Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice

Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra), is known for its eminently practical instructions and its psychologically vivid articulations of the Mahāyāna path. It is a powerful, succinct poem into which are woven diverse Buddhist traditions of moral transformation, meditative cultivation, and philosophical insight. Since its composition, it has seen continuous use as a ritual, contemplative, and philosophical manual, making it one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition.

This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic. The fifteen essays contained here illuminate the Guide’s many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions. Distinguished scholars discuss the historical significance of the text as an innovative piece of Indian literature, illuminate the important roles it played in shaping Buddhism in Tibet, and bring to light its contemporary significance for philosophy and psychology. Whether experienced or first-time students of Buddhist literature, readers will find compelling new approaches to this resonant masterpiece. (Source: Columbia University Press)

Citation

Gold, Jonathan C., and Douglas S. Duckworth, eds. Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.

Publisher Link

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/readings-of-sntidevas-guide-to-bodhisattva-practice/9780231192675

RelationshipsLinksRKTS DataTable of Contents

Contains chapter or part

 

An Intoxication of Mouse Venom: Reading the Guide, Chapter 9

This chapter in Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice concerns Śāntideva's understanding of emptiness as articulated in the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Article

 

Bodhicaryāvatāra and Tibetan Mind Training (Lojong)

Thupten Jinpa analyzes the complex relationship between the Bodhicaryāvatāra and lojong (mind training) and how the Guide may have shaped lojong's development.

Article

 

Bodies and Embodiment in the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Investigates the notion of "embodiment" in the Bodhicaryāvatāra in the sense of the physical bodies involved in the attainment of buddhahood and attitudes toward the body.

Article

 

Innate Human Connectivity and Śāntideva's Cultivation of Compassion

John Dunne argues that for Śāntideva the cultivation of compassion is a matter of disrupting the cognitive models that inhibit the innate capacity to sense and respond to all suffering.

Article

 

On Learning to Overhear the "Vanishing Poet"

In this chapter Sonam Kachru offers a tentative orientation to the Bodhicaryāvatāra as literature, focussing particularly on verses from chapter 8.

Article

 

Reason and Knowledge on the Path: A Protreptic Reading of the Guide

Amber Carpenter illustrates how the Bodhicaryāvatāra may be read as a protreptic text—that is, it does something to the audience, reorienting us toward a comprehension of reality.

Article

 

Ritual Structure and Material Culture in the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice

This chapter by Eric Huntington investigates the overall ritual structure of the Bodhicaryāvatāra and describes material practices that correspond to specific passages.

Article

 

Seeing Sentient Beings: Śāntideva's Moral Phenomenology

Explores the idea moral phenomenology and Santideva's account of moral cultivation, the uses of moral phenomenology, and the bodhisattva vows in the contemporary world.

Article

 

Seeing from All Sides

Janet Gyatso explores Śāntideva's presentation of exchanging oneself with another, focusing upon his literary strategies to create in his readers the capacity to perform this practice.

Article

 

Taming Śāntideva: Tsongkhapa's Use of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

In this chapter Roger Jackson examines Tsongkhapa's treatment of the Bodhicaryāvatāra in his 1402 magnum opus, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Awakening.

Article

 

The Middle Way of the Bodhisattva

Douglas Duckworth discusses the role and implications of "existing on its own" as the main principle guiding Künzang Sönam's interpretation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Article

 

Śāntideva and the Moral Psychology of Fear

Examines verses in BCA chaps. 2 and 7 aimed at inciting fear and argues this is done with an aim of transforming egoistic self-concern into altruistic self-other concern.

Article

 

Śāntideva's Ethics of Impartial Compassion

In this chapter Charles Goodman attempts to ascertain where Śāntideva's ethical views might fit in the space of ethical theories that are defended today.

Article

 

Śāntideva: The Author and His Project

Paul Harrison argues that the Bodhicaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya serve a common agenda, and that neither work can be fully understood independently of the other.

Article

Reviews

 

Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice-Review by Harris

Stephen Harris's review of Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice, edited by Jonathan C. Gold and Douglas S. Duckworth. Published in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

Article

Scholarship on

 

Bodhicaryāvatāraབྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།

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.

Text

• A Note to the Readerix
• Acknowledgmentsxi

• Introduction. Participatory Authorship and Communal Interpretation: The Bodhicaryāvatāra as a "World Classic"1
  • Jonathan C. Gold
• 1. Śāntideva: The Author and His Project27
  • Paul Harrison
• 2. Reason and Knowledge on the Path: A Protreptic Reading of the Guide45
  • Amber Carpenter
• 3. On Learning to Overhear the "Vanishing Poet"60
  • Sonam Kachru
• 4. An Intoxication of Mouse Venom: Reading the Guide, Chapter 984
  • Matthew T. Kapstein
• 5. Seeing from All Sides99
  • Janet Gyatso
• 6. Bodies and Embodiment in the Bodhicaryāvatāra114
  • Reiko Ohnuma
• 7. Ritual Structure and Material Culture in the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice132
  • Eric Huntington
• 8. Bodhicaryāvatāra and Tibetan Mind Training (Lojong)146
  • Thupten Jinpa
• 9. Taming Śāntideva: Tsongkhapa's Use of the Bodhicaryāvatāra162
  • Roger Jackson
• 10. The Middle Way of the Bodhisattva180
  • Douglas S. Duckworth
• 11. Seeing Sentient Beings: Śāntideva's Moral Phenomenology192
  • Jay L. Garfield
• 12. Śāntideva's Ethics of Impartial Compassion209
  • Charles Goodman
• 13. Śāntideva and the Moral Psychology of Fear221
  • Bronwyn Finnigan
• 14. Innate Human Connectivity and Śāntideva's Cultivation of Compassion235
  • John D. Dunne

• Appendix 1: A Guide to Guide Translations: Advice for Students and Instructors253
• Appendix 2: Index of Guide Verses Cited257
• Bibliography271
• Contributors285
• Index291

Potter, Karl H. ed. "Śāntideva." In Bibliography: Part 1, Texts Whose Authors Can Be Dated; Authors Listed Chronologically, 5th through 9th Century. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Online edition. Last updated Apr 15, 2020. https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xtxt2.htm.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Lele, Amod. "Śāntideva." In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Accessed Feb. 11, 2021. https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Tsukamoto, Keisho, Yukei Matsunaga, and Hirofumi Isoda, eds. "Śāntideva." In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Vol. 3, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, 250–69. Kyoto: Heirakuji-Shoten, 1990.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Lang, Karen. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 137–39. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Goodman, Charles. "Śāntideva." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 15, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

Potter, Karl H., David J. Kalupahana, and Michael J. Sweet. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 516–25. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śāntideva'

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'

Weeraratne, D. Amarasiri. "Bodhicaryāvatāra." The Maha-Bodhi 79, nos. 2–3 (1971): 406–9.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicaryāvatāra'

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicaryāvatāra'

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  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

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Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

Go to the page with the definition of 'compassion'

Shastri, Hara Prasad. "Santideva." Indian Antiquary 42 (1913): 49–52. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210178/page/n55/mode/2up

Go to the page with the definition of 'Santideva'

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'

Garfield, Jay L. "Ethics." Chap. 9 in Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ethics'

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Śikṣāsamuccaya [शिक्षासमुच्चय]. bslab pa kun las btus pa [བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།]. [The Compendium of Training]. Tengyur, RKTST 3281 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3281&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śikṣāsamuccaya'

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།'

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  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན། and ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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