Courageous Compassion

Courageous Compassion

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Courageous Compassion, the sixth volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, continues the Dalai Lama's teachings on the path to awakening. The previous volume, In Praise of Great Compassion, focused on opening our hearts with love and compassion for all living beings, and the present volume explains how to embody compassion and wisdom in our daily lives. Here we enter a fascinating exploration of bodhisattvas’ activities across multiple Buddhist traditions—Tibetan, Theravāda, and Chinese Buddhism.

After explaining the ten perfections according to the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions, the Dalai Lama presents the sophisticated schema of the four paths and fruits for śrāvakas and solitary realizers and the five paths for bodhisattvas. Learning about the practices mastered by these exalted practitioners inspires us with knowledge of our minds’ potential. His Holiness also describes buddha bodies, what buddhas perceive, and buddhas’ awakening activities.

Courageous Compassion offers an in-depth look at bodhicitta, arhatship, and buddhahood that you can continuously refer to as you progress on the path to full awakening. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Citation

Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Courageous Compassion. Library of Wisdom and Compassion 6. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2021.

Publisher Link

https://wisdomexperience.org/product/courageous-compassion/

RelationshipsLinksRKTS DataTable of Contents

• Preface by Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Chodronviii
• Abbreviationsxix

• INTRODUCTION BY HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA1

• PART I. HOW TO LIVE WITH COMPASSION: THE BODHISATTVA PERFECTIONS5

• 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE BODHISATTVA PERFECTIONS7
  • The Two Collections of Merit and Wisdom8
  • The Six Perfections11
  • The Basis, Nature, Necessity, and Function of the Six Perfections14
  • How the Six Perfections Relate to Other Practices20

• 2. LIVING AS A BODHISATTVA: THE PERFECTIONS OF GENEROSITY, ETHICAL CONDUCT, AND FORTITUDE27
  • The Perfection of Generosity27
  • The Perfection of Ethical Conduct42
  • The Perfection of Fortitude53
  • Distinguishing Factors of the First Three Perfections70

• 3. LIVING AS A BODHISATTVA: THE REMAINING SEVEN PERFECTIONS71
  • The Perfection of Joyous Effort71
  • The Perfection of Meditative Stability79
  • The Perfection of Wisdom82
  • The Three Understandings86
  • Space-Like and Illusion-Like Meditation on Emptiness87
  • Serenity and Insight93
  • The Importance of Insight96
  • The Perfection of Skillful Means98
  • The Perfection of Unshakable Resolve100
  • The Perfection of Power102
  • The Perfection of Pristine Wisdom104
  • Ultimate Bodhicitta106
  • Conclusion108

• 4. SHARING THE DHARMA111
  • Four Ways of Gathering Disciples in Tibetan Buddhism112
  • Four Ways of Sustaining Favorable Relationships in the Pāli Tradition114
  • Four All-Embracing Bodhisattva Virtues in Chinese Buddhism116
  • Suggestions for Western Dharma Teachers118
  • The Essence of Dharma and Its Cultural Forms127
  • Propagating the Dharma130
  • What to Teach in the West133
  • Teaching according to the Audience136
  • Translations and Rituals141
  • Many Ways to Benefit Sentient Beings142
  • Areas of Caution149
  • Respect for the Dharma152
  • Buddhadharma in Asia153
  • Dharma Centers155

• 5. THE TEN PERFECTIONS IN THE PĀLI TRADITION159
  • The Pāramīs159
  • Generosity165
  • Ethical Conduct168
  • Renunciation171
  • Wisdom173
  • Joyous Effort175
  • Fortitude177
  • Truthfulness183
  • Determination184
  • Love185
  • Equanimity186
  • The Sequence of the Perfections187
  • How to Accomplish the Perfections189
  • Benefits and Results of Practicing the Perfections192

