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Becoming Bodhisattvas: A Guidebook for Compassionate Action
Book
See Timeline of BCA Translations
- A Buddhist 'good life' Theory: Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- A Buddhist Carol
- A Commentary on Shantideva's Engaging in the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
- A Dialogue between Thomas Merton on Agape and Shantideva on Karuna: Some Moral Dimensions of a Catholic and Mahayana Exchange
- A Fearless Heart
- A Few Good Men
- A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night
- A Great Commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Vol. 1
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life (1985)
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life (1999)
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life of Shantideva (2002)
- A Mahāyāna Liturgy
- A Mirror Is for Reflection
- A Nirvana that Is Burning in Hell: Pain and Flourishing in Mahayana Buddhist Moral Thought
- A Note on Mahāyāna Buddhism and the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- A Precursory Phrase of Tantric Definition of Bodhicitta in the Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya
- A Role for Primordial Wisdom in the Buddhist Free Will Controversy
- A Short Presentation of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- A Summons to Buddhahood: The Bodhicaryavatara as Santideva's Call to Embrace the Bodhicitta
- Altruism and Reality (1998)
- Altruism as Antidote to Demagoguery: Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara Chapter 3 as Method for Countering Identity Divisions
- Altruism in the Charnel Ground: Śāntideva and Parfit on Anātman, Reductionism and Benevolence
- An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics
- Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins
- Appendix B: Excerpt from A Lamp Completely Illuminating the Profound Reality of Interdependence
- Becoming Bodhisattvas
- Bhadracaryāvidhi in the Śikṣāsamuccaya Chapt. 16
- Bile & Bodhisattvas: Śāntideva on Justified Anger
- Blasphemie und Sakrileg im Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Verses Bodhicaryāvatāra 6.64
- Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra als Lehrschrift und Vorhaben: Zum Thema Ritual, Religion, Philosophie und Mystik im Buddhismus
- Bodhicaryāvatāra and Bodhicaryāvatāra-Pañjikā (Malalasekera)
- Bodhicaryāvatāra and Tibetan Mind Training (Lojong)
- Bodhicaryāvatāra para Parama Pāvana Dalāi Lāmā Jī ka viśesha pravacana
- Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary (O'Sullivan)
- Bodhicaryāvatāra: Governing the Bodhisattvas Way of Life
- Bodhicitta (Ringu Tulku)
- Bodhicitta and Bodhisattva: A Study of the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva
- Bodhicitta and Charity: A Comparison
- Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment
- Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra: Entering the Way of the Bodhisattvas (2022, Khenpo Gawang and Wiener)
- Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra: Exposition de la pratique des bodhisattvas
- Bodies and Embodiment in the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Buddha Mind - Christ Mind
- Buddhist Ethics (2003)
- Buddhist Ethics and Globalization on the Basis of Bodhicaryavatara
- Buddhist Ethics in the Context of Conventional Truth: Path and Transformation
- Buddhist Texts Through the Ages
- Built on Emptiness: Śūnyatā as a Basis for Mahāyāna Ethics, With References to Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Can We Kill Illusory People? Some Philosophical Reflections on Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra 9:11-13ab
- Comparative Confession: A Comparative Study of Confession in the Writings of Tertullian, Cassian, and Śāntideva
- Compassion and Equality
- Compassion in Mahayana Buddhism
- Compassion in Our Day: Learning from Shantideva
- Compassion in Schopenhauer and Śāntideva
- Conclusion: The Socratic Paradigm
- Consequences of Compassion
- Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics-Review by Meyers
- Consequentialism, Agent-Neutrality, and Mahāyāna Ethics
- Consequentialism, Particularism, and the Emptiness of Persons: A Response to Vishnu Sridharan
- Cooking Living Beings: The Transformative Effects of Encounters with Bodhisattva Bodies
- Courageous Compassion
- Cultivating Bodhicitta: Wisdom and Compassion in Śāntideva's Introduction to the Awakened Life
- Das 7. Kapitel über die Tatkraft in Śāntidevas Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Das Ritual der Entschlussfassung im Bodhicaryāvatāra (Kap. II und III)
- Demandingness, Self-Interest and Benevolence in Santideva's Introduction to the Practice of Awakening (Bodhicaryavatara)
- Did Śāntideva Destroy the Bodhisattva Path?
