Influence and Reception of Śāntideva's Works in India and Beyond
- [[<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="4" data-state="inline" data-title="Warning" title="Some use of "|]]
- "
- In your query was not closed by a matching "
- "
- [[.">Some use of "" in your query was not closed by a matching "".|]]
The Bodhicaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya were composed in India in Sanskrit and made a significant impact on the understanding of Mahāyāna Buddhism and the bodhisattva path there. Both works spread beyond the Indian subcontinent and became especially important in Tibet, inspiring commentaries as well as other works by famous teachers. While it has been the Bodhicaryāvatāra that has received more adoration and attention historically, both texts continue to inspire scholars and practitioners around the globe.
While the relationship between Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya (abbr. SSC) and Bodhicaryāvatāra (abbr. BCA) remains unclear,[1] both texts share a number of commonalities. For example, both contain discussions of the six perfections (pāramitā), discuss similar prescriptions for conduct in terms of practices to be adopted and avoided, and even share a number of verses. As such, both works have made significant contributions to Mahāyāna Buddhist literature and to the understanding and transmission of the path of the bodhisattva, the SSC often being understood as a companion to the poetic BCA. As texts, however, their influence and reception have taken different trajectories. This page will discuss the influence that Śāntideva's works had on Buddhist traditions in India, China, Tibet, and beyond and provide a general idea as to why and how the BCA in particular became so influential.
Although the SSC is known for its erudition as an anthology of numerous sūtras that is woven into a well-constructed path of bodhisattva conduct, less is known about its initial reception or influence in India. Believed to have been compiled (or, as we see later, perhaps at least partially composed) by Śāntideva between the 7th and 8th centuries, the text generated virtually no Indian commentarial literature (or at least none that is extant), the existence of which represents the typical means by which the importance of such works is measured.[2] Nevertheless, there are a few later Indian texts that refer to the SSC by name, giving us some indication through which to make inferences about its reception. For example, as Cecil Bendall points out in the preliminary material to his critical edition of the text (1897–1902), Prajñākaramati (950–1030) frequently refers to the SSC by name in his famous commentary to the Bodhicaryāvatāra, quoting not only the original portions of the work but also the passages quoted by Śāntideva.[3] In addition, according to Bendall, some Indian works preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur mention or at least appear to borrow directly from the SSC. Such works include the Śikṣāsamuccayābhisamaya (Bslab pa kun las bdus pa'i mngon par rtogs pa), a short tract by Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti (a.k.a. Dharmakīrtiśrī, Chos kyi grags pa dpal), commonly known in Tibetan as Serlingpa, a tenth-century Buddhist paṇḍita from Suvarṇadvīpa[4] and guru to Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna.[5] Another of these is the Śikshākusumamañjarī (Bslab pa me tog snye ma zhes bya ba) by the paṇḍit Vairocanarakṣita (b. 11th or 12th century), a text which Bendall asserts contains much of the same structure as the SSC and at times what he calls "actual plagiarism," including the borrowing of particular kārikās.[6] And a third text, the Bodhimargadīpapañjika, the auto-commentary to the very influential Lamp for the Path to Awakening (Bodhipathapradīpa) by Atiśa (982–1054), not only "frequently quotes Shantideva's works," the most important of which, he asserts, comes from the Śikṣāsamuccaya, Atiśa refers to Śāntideva as being among the "chief Mahāyāna doctors" who, along with Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, Bhavya, Aśvaghoṣa, and Candragomin, "elucidated the meaning of the sutras."[7] Thus, despite what appears to be a rather scant record of the SSC's influence in India, such citations suggest that it must have gained a significant measure of authority and importance there, at least by the first half of the 11th century.
