Translation of
Bodhicaryāvatāra
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.
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Teaching based on
Bodhicaryāvatāra
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.
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Related
Śāntideva and Paul—An Unexpected Encounter (Schmidt-Leukel 2021)
This essay is based on my commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra in which I discovered and exposed a striking similarity between the Pauline tension of spirit and flesh on the one hand and Śāntideva's description of the tension between spirit and defilements on the other hand. By means of a fictive dialogue between Paul and Śāntideva, the essay provides a brief summary of the broader theological and buddhological contexts in which these two conceptions of spiritual endeavor are embedded. In doing so, further parallels but also differences between the teachings of Paul and Śāntideva are highlighted, suggesting that the commonalities are strong enough to indicate a common spiritual source and the differences significant enough to enable reciprocal illumination in terms of a genuinely truth-seeking dialogue.
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