- Die Aufnahme des Erleuchtungsgeistes: Eine Übersetzung von Prajñākaramatis Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā 3.1-19
- Die zwei Wahrheiten
- Discourses on Bodhicharyāvatāra
- Does "Buddhist Ethics" Exist?
- Does Anātman Rationally Entail Altruism? On Bodhicaryāvatāra 8:101-103
- Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
- Emptiness and Moral Perfection
- Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior
- Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds
- Engaging in the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
- Enlightenment to Go
- Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva: A New Translation and Contemporary Guide
- Ethical Revaluation in the Thought of Śāntideva
- Ethics (Garfield)
- Ethics and the Subversion of Conceptual Reification in Lévinas and Śāntideva
- Ethics in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
- Ethics in Schopenhauer and Buddhism
- Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality
- Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman
- Exchanging Self and Other
- Experience and Morality: Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology
- Extreme Giving: The Vessantara Jātaka and Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
- Features of Śraddhā in the Śikṣāsamuccaya
- Fierce Devotion to all Beings: The Role of Emotions in Śāntideva’s Introduction to the Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra)
- Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
- For the Benefit of All Beings
- Freedom from Responsibility: Agent-Neutral Consequentialism and the Bodhisattva Ideal
- From Madhyamaka to Consequentialism: A Road Map
- From Sickness to Empathy: How Śāntideva and Jesus's Healing of the Man Blind from Birth Might Help Us Understand the Ongoing Pandemic
- From the Profound View of the Ultimate to Everyday Practice: Tokme Zangpo's Integration of Śāntideva's Teachings into Mind Training
- Gleichheit und Mitgefühl: Prajñākaramatis Kommentar zu Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII. 89-108
- Guidance for the Spiritual Caregiver from the Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva
- Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara): A Commentary by Geshe Tenzin Zopa
- Guide to the Good Life
- Healing Anger
- Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective-Review by Naga
- How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)
- Hume as a Western Mādhyamika: The Case from Ethics
- In Praise of Great Compassion
- Innate Human Connectivity and Śāntideva's Cultivation of Compassion
- Internal and External Opposition to the Bodhisattva's Gift of His Body
- La légende de Śāntideva
- Le commentaire de Mi-pham au chapitre IX du Bodhicaryāvatāra de Śāntideva: Échos modernes d'une controverse du XVème siècle
- Love in Christianity and Buddhism: A Comparative Study of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Madhyamaka Ethics
- Mapping the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Mental Purification (Blo sbyong): A Native Tibetan Genre of Religious Literature
- Mindfulness and Ethics: Attention, Virtue and Perfection
- Mindfulness and Moral Transformation: Awakening to Others in Śāntideva's Ethics
- Moderation or the Middle Way: Two Approaches to Anger
- Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness
- Moral Pluralism, Skillful Means, and Environmental Ethics
- Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya
- Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya-Review by Osto
- Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the Fruits of Virtue-Review by Goodman
- Nichtselbst, Leerheit und Altruistische Ethik im Bodhicaryāvatāra (Lecture Transcript)
- Nichtselbst, Leerheit und Altruistische Ethik im Bodhicaryāvatāra (Official Publication)
- No Time to Lose
- On Altruism and Rebirth: Philosophical Comments on Bodhicaryāvatāra 8: 97-8
- On Learning to Overhear the "Vanishing Poet"
- On the Classification of Śāntideva's Ethics in the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- One Aspect of the Acceptance of the Bodhisattva-śīla in Tibet
- Patience and Perspective
- Patience: A Guide to Shantideva's Sixth Chapter (Zopa 2020)
- Peaceful Heart
- Perfecting Patience
- Perfecting Wisdom
- Performing Text as Practice: Rdza Dpal sprul's Practice Manual on the Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra
- Plant Seed, Pull Weed
- Practicing Wisdom
- Prajñākaramati on Śāntideva's Case Against Anger: A Translation of Bodhicaryāvatāra-pañjikā VI.1-69
- Puṇya and Pāp in Public Health: Everyday Religion, Material Culture, and Avenues of Buddhist Activism in Urban Kathmandu
- Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice
- Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice-Review by Harris
- Reason and Knowledge on the Path: A Protreptic Reading of the Guide
- René Girard, Śāntideva, and the Emptiness of Desire
- Reply to Paul Williams
- Resentment and Reality: Buddhism on Moral Responsibility
- Response to Mark Siderits' Review
- Ritual Structure and Material Culture in the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice
- Santideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Seeing Sentient Beings: Śāntideva's Moral Phenomenology
- Seeing from All Sides
- Self-Protection through Mindfulness, Śāntideva
- Self-Sceptical Ethics and Selfless Morality: A Historical and Cross-Cultural Overview
