Practice

Practice

Introduction

Talk about practice traditions (Gom luk) of Śāntideva’s Teachings Discuss historical developments in India (Dharmakīrti, Atiśa, et al.) Discuss in Kadam tradition and others Patrul Rinpoche – Nyima Changra - Khunu Rinpoche – Dalai Lama

More text.

Explore the Themes

 

The Practices of the Bodhisattva

Explore the practices of the bodhisattva expounded by Śāntideva.

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Generating Bodhicitta

Preliminary Practices

The Bodhisattva Vow

Protecting Bodhicitta

Cultivating Discipline

Cultivating Patience

Perfecting Bodhicitta

Cultivating Diligence

Cultivating Concentration

Cultivating Wisdom

Dedication of Merit

Dedication of Merit

 

Patrul Rinpoche's Tradition

Discover and practice a living spiritual tradition rooted in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra.

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A Short Account of Patrul Rinpoche's Life

Patrul Rinpoche's Way of Teaching the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Lineage Prayer

Practice Instructions

Patrul Rinpoche and the Dissemination of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Rdza Dpal sprul's Teaching at the Śrī Siṃha Shedra in East Tibet

Two commentaries by Patrul Rinpoche's Disciples

 

The Training of the Bodhisattva

Explore the training of the Bodhisattva path as laid out by Śāntideva in the Śikṣāsamuccaya.

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Śāntideva's Approach to the Bodhisattva Training

Training: Giving

Training: Protecting

Training: Purifying

Training: Increasing

GENERATING BODHICITTA / ENTERING THE PATH

Preparatory Stage Physical support (meditation on the precious human body, refer book, audio, etc.) Mental support (faith, compassion, think of benefit of Bodhicitta) The seven limbs of worship Brief instructions on Prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, entreaties, dedication Mind Training – four immeasurables, sense of giving Actual Stage Taking refuge Taking Bodhisattva vow Concluding Stage Rejoicing oneself Asking others to rejoice

PROTECTING BODHICITTA / TRAINING ON THE PATH

Precepts (list root vows, dos and don’ts from SSC mainly) Four trainings from SSC Vigilance, mindfulness, introspection Tolerance and patience Reasons for respecting sentient beings

Bibliography

The complete list

Library

Browse resources

ENHANCING BODHICITTA / PROGRESSING ON THE PATH

Four forces and two powers Reflecting on karma / virtues, sins and their results Meditation – shamatha Cultivating Relative Bodhicitta Equality between self and others Exchange between self and others Seven Instructions on Cause and Effect Four Immeasurables Four modes of cultivation

Cultivating Ultimate Bodhicitta Mindfulness of body Mindfulness of sensation Mindfulness of mind Mindfulness of phenomena

More

More and more

More than more

Even more

So much more

At last

 

Śāntideva

Śāntideva lived in the first half of the eighth century in Northern India. Accounts of his life are very scarce. According to the Buddhist tradition, he was born the son of King Kalyāṇavarman of Saurāṣṭra. After having a vision of the deity of wisdom, Mañjuśrī, he gave up his right to the throne and became a monk at the great monastic university of Nalanda in present day Bihar. Śāntideva was in appearance a lazy practitioner who did not spend much time studying. As he was about to be expelled from Nalanda, he was asked to give a public teaching by some monks who wanted to ridicule him, as they asked him to teach an original composition. Śāntideva spontaneously expounded the Bodhicaryāvatāra, a poem of 913 verses, without any hesitation. As he reached the end of his recitation, he rose into the sky and disappeared. The Bodhicaryāvatāra is a detailed presentation of the path of the bodhisattvas in which all aspects of practice are explained in detail. Śāntideva composed a companion work on the topic of the bodhisattva's training, the Śikṣāsamuccaya, which is a compendium of Mahāyāna sūtras.

Figure

The Way of the Bodhisattva

Book

Bodhicaryâvatâra: La marche vers l'éveil (1992)

Book

Potter, Karl H., David J. Kalupahana, and Michael J. Sweet. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 516–25. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Potter, Karl H. ed. "Śāntideva." In Bibliography: Part 1, Texts Whose Authors Can Be Dated; Authors Listed Chronologically, 5th through 9th Century. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Online edition. Last updated Apr 15, 2020. https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xtxt2.htm.

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Lele, Amod. "Śāntideva." In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Accessed Feb. 11, 2021. https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/.

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Tsukamoto, Keisho, Yukei Matsunaga, and Hirofumi Isoda, eds. "Śāntideva." In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Vol. 3, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, 250–69. Kyoto: Heirakuji-Shoten, 1990.

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Lang, Karen. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 137–39. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Goodman, Charles. "Śāntideva." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 15, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/

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Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib བཀའ་གདམས་  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Stender, Daniel. "Bodhicitta." In Buddhism and Jainism, edited by K. T. S. Sarao and Jeffery D. Long, 252–54. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2017.

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Ringu Tulku. "Bodhicitta." In Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung", transcribed and prepared by Gabriele Hollmann, 171–84. Vol. 3 of Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg (Weiterbildendes Studium), 1999. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd3-k10rinpoche.pdf.

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 6; Patience. Transcription of Teachings, 2000–2002. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2010.

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Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 8; Concentration. Transcription of Teachings, 2004. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2008.

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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.

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Weeraratne, D. Amarasiri. "Bodhicaryāvatāra." The Maha-Bodhi 79, nos. 2–3 (1971): 406–9.

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Śikṣāsamuccaya [शिक्षासमुच्चय]. bslab pa kun las btus pa [བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།]. [The Compendium of Training]. Tengyur, RKTST 3281 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3281&typ=2.

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Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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