The influence and reception of the Bodhicaryāvātara in India, on the other hand, reveals that the text made a significant impact there. In India, the BCA is said to have enjoyed almost immediate interest, and according to Bu ston's hagiographical account of Śāntideva's life, the text is said to have generated over 100 Indian commentaries. While this number is likely an exaggeration, there are extant ten Indian commentaries on the work, only one of which, that by the aforementioned Prajñākaramati titled Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā, is complete and survives in its original Sanskrit, the others being preserved in Tibetan translation in the Tengyur. These commentaries include the *Bodhisattvacaryāvatāravivṛttipañjikā and the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāraduravabodhanirṇayanāmagrantha by Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita (11th cent,); the Bodhisattvacaryāvatārasaṃskāra by Kalyāṇadeva (11th cent);[8] the Bodhisattvacaryāvatārapañjikā by Vairocanarakṣita (11th or 12th cent.); two commentaries whose author is unknown—the Prajñāparicchedapañjikā and the *Bodhisattvacaryāvatāraprajñāparicchedapariṇamanapañjikā; two abbreviations of the BCA by Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti—the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāraṣaṭtriṃśatpiṇḍārtha and the Bodhisattvacaryāvatārapiṇḍārtha;[9] and the Bodhicaryāvatāratātparyapañjikāviśeṣadyotanīnāma by Vibhūticandra (1170–1230).[10] Given the number of commentaries on the text generated from the 10th–13th centuries and the fact that some of the BCA's translators and commentators hailed from far-reaching areas of India, as Frederick Liland has observed, "the BCA was clearly very popular and influential throughout the last 500 years of the history of Buddhism in India."[11]
There is also ample evidence that Śāntideva's works spread to India's neighboring regions. In China, for example, the SSC was translated by Jih-ch'eng and Dharmarakṣa between 1004 and 1058 CE but is titled the Mahā-Saṃgīti-Bodhisattva-Vidyāśāstra in the Chinese canon (or Da ch'eng chi pu sa xue lun, T1636) and lists as its author Dharmayaśas or Dharmakīrti.[12] The BCA (Ch. Pú tí xíng jīng, T1662) was translated by Tianxizai (d. 1000), a Kashmiri monk-translator, who arrived in China in 980 and is said to have translated the BCA in 985.[13] This Chinese translation, however, has 782 stanzas in eight chapters, and chapters four and five, as found in the current Sanskrit edition, are missing. This translation also identifies Nāgārjuna as its author and not Śāntideva.[14] While these translations reveal that there may have been some initial interest in Śāntideva's texts in China, his works in general did not take root in East Asian traditions, in part, according to Charles Goodman, due to the fact that by this time the Chinese had their own flourishing Buddhist traditions and were likely uninterested in religious developments occurring in India.[15] Regarding the BCA in particular, it has also been suggested by Hajime Nakamura that the failure of the text to make an impact in later Chinese and Japanese Buddhism was due to "the awkwardness of the style" of the text,[16] an observation that has also been suggested by scholars such as Jens Braarvig and Christoph Anderl, who have noted that the translation is "a difficult and puzzling one."[17]
Unlike its reception in China, however, the Bodhicaryāvatāra was also translated into Mongolian and is believed to have been highly influential there. In 1305 a Mongolian translation was made, most likely from a Tibetan source, by Chökyi Özer (Mon. Nom-un gerel), a member of the Yuan court, who also composed a commentary on the text in 1311 entitled Bodistw-a Cari-a Awatar-un Tayilbur. Fredrik Liland surmises that the text most certainly became popular in Mongolia due to the strong influence of Tibetan Buddhism there, for by the 13th century religious and political ties between Mongolia and Tibet had become firmly established.[18] Moreover, in his commentary to the BCA, Chökyi Özer explains that he composed the commentary on imperial edict,[19] revealing that the text likely had gained some degree of prominence. The text was later translated a second time by Zaya Paṇḍita (1599-1662), although this text has never been found, and was later redacted by Bilig-un Dalai as a part of the Mongolian Tengyur sometime between 1741 and the time the canon was finally printed in Beijing in 1748. This revision was based on three Mongolian and three Tibetan editions of the text, as well as three Tibetan commentaries.