- Selfhood and the Metaphysics of Altruism
- Selfless Ethics: The Equality of Non-Existence
- Selflessness and Normativity: Śāntideva and Emptiness Ethics
- Shantideva and Bodhicaryavatara: A Close Reading
- Shantideva and Friends
- Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara: An Internal Pilgrimage to Universal Peace and Compassion
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 4
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 5
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 6
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 7
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 8
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 1
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 2
- Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 3
- Shantideva: How to Wake Up a Hero
- Spinoza through the Prism of Later 'East-West' Exchanges: Analogues of Buddhist Themes in the Ethics and the Works of Early Spinozists
- Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions
- Stotra, Psychological Conditioning, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Together with a Translation of the Bodhicittānuśaṃsapariccheda
- Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (2000)
- Suffering Made Sufferable: Śāntideva, Dzongkaba, and Modern Therapeutic Approaches to Suffering's Silver Lining
- Sur l'océan du Mahayana
- Sāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, Chapter 8 (verses 89-140)
- The Absence of Self and the Removal of Pain: How Śāntideva Destroyed the Bodhisattva Path
- The Awakening Mind (Tsering 2008)
- The Beautiful Way of Life
- The Bodhi-caryâvatāra and Its Monastic Aspects: On the Problem of Representation
- The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature
- The Bodhisattva Guide
- The Bodhisattva Path: Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- The Bodhisattva and the Ideal of Moral Wisdom in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya
- The Buddhist Roots of Secular Compassion Training: A Comparative Study of Compassion Cultivation in Indian and Tibetan Mahāyāna Sources with the Contemporary Secular Program of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT)
- The Center of the Sunlit Sky
- The Changing Way of the Bodhisattva: Superheroes, Saints, and Social Workers
- The Circle of Compassion: An Interpretive Study of Karuṇā in Indian Buddhist Literature
- The Compassionate Gift of Vice: Śāntideva on Gifts, Altruism, and Poverty
- The Concept of Bodhicitta in Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara
- The Concept of Bodhicitta in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (Diss)
- The Concept of Bodhicitta in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra-Review by Edelglass
- The Concept of Bodhicitta in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra-Review by Tatz
- The Connection between Ontology and Ethics in Madhyamaka Thought
- The Contrasts between the Bodhisattvayāna and the Śrāvakayāna in the Śikṣāsamuccaya's Theory of Bodhicitta
- The Endlessly Fascinating Cry
- The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors
- The Ethics of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by Abramson
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by Javanaud
- The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva-Review by O'Leary
- The Metaphysical Basis of Śāntideva's Ethics
- The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech
- The Philosophical Basis of Worship in the Works of Śāntideva
- The Profound Reality of Interdependence
- The Profound Reality of Interdependence-Review by Bouthillette
- The Reality of Altruism: Reconstructing Śāntideva, A Review of Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicāryāvatāra, by Paul Williams
- The Reflexive Nature of Awareness (1998)
- The Relationship between Morality and the Body in Monastic Training according to the Śikṣāsamuccaya
- The Resolve to Become a Buddha
- The Role of Solitude (viveka) in the Eighth Chapter (Dhyānapāramitā) of the Bodhicaryāvatāra
- The Self and the Other in Bodhicaryāvatāra: Part 1
- The Self and the Suffering Other: Levinas and Śāntideva on the Ethics of Compassion
- The Selfless Removal of Pain: A Critical Glance at Śāntideva's Argument in Bodhicaryāvatāra 8: 101–3
- The Social Message of Mahayana Buddhism
- The Training Anthology of Śāntideva
- The Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The History, Diffusion, and Influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist Text
- The Way of Awakening
- The Way of the Bodhisattva (1997)
- The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
- The Wisdom Chapter
- The Śāntideva Passage: Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII.90–103
- Theory and Comparison in the Discussion of Buddhist Ethics
- Traces of Consequentialism and Non-Consequentialism in Bodhisattva Ethics
- Transcendent Wisdom (1988)
- Transcendent Wisdom (2009)
- Uncommon Happiness
- Uses of the Illusion of Agency: Why Some Buddhists Should Believe in Free Will
- Virtues-Pāramitās: St. Ignatius of Loyola and Śāntideva as Companions on the Way of Life
- Virtuous Bodies
- Waking into Compassion: The Three Ālambana of Karuṇā
- What Is It Like to Be a Bodhisattva? Moral Phenomenology in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra
- What Would a Sage Do?
