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Detailed discussions and research on Bodhicitta and Śāntideva's works

Study The Core Texts

This curated selection represents essential texts for understanding the concept of bodhicitta within the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. The resource serves as both a scholarly repository and pedagogical tool, with planned expansions scheduled for 2025 and 2026 to include additional critical texts and research materials. As of August 2025, this comprehensive resource presents extensive scholarship on Śāntideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya, featuring both contemporary research and classical texts in multiple languages. The collection prioritizes the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra as the primary focus, with substantial coverage of the Śikṣāsamuccaya and supplementary materials on related works. Regular updates to the website will expand the coverage of the concept of bodhicitta with important texts such the Bhāvanākrama and Bodhisattvabhūmi, and others listed below.

The Mahāyāna Concept of Bodhicitta

Bodhicitta (Sanskrit: बोधिचित्त), commonly translated as the "awakening mind" or "enlightenment mind," represents the altruistic aspiration to attain complete buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings and stands as the foundational principle of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This concept fundamentally transformed Buddhist soteriology by shifting the spiritual ideal from individual liberation to universal salvation, making it perhaps the most distinctive development in Mahāyāna thought. Our comprehensive exploration traces bodhicitta's historical emergence from early Buddhist sources, examines its systematic development through Indian scriptural and scholastic traditions, and follows its transmission and distinctive elaboration across the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

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Bodhicaryāvatāra (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།)

One of the most famous Buddhist texts of all time. Written by the ancient Indian Buddhist scholar and adept Śāntideva.

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Śikṣāsamuccaya (བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།)

Śāntideva's only other major known text, A Compendium of Training, is like a companion to the Bodhicaryāvatāra and deals extensively with the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva.

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Bodhisattvabhūmi (རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།)

Ārya Asaṅga’s Bodhisattvabhūmi, or The Stages of a Bodhisattva, is the Mahāyāna tradition’s most comprehensive manual on the practice and training of bodhisattvas.

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Bodhicittavivaraṇa (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།)

A compendium of Mahāyāna theory and practice, intended for bodhisattvas, both monastic and lay, organized around the theme of bodhicitta. Traditionally ascribed to the great Nāgārjuna.

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Bhāvanākrama (བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ།)

Kamalaśīla's Stages of Meditation focuses on wisdom (prajñā) and sets forth the process of cultivating bodhicitta and then developing śamatha and vipaśyanā and progressing through the bodhisattva stages to buddhahood.

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Bodhipathapradīpa (བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།)

Atiśa Dīpaṃkara's The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, emphasizing a gradual approach to training the bodhisattva, became a prototype for the genre of Tibetan religious literature known as lamrim, or stages of the path.

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Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།)

Tokmé Zangpo's essential reading for all bodhisattva's-to-be.

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Seven Points of Mind Training (བློ་སྦྱོངས་དོན་བདུན་མ།)

Consisting of concise teachings and meditation practices, the Blo sbyong don bdun ma gained widespread influence throughout Tibet, inspiring commentaries from scholars across various Buddhist traditions.

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Browse resources

Browse all published resources on the subjects of this site, including articles, dissertations, and media.

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The Library

The Library offers a complete list of all bibliographical resources relevant to the study of bodhicitta. Content coming soon. Please be patient.

Tsadra Compendium of Key Terms

This compendium of key terms is provided as a tool to better understand technical terminology used in the context of study and practice.

Scholastic Terminology (Abhidharma and Mahāyāna Traditions)

Discover the meaning of key scholastic terms used in the 9th Chapter and related commentaries.

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Mahāyāna Path Terminology

Discover the meaning of key Mahāyāna terms used when teaching the path of the bodhisattva.

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Resources (Study, Research, Teachings)

More resources. Content coming soon. Please be patient.

Bibliography

The complete list

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Library

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The Other Doorways

Discover

Begin here. Discover the basics of bodhicitta, its meaning and purpose, and learn about the main concepts of the Mahayana path. Get to know the people and texts on this website, and find key resources for beginners.

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Explore

The understanding and practice of bodhicitta depends on the knowledge of the stories, key concepts, texts, and people associated with it. Explore bodhicitta, the desire to seek the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

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Practice

What use is a powerful medicine if one does not take it to cure the illness? say Buddhist masters. Learn how to put bodhicitta into practice in order to bring the highest good – perfect enlightenment – to all sentient beings.

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