Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality

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Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality
Dissertation
Śāntideva's Life and Cultural World


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Barbra Clayton
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  • Textual Studies

Description

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ethics of Śāntideva, an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker of the seventh century CE, particularly through his work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya (Compendium of Teaching). This study therefore helps redress a significant imbalance in the scholarship on Buddhist ethics, which has up to now focused primarily on the morality of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. The dissertation incorporates both descriptive and metaethical analyses to answer three questions: What is Śāntideva's moral theory, and how does it compare with other characterizations of Buddhist ethics? Can one moral theory adequately describe Buddhist moral traditions?
      Through textual analysis and translations, this thesis offers a exegetical account of the moral thought in the Śikṣasamuccaya, beginning with a description of Śāntideva's understanding of how to become a bodhisattva, the Mahāyāna spiritual ideal. I provide an analysis of Śāntideva's understanding of key moral concepts, with a particular focus on virtuous conduct (śīla), skillfulness (kuśalatvā), and merit (puṇya). I then test the assumption that Buddhist moral theory is homogeneous by comparing the results of this study with those of existing secondary literature on Buddhist ethics, and in particular, I respond to Damien Keown's position that Buddhist ethics can be considered a form of Aristotelian virtue ethics. I highlight those features of Śāntideva's thought that fit the framework of a virtue ethic, and then discuss the implications of those aspects of the tradition that are not well captured by it. In particular, I consider the utilitarian elements in Śāntideva's morality. In my conclusion, I attempt to resolve these apparently conflicting styles of moral reasoning with the idea that there is a shift over the course of a bodhisattva's career from a straightforward virtue ethic to a kind of utilitarian hybrid of virtue ethics. I conclude the thesis with some reflections on the value of comparative ethics and the effort to develop a comprehensive moral theory to describe Buddhist traditions.

Citation
Clayton, Barbra R. "Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality." PhD diss., McGill University, 2001.
Table of contents
  • Abbreviations and Conventionsvi
  • Chapter One: Introduction1
    • I. Objectives1
      • a. Scope and Rationale1
      • b. Questions to be addressed4
    • II. Method9
      • a. Approaches to the study of the Buddhist Ethics9
      • b. The method of comparison and the question of definitions17
        • i. Comparison as method17
        • ii. Definitions24
        • iii. Summary of Definitions37
      • c. On textualism: translation and philological issues38
      • d. The issue of Orientalism44
  • Chapter Two: The text and its author48
    • I. Santideva's dates and doctrinal affiliation48
    • II. Santideva's life52
    • III. Santideva's works56
    • IV. The text of the Śikṣāsamuccaya58
    • V. Structure of the Śikṣāsamuccaya60
  • Chapter Three: Summary of the Śikṣāsamuccaya63
    • I. Preservation65
      • a. Preservation in general and preservation of the self65
      • b. Preservation of the objects of enjoyment73
      • c. Preservation of merit75
    • II. Purification79
      • a. Purification of the self79
      • b. Purification of the objects of enjoyment and merit88
    • III. Cultivation91
      • a. Cultivation of self and objects of enjoyment91
      • b. Cultivation of merit93
  • Chapter Four: Analysis of key moral terms104
    • I. Kuśala104
    • II. Śīla112
    • III. Puṇya117
    • IV. Puṇya and its problematic 'application'122
  • Chapter Five: Śāntideva's morality in context134
    • I. Śāntideva's morality135
      • a. Summary of Śāntideva's vision135
      • b. Initial observations141
      • c. The paradoxical nature of Śāntideva's morality144
      • d. Śāntideva's moral theory146
    • II. Just one moral theory?151
      • a. Gradualism151
      • b. The implications of skillful means152
      • c. The merit hierarchy162
  • Chapter Six: Conclusions166
    • I. What kind of moral theory?166
    • II. Is Buddhist morality homogeneous?168
  • Bibliography176
Interconnections
Works related to this item
1 Scholarship on
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.
Classical WorksAbout this item
Śikṣāsamuccaya (T. Bslab pa kun las btus pa; C. Dasheng ji pusa xue lun; J. Daijōjū bosatsugakuron; K. Taesǔng chip posal hak non 大乘集菩薩學論). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Training," a work by the eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master Śāntideva. It consists of twenty-seven stanzas on the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva, including bodhicitta, the six perfections (pāramitā), the worship of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benefits of renunciation, and the peace derived from the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). The topic of each of the stanzas receives elaboration in the form of a prose commentary by the author as well as in illustrative passages, often quite extensive, drawn from a wide variety of Mahāyāna sūtras. Some ninety-seven texts are cited in all, many of which have been lost in their original Sanskrit, making the Śikṣāsamuccaya an especially important source for the textual history of Indian Buddhism. These citations also offer a window into which sūtras were known to a Mahāyāna author in eighth-century India. The digest of passages that Śāntideva provides was repeatedly drawn upon by Tibetan authors in their citations of sūtras. Although Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra and Śikṣāsamuccaya both deal with similar topics, the precise relation between the two texts is unclear. Several of the author's verses appear in both texts and some of the sūtra passages from the Śikṣāsamuccaya also appear in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. One passage in the Bodhicaryāvatāra also refers readers to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, but this line does not occur in the Dunhuang manuscript of the text and may be a later interpolation. (Source: "Śikṣāsamuccaya." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 821. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)



Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the 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'

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'

Śīla - The Buddhist practice of ethical behavior, like being honest, kind, and not harming others. It means following guidelines for good conduct, which helps calm the mind and live a wholesome life. It is the first of the Three Higher Trainings (triśikṣā: śīla, samādhi, prajñā), and the second of the six perfections (pāramitās). In daily practice, śīla is cultivated through mindful attention to one's actions, regular reflection on precepts, and the development of wholesome habits. Skt शील  Tib ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་  Ch 戒  

Go to the page with the definition of 'morality'

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'

Śīla - The Buddhist practice of ethical behavior, like being honest, kind, and not harming others. It means following guidelines for good conduct, which helps calm the mind and live a wholesome life. It is the first of the Three Higher Trainings (triśikṣā: śīla, samādhi, prajñā), and the second of the six perfections (pāramitās). In daily practice, śīla is cultivated through mindful attention to one's actions, regular reflection on precepts, and the development of wholesome habits. Skt शील  Tib ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་  Ch 戒  

Go to the page with the definition of 'virtuous conduct'

Śīla - The Buddhist practice of ethical behavior, like being honest, kind, and not harming others. It means following guidelines for good conduct, which helps calm the mind and live a wholesome life. It is the first of the Three Higher Trainings (triśikṣā: śīla, samādhi, prajñā), and the second of the six perfections (pāramitās). In daily practice, śīla is cultivated through mindful attention to one's actions, regular reflection on precepts, and the development of wholesome habits. Skt शील  Tib ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་  Ch 戒  

Go to the page with the definition of 'śīla'

Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

Go to the page with the definition of 'merit'

Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

Go to the page with the definition of 'puṇya'

Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

Go to the page with the definition of 'virtue'

Anumāna - Inference (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag) is a way of knowing something indirectly, using logic and reasoning rather than direct experience. For example, if you see smoke rising from a distant mountain, you can infer that there is a fire there, even if you can't see the fire directly yourself. It's a key way to understand things that are hidden from our senses. It is used in the Buddhist tradition to gain insight into deeper levels of reality of self and phenomena. Skt अनुमान  Tib རྗེས་དཔག་  Ch 比量  

Go to the page with the definition of 'reasoning'

Ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt आत्मन्  Tib བདག་  Ch 我;灵魂  

Go to the page with the definition of 'the self'

Śīla - The Buddhist practice of ethical behavior, like being honest, kind, and not harming others. It means following guidelines for good conduct, which helps calm the mind and live a wholesome life. It is the first of the Three Higher Trainings (triśikṣā: śīla, samādhi, prajñā), and the second of the six perfections (pāramitās). In daily practice, śīla is cultivated through mindful attention to one's actions, regular reflection on precepts, and the development of wholesome habits. Skt शील  Tib ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་  Ch 戒  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śīla'

Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Puṇya'

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'

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།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

Go to the page with the definition of 'perfections'

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།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

Go to the page with the definition of 'pāramitā'

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'

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;空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

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;空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'śūnyatā'

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

Go to the page with the definition of 'sūtras'

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'

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

Go to the page with the definition of 'sūtra'
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