Articles/A Commentary on the Awakening Mind/Bilingual

A Commentary on the Awakening Mind

Bodhicittavivaraṇa

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ།

Nāgārjunatrans.Thupten Jinpa

Bilingual Presentation

Bilingual

Tibetan and English presentation of the root text of Nāgārjuna's Bodhicittavivaraṇa, translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, 2007.

The Bodhicittavivaraṇa (Commentary on the Awakening Mind) is a seminal work by the second-century Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna, widely regarded as the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. In this concise yet profound treatise, Nāgārjuna elucidates the nature of bodhicitta—the altruistic aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings—weaving together both the conventional and ultimate dimensions of this awakened intention. The text explores how the cultivation of bodhicitta serves as the foundation of the bodhisattva path while simultaneously pointing to its ultimate nature as inseparable from emptiness (śūnyatā). Thupten Jinpa's English translation makes this important work accessible to modern readers seeking to understand the philosophical underpinnings of Mahāyāna Buddhist practice.

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

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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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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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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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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 the 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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