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Śāntideva's Life and Works

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Śāntideva's Life and Cultural World

Śāntideva's life is shrouded in legend, as most of what we know about him comes from the various hagiographies written in the centuries after his time. But much can be understood about his life based on his religious and cultural environment and the education he received at the famed Buddhist university of Nalanda, in northern India.

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Śāntideva's Works: An Overview

The Bodhicaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya both discuss the generation of the mind of enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings and prescribe practices one must perform in order to attain buddhahood. As such, both texts are designed to elicit a transformation in the reader. While they are stylistically and structurally unique, the two texts are thought to be mutually illuminating, and for this reason it is often recommended that they be studied together.

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Influence and Reception of Śāntideva's Works

The Bodhicaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya were composed in India in Sanskrit and made a significant impact on the understanding of Mahāyāna Buddhism and the bodhisattva path there. Both works spread beyond the Indian subcontinent and became especially important in Tibet, inspiring commentaries as well as other works by famous teachers. While it has been the Bodhicaryāvatāra that has received more adoration and attention historically, both texts continue to inspire scholars and practitioners around the globe.

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The Bodhisattva Path According to Śāntideva

Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra is undoubtedly one of the great classics of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. What sets it apart from other highly esteemed exemplars of Buddhist philosophical literature is its pragmatic approach to the bodhisattva path, making it both accessible and relatable to generations upon generations of aspiring practitioners.

The Path

 

Bodhicitta

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The Path

 

Ultimate and Relative Bodhicitta

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The Path

 

The Six Perfections

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The Path

 

The Two Truths

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The Path

The Bodhisattva Ideal

The Path of the Bodhisattva

Explore the path of the bodhisattva as laid out in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva's treatise about conduct, meditation, and the view. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

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Explore the Themes

 

An Overview of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra

A chapter by chapter exploration of Śāntideva's teachings as expounded in his main work, the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

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Generating Bodhicitta

Chapter One - The Excellence and Benefits of Bodhicitta

Chapter Two - Confession of Negativity

Chapter Three - Taking Hold of Bodhicitta

Protecting Bodhicitta

Chapter Four - Conscientiousness

Chapter Five - Vigilant Introspection

Chapter Six - Patience

Perfecting Bodhicitta

Chapter Seven - Diligence

Chapter Eight - Meditative Concentration

Chapter Nine - Wisdom

Dedication of Merit

Chapter Ten - Dedication

 

An Overview of Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya

A chapter by chapter exploration of Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya.

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Giving: Chapter 1

Protecting: Chapter 2–7

Purifying: Chapter 8–15

Enhancing: Chapter 16–19

 

Śāntideva's Vision in Today's World

Explore Śāntideva's vision and its relevance in today's world with regard to religion, philosophy, and science.

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Śāntideva's Importance in the Buddhist Interfaith Dialogues

Making Sense of Śāntideva's Vision of Reality (Philosophy)

Śāntideva's Vision in a Secular World

 

Translating Śāntideva's Works into Modern Languages: Issues and Challenges

Learn more about the many challenges translators face in their translation of Śāntideva's works.

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Translating Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra: Issues and Challenges (And How To Overcome Them)

 

Sacred Art and Architecture

Explore the rich tradition of Buddhist sacred art and architecture.

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Representations of the Bodhisattvas

Thangkas

Mahayana Buddhist Art History

The Outlines

Explore the outlines of Śāntideva's main works: MIRO MIND MAPS HERE!

 

Outline: Bodhicaryāvatāra

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

Outline

 

Outline: Śikṣāsamuccaya

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

Outline

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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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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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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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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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  

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'

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  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

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  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'