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| <h3>Introductory Essay</h3>
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| <h4>Dedication</h4>
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| Right at the beginning of the chapter, Śāntideva dedicates all of the virtue that he has amassed through the composition of this text.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.1}}
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| The text is, without exception, a manual which shows us how to engage in the path of the bodhisattvas. Therefore, Śāntideva dedicates all of the merit from its composition to every single living being so that they may be able to start out on their journey to full enlightenment.
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| Dedication of merit is part of an important and widespread Mahāyāna liturgy known as the ''anuttara-pūja'', the supreme worship. The arrangement of practices in this liturgy date back to around the second century CE. It is a traditional practice for accumulating merit and is often arranged in seven limbs or branches. These branches are paying homage, making offerings, confession of negativity, rejoicing in all good actions, requesting for teachings, beseeching the teachers to remain in the world and not pass into nirvana, and dedication.
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| The first three limbs form the content of chapter two, and the remaining four are covered in chapter three. The limb of dedication is dealt with most extensively in this last chapter of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''.<ref>Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton's translation of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' from the Sanskrit gives an excellent and very detailed explanation of this seven-limb prayer in their introduction to the second chapter. See Crosby and Skilton, trans., ''The Bodhicaryāvatāra: A Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 9–13.</ref>
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| The branch of dedication is both a practice for further accumulation of the merit already accumulated and a way to offer all that up in the most positive way possible—for the greatest short- and long-term welfare of all sentient beings.
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| As Khenpo Kunpal says in his ''Nectar of Mañjuśrī's Speech'' in relation to the benefits of dedication:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=Dedication is the path of never-ending merit
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| For virtue is augmented and transformed thereby.<ref>Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans., ''The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva'', by Kunzang Pelden (Boston: Shambhala, 2010), 394. The source of this verse is not identified by either Khenpo Kunpal or the Padmakara Translation Committee.</ref>
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| Dedication is a way of building virtue on top of virtue. The merit that we have already amassed from other virtuous practices is further increased and augmented in the very process of dedicating it so that all beings attain the highest enlightenment.
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| As it is said:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=If the wishing gem, the two accumulations,
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| Is not well polished with good aspirations,
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| The needed, wished-for fruit will not arise.
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| So finish off all your works with dedication.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 393. The source of this verse is not identified by either Khenpo Kunpal or the Padmakara Translation Committee.</ref>
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| In his commentary on this verse, Khenpo Kunpal also draws an important distinction here between dedication and aspirational prayers.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=Dedication and prayers of aspiration are crucially important. According to our tradition, the difference between dedication and aspiration should be understood in the following way. Dedication consists in pledging one's positive actions to perfect enlightenment for the sake of beings. By contrast, a prayer of aspiration is just the wish that beings themselves attain enlightenment; it is not connected with the performance of wholesome deeds.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 393.</ref>
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| Aspiration is more akin to the wish for something to happen, and it is not necessary to have been involved in the actual engagement in the deeds associated with it. Dedication, on the other hand, is done after the completion of positive acts to seal them off and make beneficial use of our merit.
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| Khenpo Kunpal then reminds us of the dangers of not capping off all of our positive actions with dedication and explains how dedicating all our virtue for the purpose of all beings attaining enlightenment protects that virtue from ever drying up.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=Failure to dedicate virtuous action to the good of others is a fault:
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| :Not to dedicate or to dedicate awry,<br>To brag to others or to have regrets:<br>Four things that lay your virtue waste. . . .