[20] According to Liland, "[a]s it has played such an important part in the history of Mongolian Buddhism, and as Tibetan teachers usually put great emphasis on it, the BCA will probably still play an important part in Mongolian Buddhism in the future."[21] In addition, according to Heinz Bechert, the BCA was also known and appreciated among Mahāyāna Buddhists living in Theravāda countries such as Sri Lanka.[22] Bechert has shown, for example, that BCA 5:12 and 6:41 was quoted by the monk Gurulugōmi (12th cent.) in the The Light of the Doctrine (Dharmapradīpikāva),[23] a work containing a number of quotations from the Pāli Tripiṭaka, Pāli commentaries, as well as from Sanskrit works.[24]
We know a great deal more about the reception and influence of Śāntideva's works in Tibet, where the SSC, and especially the BCA, became renowned. Although not much is known about the reception of these works in Tibet at the time of their initial translation during the period known as "the earlier dissemination of the Dharma" (snga dar)—the SSC was translated into Tibetan by Jinamitra, Danaśila, and Jñanasena, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra was first translated by Kawa Paltsek and Sarvajñadeva in the early ninth century[25]—it appears that it wasn't until the activities of Atiśa (982–1054) during the "later dissemination period" (phyi dar) that the works became firmly established as texts of significance. According to Liland, it was Atiśa who brought with him from India the already-mentioned abridgments of the BCA, the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāraṣaṭtriṃśatpiṇḍārtha and the Bodhisattvacaryāvatārapiṇḍārtha, as well as his own Bodhisattvacaryāsūtrikṛtāvavāda, a general instruction on the conduct of the bodhisattva, and taught the BCA to his disciples there.[26] Between the 11th and 12th centuries, both the SSC and the BCA had become so revered that they were included among the six main texts in the authoritative treatises (gzhung) lineage of the newly formed Kadampa school founded by Atiśa,[27]the incorporation of which no doubt went on to solidify the high esteem of the texts in the other new (sarma) schools (i.e., the Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk). Such an institutionalization of the texts also suggests that they were likely studied and taught at Sangpu Neutok, the important monastery in central Tibet, just south of Lhasa, that was founded in 1072 by Atiśa's disciple Ngok Lekpai Sherab. Śāntideva's works were undoubtedly part of this rich curriculum of classical Indian Buddhist learning, one that included the study of epistemology, abhidharma psychology and phenomenology, the perfection of wisdom literature, and the Middle Way philosophy of emptiness.[28]
Further evidence of the increased importance placed on Śāntideva's works in Tibet can, of course, also be observed in the number of Tibetan commentaries each text generated. As for the SSC, several commentaries on the work began to appear during the later transmission period and continued into the modern period.[29] Today a total of eleven Tibetan commentaries on the SSC have come down to us, some by immensely influential figures in the Tibetan Buddhist world. These include: (1) the Bslab btus kyi khrid by Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim (1219–1299); (2) the Bslab pa kun las btus pa'i Tik+ka by Zhönu Rinchen (13th–14th cent.); (3) the Bslab btus pa'i don bsdus pa and (4) the Bslab pa kun btus kyi rnam bshad by Jangchub Kyap (12th–13th cent.); (5) the Bslab btus rgyas par gsungs dus 'jam dbyangs chos rjes zin bris mdzad pa and (6) the Byang chub sems dpa'i tshul khrims kyi rnam bshad byang chub gzhung lam by Tsongkhapa (1357–1419); (7) the Rgyal sras bslab pa kun las btus pa'i legs par bshad pa by Zhönu Gyalchok (1311–1390); (8) the Bslab btus kyi legs 'grel by Lowo Khenchen Sönam Lhundrub (1441–1525); (9) the Bslab pa kun btus lung gi brgyud pa by Tsechokling Yongdzin Yeshe Gyaltsen (1713–1793); (10) the Bslab pa kun las btus pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i mchan 'grel by Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887); and (11) the Bslab btus kyi sdom tshig rin chen sil dag by Konchok Gyatso (1896–1960). [Provide links to people and text pages]