- Where Does the Cetanic Break Take Place? Weakness of Will in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra
- Why War? Why Not Peace? Santideva's Answer to Einstein's Famous Question to Freud
- Wisdom: Two Buddhist Commentaries
- Śāntideva (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Śāntideva (Karen Lang)
- Śāntideva (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Śāntideva and Kant: An East-West Comparative Study in Ethics
- Śāntideva and an Ethic of Radical Compassion
- Śāntideva and the Moral Psychology of Fear
- Śāntideva on Developing the Thought of Awakening
- Śāntideva on Roots and Resolutions of Violence
- Śāntideva's Criticism of Vijñānavāda and Bodhicitta
- Śāntideva's Ethics of Impartial Compassion
- Śāntideva's Impartialist Ethics
- Śāntideva's Philosophy as Expressed in the Early Version of His Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, Chapter 8
- Śāntideva's Statement about Confession
- Śāntideva, A Mystic of Buddhism
- Śāntideva, Virtue, and Consequentialism
- Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles
- Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles-Review by Cabezón
- Śāntidevas Bodhicaryāvatāra: Das Weiterwirken des Werkes dargestellt anhand der Überlieferungsgeschichte des Textes und seiner Kommentare
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Description
The Way of the Bodhisattva has long been treasured as an indispensable guide to enlightened living, offering a window into the greatest potential within us all. Written in the eighth century by the scholar and saint Shantideva, it presents a comprehensive view of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition’s highest ideal—to commit oneself to the life of a bodhisattva warrior, a person who is wholeheartedly dedicated to the freedom and common good of all beings. And it has inspired many of the tradition’s greatest teachers, providing a remarkable source of insight on the means by which we may heal ourselves and our troubled world. These essential teachings present the core of the Buddhist path, from cultivating deep-seated confidence to infusing one’s life with selflessness, joyfulness, kindness, and compassion. Pema Chödrön here invites you to journey more deeply into this liberating way of life, presenting Shantideva’s text verse-by-verse and offering both illuminating stories and practical exercises to enrich the text and bring its timeless teachings to life in our world today. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Citation
Chödrön, Pema. Becoming Bodhisattvas: A Guidebook for Compassionate Action. Edited by Helen Berliner. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2018.
Table of contents
- People Like Us Can Make a Differenceix
- Developing a Clear Intention1
- Preparing the Ground25
- Transcending Hesitation53
- Using Our Intelligence75
- Taming the Mind103
- The Three Disciplines129
- Working with Anger159
- Specific Situations for Practicing Patience189
- Enthusiasm225
- Heartbreak with Samsara269
- Dissolving the Barriers303
- Dedication341
- Acknowledgments363
- Appendix: Study Guidelines365
- Glossary367
- Bibliography371
- Index375
Interconnections
1 Full translation of
An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.
2 Other editions
Chödrön reveals the traditional Buddhist teachings of the Bodhicharyavatara, describing the steps we can take to cultivate courage, caring, and joy.
In No Time to Lose Chödrön reveals the traditional Buddhist teachings that guide her own life: those of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), a text written by the eighth-century sage Shantideva. This treasured Buddhist work is remarkably relevant for our times, describing the steps we can take to cultivate courage, caring, and joy—the key to healing ourselves and our troubled world. Chödrön offers us a highly practical and engaging commentary on this essential text, explaining how its profound teachings can be applied to our daily lives.
Full of illuminating stories and practical exercises, this fresh and accessible guide shows us that the path of the bodhisattva is open to each and every one of us. Pema Chödrön urges us to embark on this transformative path today, writing, "There is no time to lose—but not to worry, we can do it." (Source: Shambhala Publications)
1 Teaching based on
An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.