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| Accordingly, without the dedication of the roots of virtue, virtue comes to nothing, for there are many causes for its destruction, such as the occurrence of anger. By contrast, when virtue is dedicated to the attainment of enlightenment, it is as when drops of water fall into the ocean; they will remain for as long as the ocean lasts. Virtue dedicated to the attainment of buddhahood will not be spent until enlightenment is gained. Indeed, it will increase and actually take us there.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 393–94. It is unclear whether the three-line verse here belongs to Khenpo Kunpal or whether he is borrowing it from some other source.</ref>
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| }}
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| ''The Sūtra Taught by Inexhaustible Intellect'' (''Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra'') reminds us of this important point—if our roots of virtue are properly dedicated, then they cannot be damaged or destroyed until we achieve enlightenment.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=Just as there is no destruction or interruption, until the end of the aeon, of a drop of water that has fallen into a great ocean, there is no destruction or interruption whatsoever of the roots of virtue that have been dedicated to awakening until the bodhisatvas sit on the seat of awakening.<ref>Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology (PHI), trans., ''The Teaching of Akṣayamati'', ''Akṣayamatinirdeśa'', Toh 175 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023), https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-060-004.html?#UT22084-060-004-128. For this passage in verse form, see Blankleder and Fletcher, ''The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 394.</ref>
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| <h4>Dedicating with the Context of Emptiness</h4>
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| It is often stated that the dedication of our merit should be sealed with the wisdom of emptiness. But how does that process of sealing virtue with emptiness take place? It means that at the time of the virtuous action, there should be an associated wisdom which is unstained or contaminated by concepts of inherent existence in relation to the three spheres [Link to GLOSSARY]. When performing an action, there are three spheres in relation to that action: (1) the agent who is performing the action, the "who," (2) the action itself, the "what," and (3) the person that the action is performed in relation to, the "to whom."
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| This concept of making dedication unstained by incorrect concepts about these three spheres is mentioned in many chapters of Candrakīrti's ''Entering the Middle Way'' (''Madhyamakāvatāra''). For instance, in chapter 2, when discussing the divisions of the perfection of ethical discipline, Candrakīrti explains how the presence or absence of mistaken concepts about the reality of the three spheres at the time of the action itself determines whether the perfection (''pāramitā'') qualifies as a mundane one or a supramundane one.
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| The following verse and commentary from Tsongkhapa's ''Illuminating the Intent'' illustrates this point:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=:Who relinquishes what and in relation to whom—<br>when any of these three is objectified,<br>such morality is described as mundane perfection;<br>free of attachment to these three is supramundane. (2.9)
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| When someone is incapable of ceasing the seed of objectifying the three as real—the person who relinquishes, what objects of abandonment he relinquishes, and in relation to which sentient beings he relinquishes—such morality is described as mundane perfection. If that very morality is free of attachment to these three spheres in the form of perceiving them as real—that is to say, if it is sustained by uncontaminated wisdom realizing them as not perceivable—it is supramundane perfection. Hence, by this distinction, morality is twofold.<ref>Thupten Jinpa, trans., ''Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition of Candrakīrti's Entering the Middle Way'', by Tsongkhapa (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2021), 126–27.</ref>
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| }}
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| Longchenpa makes a subtle point that the capping off of positive activities ''after'' they are complete with the understanding of emptiness is tantamount to nihilism.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 394.</ref>
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| This may sound a little strange to us, but his point is that, as much as possible, our positive actions should be informed with the understanding of the lack of intrinsic reality (i.e. the emptiness) of these three spheres at the time of performing the action and not at a later time, only after the action is already complete.
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| Crosby and Skilton explain that the verses of this tenth chapter are written in the form of a series of dedicatory vows (''praṇidhāna''). These are empathetic prayers wishing that the positive karmic energy we have built up is used for the fulfillment of the happiness of beings. This kind of dedicatory vow is first seen in chapter three.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|3.7}}
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| In that chapter Śāntideva makes vast but much more general dedications, that any virtue accrued may completely dispel every single suffering of every living being.<ref> Crosby and Skilton, ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', 133.</ref>
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| We may wonder why there is a need to again mention the process of dedication at the end of the text when it has already been covered in earlier chapters. Indeed, why devote an entire chapter to dedication? Is this not unnecessary repetition? There are several reasons for this. Crosby and Skilton point out that in the third chapter what is being dedicated is the merit which arises from developing aspirational bodhicitta, whereas here, in the last chapter, having worked our way through the practices which actually implement the perfections, the merit that is being dedicated is that which arises from engaged bodhicitta [Link to GLOSSARY].<ref>Crosby and Skilton, ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', 134.</ref> As Śāntideva himself says in the first chapter of this text:
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| {{PullBcaVerses|1.16}}
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| Just as there is a difference between having the wish to go somewhere and actually setting out on the road, so too there is a much greater difference in the positive potential which is created from just wishing that we and others attain enlightenment versus actively entering into the practices which lead us directly on that path.