Far more Tibetan commentarial literature was produced on the BCA, much of which was and still is used in monastic universities in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Ladakh.[30] Among the more important commentaries include those by Sönam Tsemo (1142-1182), who composed the first major Tibetan commentary; Lhopa Kunkhyen Rinchen Pal, a direct student of Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251); Ngülchu Thogme Zangpo (1295-1369), author of the Ocean of Good Explanation; Butön Rinchen Drup (1290-1364); Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen Pal Zangpo (1312-1375); Sazang Mati Penchen Jamyang Lodro (1294-1376); Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (1357-1419); Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen (1364-1432); Pawo Tsuglak Trengwa (1504-1566); Drukpa Pema Karpo (1527-1592); Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912), author of The Ketaka Gem (a commentary on BCA chapter 9), and Khenpo Kunpal (1862-1943), author of Drops of Nectar,[31] just to name a handful. If we include the modern period, we find a total of 89 Tibetan commentaries to the BCA by members of all four major Tibetan Buddhist schools, a testament to the importance of the text to the tradition as a whole and to its continued relevance over the centuries. Besides the immense commentarial record the BCA engendered, the work is frequently cited in the texts of major Tibetan figures. According to Amod Lele, "All the major Tibetan texts on the stages of the bodhisattva path, such as those of Tsong kha pa and sGam po pa, quote it at length." Moreover, it is a primary source for the Tibetan literary genre of lojong (blo sbyong), or mind training, a practice that is believed to have originated with Atiśa and is described in his work Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.[32] The BCA is also included among the "thirteen great texts" (gzhung chen po bcu gsum)—thirteen of the most important Indian śāstras which formed the basis of the curriculum in many of the shedras of Eastern Tibet.[33] It is also included in the "eighteen texts of great renown" (gzhung grags chen bco brgyad), the list of eighteen major texts which form the basis of the curriculum in the Sakya school.[34]
In Eastern Tibet, within the Nyingma tradition, it wasn't until much later, during the late 19th century, with the teachings and propagation of the BCA by Patrul Rinpoche, that the text became truly popularized there. According to Andreas Kretschmar, before Patrul Rinpoche's time, the Bodhicaryāvatāra was known and studied only in a few great monastic universities in East Tibet, and even obtaining a copy of the text was difficult.[35] Patrul Rinpoche, however, emphasized the great importance of the text and dedicated his life to its dissemination. He is said to have taught the text over 100 times during his life, initiated a practice of teaching the text continuously within the shedras,[36] and in a spirit of ecumenism, is said to have taught the text to students of different schools according to their own commentarial traditions.[37] Patrul Rinpoche, along with his teachers Sengtruk Pema Trashi and Gyalse Zhenphen Thaye, also inaugurated the tradition of an annual three-month intensive study and practice period on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, an event that became known as the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra Ritual.[38] Importantly, and perhaps more influential than anything else for the dissemination and popularity of the text, Patrul Rinpoche broke with tradition and taught the BCA to lay people as well as to monastic audiences, thus making its instruction on bodhisattva training widely accessible.[39] While Patrul never wrote a commentary on the BCA himself, he did compose a practice manual on the BCA, a structural outline of the text, and a supplication to the transmission lineage of the BCA. Furthermore, his teachings on the text inspired numerous commentaries and writings, one of which was by his student Khenpo Kunpal, who wrote the aforementioned widely respected commentary titled Drops of Nectar, a work that continues to be studied in traditional settings today. Thus, due to Patrul Rinpoche's tireless efforts, the Bodhicaryāvatāra is now widely taught in the monastic universities of Eastern Tibet and his teaching lineage emphasizing practice continues to inspire practitioners around the globe.