• PART II. THE THREE VEHICLES AND THEIR FRUITS195

• 6. BREAKTHROUGH TO NIRVĀṆA: THE PĀLI TRADITION197
  • The Three Vehicles197
  • Dhyānas and the Destruction of Pollutants199
  • Direct Knowledge, Full Understanding, and Realization202
  • The Four Pairs of Āryas204
  • Those Who Have Work to Do with Diligence and Those Who Do Not214
  • Purification and Knowledge220
  • Occasions for Attaining Liberation228
  • Four Kinds of Persons Who Attain Arhatship229
  • Liberation of Mind, Liberation by Wisdom230
  • Nirvāṇa and the Arhat231
  • Tathāgatas and Arhats236

• 7. FUNDAMENTAL VEHICLE PATHS AND FRUITS: THE SANSKRIT TRADITION239
  • Realization of the Four Truths239
  • Three Vehicles: The Paths of Method and Wisdom242
  • Path, Ground, and Clear Realization245
  • Approachers and Abiders246
  • Eight Grounds of the Fundamental Vehicle250
  • Five Paths of the Fundamental Vehicle252
  • Solitary Realizers259
  • The Variety of Dispositions and Faculties261

• 8. THE PATHS OF THE BODHISATTVA267
  • Five Mahāyāna Paths267
  • Bodhisattva Path of Accumulation268
  • Bodhisattva Path of Preparation270
  • Bodhisattva Path of Seeing272
  • Bodhisattva Path of Meditation276
  • Three Special Times284

• 9. BODHISATTVA GROUNDS287
  • Special Qualities of Each Ground287
  • First Ground, the Joyous293
  • Second Ground, the Stainless297
  • Third Ground, the Luminous299
  • Fourth Ground, the Radiant302
  • Fifth Ground, the Indomitable305
  • Sixth Ground, the Approaching309
  • Seventh Ground, the Far Advanced313

• 10. THREE PURE BODHISATTVA GROUNDS317
  • Eighth Ground, the Immovable317
  • Ninth Ground, Excellent Intelligence321
  • Tenth Ground, the Cloud of Dharma324
  • Summary of the Ten Grounds327
  • Do Bodhisattvas Take Birth in Cyclic Existence?329
  • How Bodhisattvas Practice333
  • Essential Points335
  • Tantric Paths and Grounds339
  • Gradual Path versus Sudden Awakening341

• 11. BUDDHAHOOD: THE PATH OF NO MORE LEARNING345
  • The Buddha Bodies346
  • Wisdom Dharmakāya350
  • Nature Dharmakāya354
  • Form Bodies358
  • Buddha, Ārya Buddha, and Sentient Being367
  • What Buddhas Perceive368

• 12. BUDDHAHOOD: THE BUDDHAS' AWAKENING ACTIVITIES375
  • Nine Similes for Awakening Activity376
  • Twenty-Seven Awakening Activities387
  • Ānanda Settles His Doubts390
  • Individuals Acting in Unison392
  • Questions about the Buddha394
  • The Buddhas' Three Mysteries396
  • Seeing the Buddha397

• Notes401
• Glossary413
• Recommended Reading431
• Index435
• About the Authors463

Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

Go to the page with the definition of 'compassion'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt श्रावक  Tib ཉན་ཐོས།  Ch 聲聞  

Go to the page with the definition of 'śrāvakas'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Stender, Daniel. "Bodhicitta." In Buddhism and Jainism, edited by K. T. S. Sarao and Jeffery D. Long, 252–54. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2017.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Ringu Tulku. "Bodhicitta." In Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung", transcribed and prepared by Gabriele Hollmann, 171–84. Vol. 3 of Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg (Weiterbildendes Studium), 1999. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd3-k10rinpoche.pdf.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Arhat - A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again. Skt अर्हत्  Tib དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།  Ch 阿羅漢  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Arhat'

Arhat - A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again. Skt अर्हत्  Tib དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།  Ch 阿羅漢  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Arhat'

Arhat - A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again. Skt अर्हत्  Tib དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།  Ch 阿羅漢  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Arhats'

Arhat - A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again. Skt अर्हत्  Tib དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།  Ch 阿羅漢  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Arhats'

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyāna'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt धर्मकाय  Tib ཆོས་སྐུ་  Ch 法身  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Dharmakāya'