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| Another reason for the process of dedication here is related to the structure of the six perfections. This last chapter comes at the end of an explanation of how to actively involve ourselves in each of the six perfections. So it is natural that once they are complete we take all that positive action and make sure that it is dedicated to the highest welfare.
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| Also, as mentioned above, if we can dedicate our accumulated virtue with the seal of the understanding of emptiness, which is covered in most detail in the preceding ninth chapter, then it will be of much greater strength and more resilient to the effects of negative states of mind such as anger.
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| And finally, it is natural in the flow of our practice that the most extensive dedication would come at the end of the text. As with all of our activities, it is good to rejoice in the positive things we have done. In a worldly context, we might put our feet up at the end of a day spent doing something satisfying and look back and rejoice in our efforts. In the same way, in the spiritual context where our lives are framed with the wish to be of benefit, we look back over what we have done and make sure that none of that positive potential goes to waste by making dedications.
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| The content of the dedications is also quite different from the earlier chapters. Here, in the last chapter, Śāntideva makes a series of much more specific dedications. He addresses the very particular sufferings of each of the different realms of existence and dedicates the merit he himself has accumulated, praying that those beings be immediately relieved of all that misery and experience the exact opposite of their current situation.
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| <h4>General Dedication That the Three Realms of Samsara Be Free of Suffering</h4>
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| With the understanding of the vital role that dedication plays in spiritual practice in general and, in particular, in the structure of the supreme worship which we mentioned in the earlier chapters, we can now look at the flow of this last chapter. Chapter 10 begins with several verses of general dedication that all the merit we have accumulated go to clearing away all the sufferings of beings across the whole of spectrum of samsara, with the wish also that, instead of suffering, all beings will have endless peace and happiness.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.2}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.3}}
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| These are indeed lofty ideals. But we may wonder if it is really possible to accomplish these goals. In relation to these verses, the contemporary Kagyu master Thrangu Rinpoche explains how some aspirations we make can be fulfilled, while others cannot.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=Some aspirations that we make can be fulfilled and some cannot. For instance, if I wish for a beautiful flower to appear on my table, no flower will appear, no matter how long I pray for it. If, on the other hand, there is soil, a pot, some water and seeds, then there is a good chance that the prayer for a flower will be fulfilled.
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| So it is important that we don't just pray or wish that things come about by themselves, but we must also try the best to the best of our capabilities to develop the conditions for our wishes to flourish. In samsara the realm of sentient beings is vast. In all directions there are sentient beings and when there are sentient beings, there are disturbing emotions and suffering. Now we pray that all these sentient beings be endowed with perfect happiness, to continually enjoy this happiness which is beyond the happiness that occurs in samsara, and that they remain in perfect happiness from the virtue of our good activities.<ref>Thrangu Rinpoche, ''A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life of Shantideva: A Commentary by the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche'', trans. Ken and Katia Holmes and Thomas Doctor (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2016), 230.</ref>
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| }}
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| Here, the point being stressed is that we also have to take an active role in helping our lofty wishes come to fruition. It is not enough to just stand on the sidelines and pray. We must act to put the causes in place for the desired result to bear fruit.