In the West, the works of Śāntideva have, since the 19th century with the creation of the earliest critical editions, become the objects of both academic study and religious practice. The BCA is today widely considered a masterpiece of Indian Sanskrit poetry and Mahāyāna Buddhist literature, and its reputation as a work embodying the ideals of altruism and compassion and as a text foremostly meant to be practiced and utilized for spiritual transformation have spilled beyond the bounds of Buddhism. The preeminence that the Tibetan tradition places on the BCA in particular is reflected in the number of modern language translations the text has generated in the 20th century. Today there are approximately 74 translations of the work in 17 different languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Nepali, Hindi, Bengali, Newari, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Portuguese, Polish, Danish, and Norwegian). The BCA has also, similar to the amount of commentarial literature it has inspired, continued to generate an enormous amount of critical scholarship, with countless studies on a number of topics ranging from textual studies, ethical theory and comparative ethics, philosophy (most studies being related to Śāntideva's 9th chapter on the wisdom of emptiness), the environment, applications for well-being, compassion, and healing, Christian-Buddhist dialogues, and a host of others. The sheer amount of scholarship devoted to the text, its chapters, and topics (almost all of which is documented on this site) is a testament not only to the popularity of the text in the Western world but also to the profound interest and meaning associated with the text itself. Moreover, the frequency with which the BCA is taught in traditional settings attests to the centrality of the work among Tibetan Buddhist teachers and practitioners. Today, one is never too far from ongoing teachings on the BCA, as it is widely taught around the world by teachers from every Tibetan Buddhist school and is now available online in verse-by-verse instructions and commentaries by imminent masters, making the text always available to practically anyone who is interested in discovering and learning to live the altruistic path of the bodhisattva. Throughout the flowering of the BCA in the West, as Markus Viebeck points out, Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, has been instrumental in popularizing the teaching of the BCA, inspiring many of its translations, and teaching it himself on a number of occasions to large and varied audiences.[40] Thus, through his celebration and teaching of the text, the Dalai Lama has ensured that the BCA continues to be widely read and studied.[41]
As for Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccya, its reception in the West, until quite recently, had remained somewhat subdued. At least part of the reason for this may have been due to the sheer popularity and interest in the BCA and perhaps in part to it being perceived primarily as an anthology or compendium, a storehouse of other works that, while valuable as resources for the Buddha's teachings, lacked originality.[42] The text was not translated into a modern language until Cecil Bendall, who had previously prepared a critical Sanskrit edition of the work from a Nepalese manuscript between 1897–1902, translated the text into English with the help of W.H.D. Rouse in 1922. There is also an incomplete translation of the SSC into German by Winternitz (1913) (translated to English in 1933), and a complete translation into Japanese by Gishô Nakano (Jp. Daijô shu bosatsu gaku ron). Thus, for over 100 years, the Bendall and Rouse edition remained the primary means through which Western scholars and students accessed the text. While considered groundbreaking and pioneering at the time, later scholars have shown the work to be problematic on many levels. Besides its rather archaic and stilted English, difficult for the modern reader, Goodman explains that the text indeed contains several other issues, writing, "The Bendall and Rouse translation is systematically philosophically imprecise, utterly philologically outdated, pervasively unclear and confusing, and worst of all, deliberately archaized in a way that deprives the text of almost all its emotional resonance and power."[43] As a result of what he as well as others have observed as a rather outdated translation, Goodman completed a new complete English translation, The Training Anthology of Śāntideva, in 2016. Many other scholars have more recently taken up the study of the SSC in its own right and have exhibited a renewed interest in the text. For example, Barbara Clayton's Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya presents a systematic study of the Buddhist ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, in part to counter what she sees as an overreliance on the Pāli literature as interpreted in the Theravāda tradition. In addition, Susanne Mrozik's Virtuous Bodies looks at the SSC in terms of what it says about bodies and embodiment, investigating the diverse roles bodies play in ethical development. Perhaps the most interesting and innovative work on the text within recent years, however, has been Paul Harrison's preliminary study of chapter 19, the final chapter of the text. Harrison has found that much of this chapter, as well as many other quotations previously thought to be from other sūtras, contains the words of Śāntideva himself, prompting an inquiry into how much more of the SSC contains the original thought of Śantideva. As a result of these findings, both he and Jens-Uwe Hartmann have embarked on a new English translation of the SSC, a work that promises to be both a welcome addition to previous translations and illuminating in terms of the authorship of the text.
