author&search-terms=A+Lamp+for+the+Middle+Way:+A+Commentary+on+the+Bodhisattvacharyavatara&subjects=any&view=list/.
- ↑ Acharya Buddharakkhita, trans., "Yamakavagga: Pairs," in Dhammapada: The Path of Dhamma (Access to Insight, BCBS Edition, 2013), http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.01.budd.html.
- ↑ Thomas Doctor (Dharmachakra Translation Committee), trans., The Jewel Cloud, Ratnamegha, Toh 231 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024), https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-064-001.html?#UT22084-064-001-599.
- ↑ Doctor, Jewel Cloud, https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-064-001.html#UT22084-064-001-599.
- ↑ Khenpo Shenga, An Annotated Commentary to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i mchan 'grel (Varanasi: Nyingma Students Welfare Committee 2009), 94–95.
- ↑ Thomas Doctor, Benjamin Collet-Cassart, and Timothy Hinkle (Dharmachakra Translation Committee), trans., The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna, Toh 287 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024), https://read.84000.co/translation/toh287.html#UT22084-068-021-505.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 166.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 168.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 168.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 168.
- ↑ Thokme Zangpo, Ocean of Excellent Explanation, 184
- ↑ Thrangu Rinpoche, Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: Commentary by Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, trans. Ken Holmes, Katia Holmes, and Thomas Doctor (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2016), 68.
- ↑ Fedor Stracke, trans., The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors - A Commentary on the Introduction to the Actions of Bodhisattvas. Chapter Five: Introspection, by Gyaltsab Rinpoche (N.p.: Happy Monks Publication, 2016), 19, https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/. Note that the pagination starts over for every chapter in Stracke's translation.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 170.
- ↑ Thokme Zangpo, Ocean of Excellent Explanation, 185.
- ↑ Thokme Zangpo, Ocean of Excellent Explanation, 185.
- ↑ Thrangu Rinpoche, Shantideva's A Guide, 71.
- ↑ Thubten Chokyi Drakpa (Minyak Kunzang Sonam), Excellent Vase That Spills Forth an Ocean of the Inexhaustible and Precious Qualities of the Victor's Heirs: An Explanation of the 'Way of the Bodhisattva', Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i 'grel bshad rgyal sras rgya mtsho'i yon tan rin po che mi zad 'jo ba'i bum bzang (Trungo: Tibetan Cultural Printing Press, 1990), 235.
- ↑ Thubten Chokyi Drakpa, Excellent Vase, 235.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 170–71.
- ↑ Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, 257.
- ↑ Khenpo Shenga, Annotated Commentary, 101.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 173.
- ↑ Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, 263.
- ↑ Geshe Yeshe Tobden, The Way of Awakening: A Commentary on Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara, ed. Fiorella Rizzi, trans. Manu Bazzano and Sarita Doveton (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005), 107.
- ↑ Pema Karpo, Lamp for the Middle Way, 37 (e-book), https://dharmacloud.tsadra.org/library/?post_types=book,book_author&search-terms=A+Lamp+for+the+Middle+Way:+A+Commentary+on+the+Bodhisattvacharyavatara&subjects=any&view=list/.
- ↑ Adrian O'Sullivan, trans., Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary, by Śāntideva and Sonam Tsemo (Los Angeles: Dechen Foundation, 2019), 131.
- ↑ Thrangu Rinpoche, Shantideva's A Guide, 78.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 177.
- ↑ O'Sullivan, Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary, 136.
- ↑ O'Sullivan, Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary, 136.
- ↑ Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, 276.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 177.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 178.
- ↑ Ruth Sonam, trans., Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way: With Commentary by Gyel-tsap, with additional commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2008), 138.
- ↑ Thrangu Rinpoche, Shantideva's A Guide, 84-85.
- ↑ Thrangu Rinpoche, Shantideva's A Guide, 86.
- ↑ Tobden, Way of Awakening, 121.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 186.
- ↑ Stracke, Entrance for the Children: Chapter Five, 35, https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/.
- ↑ Thokme Zangpo, Ocean of Excellent Explanation, 201.
- ↑ Stracke, Entrance for the Children: Chapter Five, 46, https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/.
- ↑ Pema Karpo, Lamp for the Middle Way, 42 (e-book), https://dharmacloud.tsadra.org/library/?post_types=book,book_author&search-terms=A+Lamp+for+the+Middle+Way:+A+Commentary+on+the+Bodhisattvacharyavatara&subjects=any&view=list/.
- ↑ Blankleder and Fletcher, Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, 186.
- ↑ O'Sullivan, Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary, 155.