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| <h4>Dedication for the Hell Realm Beings</h4>
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| Śāntideva then expounds a series of specific dedications to beings who are trapped in samsara with their own particular forms of suffering. He begins with the beings with the most intense suffering. Verses 4 to 15 are dedications for the benefit of beings who have been reborn in the absolute terror and misery of the hell realms. Śāntideva recognizes a variety of terrible states that beings experience in these realms, and he beautifully expresses his wish for their freedom from this excruciating pain.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.4}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.5}}
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| Not only does he wish for their release from these sufferings but he makes a dedication that these sufferings will be transformed into their exact opposite—bliss and happiness. He imagines a hail of weapons and lava transformed into a rain of flowers, the pits of hell becoming fragrant lotus ponds, and in the place of iron hills which crush beings on all sides, he imagines instead temples where the buddhas dwell.
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| <h4>Dedication for the Animal Realm Beings</h4>
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| Having dedicated his merit to the welfare of beings in the various hell realms, in verse 16 Śāntideva moves on to the animal realm.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=And may the stooping animals be freed
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| From fear of being preyed upon, each other’s food. (10.16ab)<ref>Wulstan Fletcher and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans., ''The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra'', by Śāntideva (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006), 165.</ref>
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| }}
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| It is said that the animal realm is generally characterized by ignorance. There are certain exceptional cases where animals show unique mental capabilities, but in general animals lack sophisticated cognitive abilities. Crucially, they are nearly always unaware of any consequence to their actions. They are therefore unable to comprehend what would be necessary to abandon to follow the path to liberation and what actions to take up in service of the path.
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| Some animals have been born through unusual karmic ripening into situations of great comfort and luxury. But the majority of the wild world is usually prey to uninterrupted suffering. The domesticated animals we see around us, especially the pets of humans, lead lives which are not representative of life in the animal realm. In the wild, most creatures are in constant terror of losing their lives. The threat of direct predators is ever-present, and we see with our own eyes how creatures are in a constant state of agitation. They concern themselves only with immediate needs, such as food, shelter, and mates. In addition, these days we see the new and ever-increasing threat of human impact on the natural habitats of the world, with many species being brought closer and closer to extinction. Here, Śāntideva encourages us to dedicate all our merit for these helpless beings trapped in their animal existence, and particularly from the most direct threat of all, the threat of losing their own life.
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| <h4>Dedication for the Hungry Ghosts</h4>
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| It is said that coveting the wealth and possessions of others and being miserly with one's own is what produces rebirth as a hungry ghost, or ''preta''. The next verses dedicate all accumulated merit to the relief of suffering for beings in the hungry-ghost realm.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=And may the famished spirits have such joy
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| As those who dwell within the northern continent. (10.16cd)
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| }}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.17}}
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| Here, according to traditional Buddhist cosmology, the northern continent (Uttarakuru) refers to the continent to the north of Mount Sumeru, the sacred five-peaked mountain considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual universes. (Our world, Jambudvīpa, is the southern continent.) The northern continent is said to be a place of great harmony and prosperity. There, life is one of perfect pleasure and the people of gentle and virtuous mind, and therefore no one indulges in the ten negative actions.
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| <h4>Dedication for Human Beings</h4>
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| Śāntideva then shifts the focus of his dedicatory vows to the beings who inhabit the more fortunate migrations (''sugati''). But, of course, though a being may have had the good fortune to avoid the lower realms, and even to have the fortune of a human birth, there are still many kinds of sufferings that they face throughout their lives.