While Western scholarship seems to have discovered a new-found interest in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, it has not lost its relevance in Tibetan Buddhism and continues to be taught in traditional settings in modern times, albeit not as frequently as the BCA. The current Dalai Lama, for example, reportedly presented public teachings on this text in 1998, proclaiming it to be a "key which can unlock all of the teachings of the Buddha."[44] And Geshe Lhakdor of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) has also completed a Commentary on the Compendium of Precepts in Verses, a series of teachings he taught on the SSC in 2014 in Dharamsala, India, which can be viewed in its entirety on this website. Thus, while the text seems to have historically played a smaller or more limited role in terms of its overall influence in the West, the Tibetan tradition has by no means ignored it, and it continues to be an important work in the tradition today.
As we can observe, both the SSC and the BCA became important texts within the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition and exemplary treatises describing the path of the bodhisattva, especially within Tibet. It is clear, however, that throughout the history of the transmission of Śāntideva's works the BCA enjoyed far more popularity and exerted far more influence than the SSC. Of course one cannot discount the legend that built up around the origins of the BCA—the fact that Śāntideva delivered the work spontaneously to an astonished monastic assembly at Nālandā and then rose into the air only to disappear during his recitation of final stanzas, with the SSC being relegated to an important, albeit secondary, referential role in the story—as being one impetus for interest in text and its popularity and renown. But there are other, more substantial factors that have made the BCA a popular favorite the world over. For one, the poetic content, compelling nature, universal message of altruism and compassion, and straightforward and clear structure of the BCA, being a relatively short text of ten chapters, all in verse, which is conducive to memorization, has indeed likely contributed to BCA's influence. Comparatively, the structure and make-up of the SSC is one that is primarily a collection of quotations from sūtras, a much longer work (19 chapters), and is one that is often described as somewhat confusing. While an invaluable resource for the teachings of the Buddha preserved in Sanskrit, the nature of the work reads as one that is more encyclopedic and less conducive to memorization and/or practice. Even Śāntideva, according to tradition, is said to have referred his monastic colleagues to the SSC as a kind of supplement to a fuller understanding of the BCA. The sheer amount of commentarial literature produced for the BCA when compared to the SSC has also been another factor in its wide dissemination, not only exemplifying the importance the Tibetan tradition in particular placed on the text but also assuring the continued attention that the work received. The language utilized in the BCA has also likely been another factor contributing to its prestige and attractiveness. Whereas the language of the BCA seemingly leaves open the possibility for spiritual transformation to anyone wishing to engage in its practices, the SSC reads as a text that is more exclusively aimed at a monastic audience, more explicitly condemning as it does the householder's life. Thus, through its use of universal language coupled with the fact that it is written in the first person in the form of a personal reflection, the BCA, as it is often said, is highly approachable and engaging. In the modern period, one, of course, cannot overlook the tremendous impact that figures such as Patrul Rinpoche had on disseminating the BCA through constantly teaching it in Tibet, thus popularizing the text. His students' commentaries, such as the above-mentioned work by Khenpo Kunpal, has gained wide acceptance among followers of the Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu schools and continues to be studied and practiced in Buddhist monasteries, universities, and dharma centers around the world.[45] Likewise, in the 20th century, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has been primarily responsible for popularizing the BCA in the Western world, inspiring several translations of the work, teaching the text on numerous occasions, and proclaiming the work to be one of his favorite texts, one that has been invaluable for his own understanding of wisdom. Through the characteristics of the text itself, through its numerous translations and commentaries, as well as through the efforts of great and influential Buddhist teachers, the BCA has become one of the most studied and practiced Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist treatises in the world, continuing to inspire a variety of approaches to the work in the academic world and continuing to inspire new generations of practitioners to enter the path of the bodhisattva.
Notes
- ↑ Charles Goodman, The Training Anthology of Śāntideva: A Translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya (New York, Oxford University Press, 2016), xi.
