The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors

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The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors: A Commentary on the Introduction to the Actions of Bodhisattvas

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This is a translation of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara by Shantideva and of the commentary named Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors written by the great Gyaltsab Je, (whose commentaries are like, totally great:)). Both texts are ancient texts, the first being composed in the 8th century and the second late 13th or early 14th century, with styles of expression and scholarly standards different to modern time treatises. There were already many translations of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, and when I told my kind and incomparable teacher Lama Lundrub that I was translating it, his memorable reaction was, "Oh no, not another translation." But I was translating mainly the commentary, and needed verses to insert in the commentary. There is a synergy between the commentary and the root text, in that the commentatry usually incorporates all the syllables into the explanation. The root verse is the basic explanation, like the skeleton, which is then elaborated and elongated by the commentary, the meat. Similar to the skeleton being present in the body, the words of the root text should all be present in the commentary. It is like this in the Tibetan, and should be like that in the English, but I was not able to yet to do this in a complete manner. It is on the to do list.

While there were many translations of the root text published, I had not seen one I liked. Many seem to have been translated without relying on a good commentary, and seem to have quite a few mistakes. The verses are often also translated much more flowery and poetic, and the verses are often also fuller, then what appears to my mind when I read the Tibetan.

In my view a translation of a root text should be as much as possible a mirror image in the target language of the source language, while avoiding the traps of a literal translation only. Being restricted to 9 syllables per line, and the target audience being having a lot of merit, the verses in a root text often ended up as cryptic, incomplete sentences.

It is the job of the word commentary, such as the commentary by Gyaltsab Je, to fill in the gaps, and it is not the job of the translator to do that in-text. This brings me to the commentary, which is written in a particular scholarly style using repetitions, often with difficult double negatives, and very long sentences, which were seen as a sign of good writing, and works in the Tibetan, but it does not work for the western reader, and so I took some liberties there. I did not translated the commentary literally, like a computer program would do, but tried to keep in mind my target audience and read ability. Therefore I would say it is an accurate but not a literal translation.

My translating style is however to first err on the side of caution and being literal, to avoid mistakes, and then, in repeated editions, edge myself to the middle without loosing the meaning, by improving style, expression and read ability. This process is not yet finalized. But no matter how much good will one may have, it is still a translation of an ancient text, written by a great great scholar, whose target audience was not necessarily the modern reader accustomed to receiving information in 140 characters.

Gyaltsab Je sometimes packs a lot of profound information into a few paragraphs, information that actually will take years to understand, such as the explanations of the ninth chapter, and some explanations are very sophisticated, such as the explanation of the homage. However, the benefit is derived from making the mental effort to understand, and the mind, being clear and knowing, has the ability to understand new things it did not understand before. . Since one can become omniscient, there is nothing one cannot understand over time. And the very difficult points one can always leave to return to later.

One aspect of the commentary that one soon notices is that it is outlined in a very detailed manner, and to help finding one’s way through the text there is a mind map and a leveled outline at the back of each chapter. (Stracke, translator's foreword, 7–8)

Bilingual Layout

Citation

Stracke, Fedor, trans. The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors: A Commentary on the Introduction to the Actions of Bodhisattvas. By Gyaltsab Rinpoche. N.p.: Happy Monks Publication, 2016. https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/.

Publisher Link

https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/

Table of contents

Author's Introduction9
The Meaning of the Title11
The Translator's Prostration11
Meaning of the Text13
The Preparatory Actions for Explaining the Stages of the Mahayana Path13
Homage13
Purpose13
Summary13
Meaning of the Words13
Pledge of Composition14
Identifying the Subject14
Rejecting the Fault of Self-Creation14
Rejecting Repetition14
Identifying the 4 Points of Purpose and so forth14
Humility15
In Humbleness, It Was not Written for the Purpose of Others15
The Reason for Joyful Composition15
Expressing that It Becomes Meaningful for Others of Same Fortune15
The Actual Explanation of the Stages of the Path17
Exhorting to Take the Essence of the Basis with Freedoms and Endowments17
The Method for Taking the Essence18
The General Presentation18
Detailed Explanation of the Individual Meanings19
Contemplating the Benefits of the Mind of Enlightenment19
Explaining the Text of the Chapter19
The Advice that It Is Suitable to Abandon Negativity and to Accomplish Virtue19
Contemplating Extensively the Benefits of Bodhicitta20
Explaining the Benefits of Bodhicitta20
It Has the Power to Destroy all Negativity and Accomplish all Virtues20
Destroying Great Negativity20
It Can Make Supreme Happiness a Reality20
It Can Accomplish One's Wishes21
One Will Become Special in Name and Meaning21
Explaining the Benefits with Example21
Example for How the Lesser Becomes Supreme21
Example for its Rarity and Preciousness22
Example for the Unending and Increasing Result22
Example for its Ability to Rescue from Great Danger22
Example for How it Destroys Negativity Effortlessly23
How the Benefits are Explained in the Sutras23
Identifying the Nature of Bodhicitta25
Divisions by Nature25
Explaining the Divisions with Example26
Explaining the Difference in the Benefits of the Wishing and Engaging Minds26
The Benefits of the Wishing Mind26
The Benefits of the Engaging Mind27
The Reason for These Benefits Arising27
Stating the Quotation27
Establishing it with Reasoning28
The Validity of the Benefits of the Wishing Mind28
Great Benefit because of Infinite Applications for Virtue28
There is no Higher Concern for Others28
Sentient Beings Do not Generate such a Concern even for Their Own Purpose28
Praising It as a Summary29
The Validity of the Engaging Mind29
Actual29
Its Validity29
Clearing Away Doubt30
Praising the Person that has Generated such a Mind30
Suitable for Praise because of Helping out of Compassion Without Being Asked31
If Even Small Benefit is Praiseworthy then Achieving all Happiness and Benefit is Even more Praiseworthy31
Praiseworthy because of Becoming the Supreme Field31
The Reason why It Is Unsuitable to be even a Little Disrespectful to a Bodhisattva31
The Reason Why It Is Suitable to Meditate on Faith32
They Are Worthy of Praise and Going for Refuge32
The Title of the Chapter33

Interconnections

Works related to this item

2 Full translation of

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.

Classical WorksAbout this item

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.

Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen (རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན་). byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad rgyal sras 'jug ngogs [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་རྒྱལ་སྲས་འཇུག་ངོགས།]. [Entryway for the Heirs of the Conqueror: A Detailed Explanation of Entering into the Conduct of the Bodhisattva].

Classical WorksAbout this item

This is a commentary that elucidates the meaning of the words (tshig don gyi 'grel pa) in accordance with the view of the learned ones. It also includes a topical outline (sa bcad).