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| The next sequence of poetic verses, backed up as they are with Śāntideva's deep compassion, are among some of the most stirring in religious literature.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.20}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.21}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.22}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.23}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.24}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.25}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.26}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.27}}
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| The verses themselves are self-explanatory, but one can feel the deep compassion and emotions, the empathy and understanding that Śāntideva has for the whole gamut of human beings' sufferings. The verses are reminiscent of lines from a poem by the famous Japanese Buddhist master and hermit-poet Ryōkan, who said the following:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=O, that my priest's robe were wide enough
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| to gather up all the suffering people
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| in this floating world.<ref>John Stevens, trans. ''One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan'' (Boston: Weatherhill, 2014), 75.</ref>
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| }}
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| It is important, however, that dedications are not just made for freedom from the manifest sufferings. Eventually, to avoid all these sufferings mentioned above, sentient beings will have to align themselves with the spiritual path and strive to overcome their afflictions and ignorance. That is the only hope of avoiding suffering in the long term. Therefore, Śāntideva also dedicates his merit so that sentient beings will immediately leave aside their nonvirtue and engage in the path that leads to perfect peace.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.31}}
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.32}}
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| There are also dedications for the monastic communities. The monastic communities form an extremely important role in the transmission of the Dharma. Śāntideva therefore makes fervent prayers that monastic institutions of all kinds will flourish and that they will always have harmony.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.42}}
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| And for those monks who choose a life away from large monastic centers and seek the solitude recommended in chapter 8, he prays that they find perfect places in which their meditation can proceed without interference.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.43}}
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| <h4>Dedication of the Virtue for Perfecting the Supreme Intention</h4>
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| In verses 49 and 50, Śāntideva encourages us to dedicate our merit so that the great bodhisattvas will be able to fulfill their highest intentions, to bring beings to liberation and enlightenment, in exactly the way that they make their prayers and wishes.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.49}}
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| With respect to this verse, the contemporary Sakya master Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk explains that our merit is dedicated not toward a living being as such but toward the mindset that is the perfection of the highest of all intentions, the wish to attain the enlightened state for the welfare of all beings.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=May the bodhisattvas residing on the tenth ground achieve everything, both in the short- and long-term, exactly according to the ground of their intention, that is for the purpose of migrator beings. May beings also obtain resources, abilities, and results, and be endowed with them in accord with the intent of the guardians, the perfect buddha bhagavāns, and their heart disciples the bodhisattvas, the intent that is for the sake of the temporary and ultimate welfare of migrator beings.<ref>Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, ''A Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Theg pa chen po'i mdo'i dgongs don gyi bstan bcos byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa zhes bya ba'i 'grel pa'' (Taiwan: Chos kyi blo gros rtsom sgrig khang, 2016), 823.</ref>
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| Although śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas [Link to GLOSSARY] gain their liberation from samsara through understanding the profound truth of dependent arising, and although they do not hold this precious intent of wishing to attain complete enlightenment for the welfare of all beings, Śāntideva makes a prayer that they will be endowed with the bliss that occurs when suffering is brought to an end and that they attain the great bliss of ultimate and perfect buddhahood.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=And may the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas
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| Gain their perfect happiness. (10.50)
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| }}
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| <h4>Dedication of Virtue for One's Own Sake</h4>
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| With such focus on others on the bodhisattva path, we may forget to make positive and beneficial prayers and aspirations for ourselves. Here, in verses 51 to 56, Śāntideva encourages us to also dedicate for our own sake, but this is never for self-indulgent and worldly motives. It is for the positive purpose of being able to have conducive conditions for progress on our spiritual path.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.51}}
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| Guided by Mañjughoṣa, Śāntideva wishes that throughout all his lifetimes, until he reaches the first bodhisattva ground of perfect joy, he will always retain the memory of his previous existences. Thus, this will help him to maintain a strong conviction in the karmic law of cause and effect and encourage him to never forget bodhicitta.
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| In relation to the last two lines of the verse, Khenpo Kunpal explains the virtues of monastic life compared to that of a lay person.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=He prays that he might "always embrace the perfect discipline of monastic ordination." For whereas to be a householder is the basis of all the faults that bring ruin in this and future lives, to go forth into homelessness is the ground and basis of all excellent qualities and benefits.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 429.</ref>
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| Furthermore, Khenpo Kunpal quotes from the ''The King of Samādhis Sūtra'' (''Samādhirājasūtra'') to encourage us to realize how incredible it is in this degenerate era to have virtuous thoughts and the wish to follow the bodhisattva path, and especially to wish to take ordination.