- ↑ Paul Harrison, "The Case of the Vanishing Poet: New Light on Santideva and the Śikṣā-samuccaya," in Indica et Tibetica: Festschrift für Michael Hahn, Zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden und Schülern überreicht, ed. Konrad Klaus and Jens-Uwe Hartmann (Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2007), 216.
- ↑ Cecil Bendall, ed., Çikshāsamuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhistic Teaching (St. Petersburg: Commissionnaires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, 1897–1902), ix.
- ↑ Suvarṇadvīpa is regarded as referring to the region of lower Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra.
- ↑ Bendall, Çikshāsamuccaya, ix–x. Atiśa is said to have, along with Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba, translated the SSC into Tibetan.
- ↑ Bendall, Çikshāsamuccaya, x–xi.
- ↑ Bendall, Çikshāsamuccaya, xii.
- ↑ For this dating for Kalyāṇadeva, see Paul Williams, Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (Richmond, Surrey, England: Curzon Press 1998), 4.
- ↑ According to Fredrik Liland, these texts are not really commentaries. He writes, "the texts were apparently meant to be used for meditation practices where it would be inconvenient to recite the whole BCA." See Liland, "The Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The History, Diffusion, and Influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist Text" (master’s thesis, University of Oslo, 2009), 20.
- ↑ Atiśa’s *Bodhisattvacaryāvatārabhāṣya is sometimes listed as a commentary on the BCA. However, the status of this text as a commentary is disputed by David Seyort-Ruegg. See Ruegg, The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981), 85.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 20–21.
- ↑ Barbra Clayton, Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the Fruits of Virtue (New York: Routledge, 2006), 39. These are Clayton's dates. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue compiled by Lewis Lancaster gives 1058–1072. See http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/files/k1488.html.
- ↑ Robert Buswell and Donald S. Lopez Jr., eds., "Tianxizai," in The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton University Press, 2014), 913. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27. According to the editors, Tianxizai arrived in China in 980 and died in 1000 AD. During his time living at a cloister to the west of the imperial monastery of Taiping-Xingguosi in Yuanzhou (present-day Jiangxi province), he translated seventeen Mahāyāna scriptures into Chinese, including the Bodhicaryāvatāra.
- ↑ Andreas Kretschmar, comp. and trans., Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas, vol. 1, edited by Judith S. Amtzis and John Deweese (Andreas Kretschmar, July 2004), 19.
- ↑ Goodman, Training Anthology, xxx.
- ↑ Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987), 288.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 41n124.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 45.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 49.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 50.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 51.
- ↑ Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Buddha Mind - Christ Mind: A Christian Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers, 2019), 84n70. See also Heinz Bechert, Eine regionale hochsprachliche Tradition in Südasien: Sanskrit-Literatur bei den Buddhistischen Singhalesen (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005), 71.
- ↑ Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Buddha Mind - Christ Mind, 506n30. See also Heinz Bechert, Eine regionale hochsprachliche Tradition in Südasien, 71.
- ↑ Mahinda Deegalle, Popularizing Buddhism: Preaching as Performance in Sri Lanka (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006), 72.
- ↑ The translation of the BCA was then revised twice, first by Rinchen Zangpo, Śākya Lodro, and Dharmaśrībhadra in the tenth century, and then by Ngok Loden Sherab and Sumatikīrti in the eleventh century. It is the latter version that was included in the Tengyur.
- ↑ Liland, "Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 23. Liland also notes the fact that Atiśa was active in Nepal for a year prior to moving on to Tibet. Given this, the fact that he established the Vikramaśīla-mahāvihāra in Kathmandu, as well as the fact that many BCA manuscripts have been found in Nepal, he concludes that the BCA must have been emphasized there during his stay.
