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The sixth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, devoted to the perfection of patience (kṣānti or bzod pa), is one of the most celebrated chapters of Śāntideva's beloved treatise. Though it has not received as much commentarial attention as the famous ninth chapter, commonly known as the Wisdom Chapter, the chapter on patience is one of the most practical sections of the text and the most relatable. While the argumentation of the ninth chapter takes as its opponents many ancient and long since defunct Indian philosophical traditions, the opponent in the sixth chapter is one with which we are all intimately familiar- anger.
The translator and scholar Thupten Jinpa gives us a "working definition" of patience, as well as a brief overview of Śāntideva's exegesis of the topic, stating,
In the last chapter of the section on protecting bodhicitta, Śāntideva focuses on the pāramitā of patience as the antidote or means of removing anger. Nevertheless, Śāntideva's most often referenced verse related to patience appears in the previous chapter, though it is more often the imagery of the verse, rather than its words, that is invoked. In the context of detailing the necessity to guard the mind in order to persevere in the trainings, Śāntideva argues that rather than being merely physical or verbal actions, the perfections are primarily performed with the mind. As he explains in the context of the perfection of patience,
Harmful beings are everywhere like space itself. Impossible it is that all should be suppressed. But let this angry mind alone be overthrown, And it’s as though all foes had been subdued.
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
སེམས་ཅན་མི་བསྲུན་ནམ་མཁའ་བཞིན། །
དེ་དག་གཞོམ་གྱིས་ཡོང་མི་ལང་། ། ཁྲོ་བའི་སེམས་འདི་གཅིག་བཅོམ་ན། །
དགྲ་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཆོམས་དང་འདྲ། །sems can mi bsrun nam mkha' bzhin/_/
de dag gzhom gyis yong mi lang /_/ khro ba'i sems 'di gcig bcom na/_/
dgra de thams cad choms dang 'dra/_/To cover all the earth with sheets of leather— Where could such amounts of skin be found? But with the leather soles of just my shoes It is as though I cover all the earth!
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ས་སྟེང་འདི་དག་ཀོས་གཡོག་ཏུ། །
དེ་སྙེད་ཀོ་བས་ག་ལ་ལང་། ། ལྷམ་མཐིལ་ཙམ་གྱི་ཀོ་བས་ནི། །
ས་སྟེང་ཐམས་ཅད་གཡོགས་དང་འདྲ། །sa steng 'di dag kos g.yog tu/_/
de snyed ko bas ga la lang /_/ lham mthil tsam gyi ko bas ni/_/
sa steng thams cad g.yogs dang 'dra/_/And thus the outer course of things I myself cannot restrain. But let me just restrain my mind, And what is left to be restrained?
Page(s) 63
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་བཞིན་ཕྱི་རོལ་དངོས་པོ་ཡང་། །
བདག་གིས་ཕྱིར་བཟློག་མི་ལང་གི ། བདག་གི་སེམས་འདི་ཕྱིར་བཟློག་བྱའི། །
གཞན་རྣམས་བཟློག་གོ་ཅི་ཞིག་[p.34]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
de bzhin phyi rol dngos po yang /_/
bdag gis phyir bzlog mi lang gi_/ bdag gi sems 'di phyir bzlog bya'i/_/
gzhan rnams bzlog go ci zhig [p.34]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
Śāntideva begins the sixth chapter by explaining the harm caused by anger and the reasons it should be abandoned, stating,
All the good works gathered in a thousand ages, Such as deeds of generosity, And offerings to the Blissful Ones— A single flash of anger shatters them.
Page(s) 77
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
༈ བསྐལ་པ་སྟོང་དུ་བསགས་པ་ཡི། །
སྦྱིན་དང་བདེ་གཤེགས་མཆོད་ལ་སོགས། ། ལེགས་སྤྱད་གང་ཡིན་དེ་ཀུན་ཀྱང་། །
ཁོང་ཁྲོ་གཅིག་གིས་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད། །bskal pa stong du bsags pa yi/_/
sbyin dang bde gshegs mchod la sogs/_/ legs spyad gang yin de kun kyang /_/
khong khro gcig gis 'joms par byed/_/No evil is there similar to anger, No austerity to be compared with patience. Steep yourself, therefore, in patience, In various ways, insistently.
Page(s) 77
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཞེ་སྡང་ལྟ་བུའི་སྡིག་པ་མེད། །
བཟོད་པ་ལྟ་བུའི་དཀའ་ཐུབ་མེད། ། དེ་བས་བཟོད་ལ་ནན་ཏན་དུ། །
སྣ་ཚོགས་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བསྒོམ་པར་བྱ། །zhe sdang lta bu'i sdig pa med/_/
bzod pa lta bu'i dka' thub med/_/ de bas bzod la nan tan du/_/
sna tshogs tshul gyis bsgom par bya/_/Much of Śāntideva's exposition of patience involves the application of reasoning. He presents a series of arguments that call into question the justifications for anger from various perspectives.
If there’s a remedy when trouble strikes, What reason is there for dejection? And if there is no help for it, What use is there in being glum?
Page(s) 78
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གལ་ཏེ་བཅོས་སུ་ཡོད་ན་ནི། །
དེ་ལ་མི་དགར་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡོད། ། གལ་ཏེ་བཅོས་སུ་མེད་ན་ནི། །
དེ་ལ་མི་དགའ་བྱས་ཅི་ཕན། །gal te bcos su yod na ni/_/
de la mi dgar ci zhig yod/_/ gal te bcos su med na ni/_/
de la mi dga' byas ci phan/_/All defilements of whatever kind,
The whole variety of evil deeds
Are brought about by circumstances:
None is independent, none autonomous.[p.81]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
Page(s) 80
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཉེས་པ་ཇི་སྙེད་ཐམས་ཅད་དང་། །
སྡིག་པ་རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ། ། དེ་ཀུན་རྐྱེན་གྱི་སྟོབས་ལས་བྱུང་། །
རང་དབང་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ། །nyes pa ji snyed thams cad dang /_/
sdig pa rnam pa sna tshogs pa/_/ de kun rkyen gyi stobs las byung /_/
rang dbang yod pa ma yin no/_/All things, then, depend on other things, And these likewise depend; they are not independent. Knowing this, we will not be annoyed At things that are like magical appearances.
Page(s) 81
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་ལྟར་ཐམས་ཅད་གཞན་གྱི་དབང་། །
དེ་ཡི་དབང་གིས་དེ་དབང་མེད། ། དེ་ལྟར་ཤེས་ནས་སྤྲུལ་ལྟ་བུའི། །
དངོས་པོ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྲོ་མི་འགྱུར། །de ltar thams cad gzhan gyi dbang /_/
de yi dbang gis de dbang med/_/ de ltar shes nas sprul lta bu'i/_/
dngos po kun la khro mi 'gyur/_/Thus, when enemies or friends Are seen to act improperly, Remain serene and call to mind That everything arises from conditions.
Page(s) 82
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
དེ་བས་དགྲའམ་མཛའ་ཡང་རུང་། །
མི་རིགས་བྱེད་པ་མཐོང་གྱུར་ན། ། འདི་འདྲའི་རྐྱེན་ལས་གྱུར་ཏོ་ཞེས། །
དེ་ལྟར་སོམས་ཏེ་བདེ་བར་མནོས། །de bas dgra 'am mdza' yang rung /_/
mi rigs byed pa mthong gyur na/_/ 'di 'dra'i rkyen las gyur to zhes/_/
de ltar soms te bde bar mnos/_/