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=In the present age, if one takes and observes just one of the precepts of the Buddha's teaching, one will acquire great merit and benefits. This has been described in the ''Samadhiraja-sutra'':
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| :Those who for as many aeons trillionfold<br>As grains upon the Ganga's sandy shore,<br>Worship with devoted mind, with food and drink,<br>And lamps and flowers, parasols and banners,<br>A thousand million Buddhas—<br>All are in their merits utterly surpassed<br>By those who—at this time when sacred Dharma perishes<br>And when the teaching of the Tathagata wanes—<br>Will practice day and night a single precept.
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| This being so, there is no need to speak of the result that will occur when one embraces monastic ordination and observes all the precepts without impairment. One will accomplish perfectly the goals of this and future existences both for oneself and others. The benefits that ensue are inconceivable.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 429-30.</ref>
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| Śāntideva goes on to pray that he will remain healthy for the sake of practice, living a life sustained only by simple alms. But he also prays that, until he reaches buddhahood, he will have a peaceful living environment which is supportive of the practice of virtue.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.52}}
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| There then comes one of the most famous verses in the whole of ''The Way of the Bodhisattva'' and one that is quoted regularly by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as one of the greatest inspirations of his life:
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.55}}
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| This beautiful stanza sums up the solemn and heartfelt pledge of bodhisattvas: as long as beings remain trapped in the cycle of samsaric existence, they themselves will also remain in order to help drive away their pain and suffering and guide them on the path of wisdom that leads to liberation from all suffering.
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| <h4>Dedication for the Propagation and Prosperity of the Buddha's Doctrine</h4>
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| The chapter concludes with Śāntideva's verse of dedication to Mañjughoṣa and to his gurus. Mañjuśrī's kindness enabled Śāntideva to give up all his attachments to worldly life and to make sincere effort in the virtuous practices of learning, contemplation, and meditation.
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| {{PullBcaVerses|10.58}}
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| Particularly because of Mañjuśrī, the wish to cultivate bodhicitta and the urge to compose the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' arose in Śāntideva, and so he pays his respects and offers his body, speech, and mind up in homage. In Crosby and Skilton's translation from the Sanskrit, we read the following:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=I bow down to Mañjughoṣha
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| through whose inspiration my mind turns to good.
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| I honour the spiritual friend
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| through whose inspiration it grows strong. (10.58)<ref>Crosby and Skilton, ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', 143.</ref>
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| }}
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| This translation gives the feel of how Mañjughoṣa's influence was the initial cause that helped turn Śāntideva's mind to good. Once Śāntideva turned in a positive direction, his gurus then helped him to build on this inspiration and make firm in his mind the realizations related to hearing, contemplation, and meditation.
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| Khenpo Kunpal says the following of this homage to the gurus:
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| {{QuoteCite
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| |quote-text=In the same vein he prostrates respectfully to the holy beings thanks to whose kindness he was able to take monastic ordination and receive the bhikshu vows—the same beings who spread and propagate the Dharma of transmission and realization, namely, the ordaining abbot Jinadeva and the other teachers of the glorious monastery of Nalanda and elsewhere. To all his spiritual teachers, therefore, Shantideva bows down.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 436.</ref>
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| This provides us with the link back to Śāntideva's history—his gurus and the tradition of Nalanda. Khenpo Kunpal continues by saying that
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| |quote-text=in the same way, we too should consider as our teachers all those through whose kindness our minds have absorbed some of the qualities of the Dharma of transmission and realization. And remembering their kindness, we too should respectfully reverence them in thought, word, and deed.<ref>Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 436.</ref>
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| We should always be reminded that while these are personal reflections of Śāntideva on his experiences of training, they are also an indirect form of advice for ourselves. This is true of the text as a whole. In the first chapter, although he says the text was only composed to familiarize his mind with the topics, inadvertently his audience also gains a complete instruction on the way of the bodhisattva.
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| For us also, it is important to continually remember the kindness of our teachers. Through them we have received the inspiration to turn our minds toward the Buddhist path. And it is through their continued support and guidance that we traverse the road that leads to buddhahood.
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