- ↑ The disciple of Atiśa, Dromtönpa Gyelwé Jungné, had three main disciples: Po to ba Rin chen gsal (Potowa), Spyan mnga’ ba Tshul khrims ’bar (Chen Ngawa), and Bu chung ba Gzhon nu rgyal mtshan (Bu chungwa). These three figures initiated the main teaching lineages of the Kadampas: with Potowa establishing the authoritative treatises (gzhung) lineage, Chen Ngawa establishing the essential instruction (gdams ngag) lineage, and Bu chungwa initiating the oral instruction (man ngag) lineage. See "Kadam (Tibetan Buddhism)," Wikipedia, last modified on June 18, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadam_(Tibetan_Buddhism).
- ↑ Thupten Jinpa, ed. and trans., The Book of Kadam: The Core Texts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015), 5.
- ↑ According to Tibetan historians, the period immediately before the Chidar (phyi dar), a period of new translations coming from India into Tibet, saw the persecution of Buddhism under the reign of Langdharma (790's–842) in the 9th century. His death was followed by civil war and the dissolution of the Tibetan empire, leading to the Era of Fragmentation. This may explain the apparent gap between the dates of the initial Tibetan translation of the SSC and the appearance of the first Tibetan commentaries. See "Langdharma," Wikipedia, last modified on June 27, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdarma.
- ↑ "Bodhicharyavatara," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on January 27, 2022, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bodhicharyavatara.
- ↑ "Bodhicharyavatara," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on January 27, 2022, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bodhicharyavatara.
- ↑ Amod Lele, "Śāntideva (fl. 8th c.)," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002, https://iep.utm.edu/, July, 15, 2022.
- ↑ "Thirteen Great Texts," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on May 18, 2019, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Thirteen_great_texts. The thirteen texts include: the Prātimokṣasūtra (attributed to Śākyamuni Buddha); the Vinayasūtra by Guṇaprabha; the Abhidharmasamuccaya by Asaṅga; the Abhidharmakoṣa by Vasubandhu; the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā by Nāgārjuna; the Madhyamakāvatāra by Candrakīrti; the Catuḥśatakaśāstra by Āryadeva; the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Śāntideva; and the five treatises of Maitreya—the Abhisamayālaṃkāra; the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra; the Madhyāntavibhāga; the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga; and the Ratnagotravibhāga or Uttaratantraśāstra.
- ↑ "Thirteen Great Texts," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on May 18, 2019, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Thirteen_great_texts. The "eighteen texts of great renown" include the previously mentioned 13 great texts as well as (1) Compendium of Valid Cognition (Pramāṇasamuccaya) by Dignāga, (2) Commentary on Valid Cognition (Pramāṇavārttika) by Dharmakīrti, (3) Ascertainment of Valid Cognition (Pramāṇaviniścaya) by Dharmakīrti, (4) Treasury of Valid Reasoning (Tshad ma rigs gter) by Sakya Paṇḍita; and (5) Clear Differentiation of the Three Sets of Vows (Sdom gsum rab dbye) by Sakya Paṇḍita.
- ↑ Kretschmar, Drops of Nectar, vol. 1, 39.
- ↑ "Bodhicharyavatara," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on January 27, 2022, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bodhicharyavatara.
- ↑ Kretschmar, Drops of Nectar, vol. 1, 37–38.
- ↑ Kretschmar, Drops of Nectar, vol. 1, 38–39.
- ↑ Kretschmar, Drops of Nectar, vol. 1, 39. See also "Bodhicharyavatara," Rigpa Shedra Wiki, last modified on January 27, 2022, https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bodhicharyavatara.
- ↑ Markus Viehbeck, "An Indian Classic in 19th-Century Tibet and Beyond: Rdza Dpal sprul and the Dissemination of the Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra," Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 36 (2016): 8.
- ↑ Charles Goodman, Training Anthology, xxx.
- ↑ While Harrison does not discuss this as a reason for the text's overall neglect in Western scholarship, he discusses this attitude toward the text historically in the West. See Harrison, "Case of the Vanishing Poet," 216–18.
- ↑ Goodman, Training Anthology, xxxii.
- ↑ Clayton, Moral Theory, 2.
- ↑ Kretschmar, Drops of Nectar, vol. 1, 3.
