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From Bodhicitta
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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 2026 to include additional critical texts and research materials. 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.
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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Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།)
Tokme Zangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, written during a fourteenth-century retreat, transforms complex Mahāyāna philosophy into accessible instructions for handling life's challenges. Essential reading for all bodhisattva's-to-be.
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Bodhicaryāvatāra (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།)
An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world.
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Śikṣāsamuccaya (བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།)
In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Training," a work by the eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master Śāntideva. It consists of twenty-seven stanzas on the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva, including bodhicitta, the six perfections (pāramitās), the worship of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benefits of renunciation, and the peace derived from the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). The topic of each of the stanzas receives elaboration in the form of a prose commentary by the author as well as in illustrative passages, often quite extensive, drawn from a wide variety of Mahāyāna sūtras.
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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, stands as one of the most comprehensive and systematic expositions of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path from classical India. Formally the fifteenth section of the massive Yogācārabhūmi corpus, this foundational treatise provides an encyclopedic manual detailing the entire spiritual trajectory of a bodhisattva—from the initial arising of the "mind of awakening" (bodhicitta) to the ultimate attainment of perfect buddhahood.
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Bodhicittavivaraṇa (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།)
The Bodhicittavivaraṇa, or "Exposition of the Mind of Enlightenment," consists of 112 stanzas, preceded by a brief section in prose. It is essentially a compendium of Mahāyāna theory and practice, intended for bodhisattvas, both monastic and lay, organized around the theme of bodhicitta, both in its conventional aspect (saṃvṛtibodhicitta) as the aspiration to buddhahood out of compassion for all sentient beings, and in its ultimate aspect (paramārthabodhicitta) as the insight into emptiness (śūnyatā).
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Bhāvanākrama (བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ།)
The Bhāvanākrama, or "Stages of Meditation," is the title of three separate but related works by the late eighth-century Indian master Kamalaśīla. The three texts set forth the process for the potential bodhisattva to cultivate bodhicitta and then develop śamatha (calm abiding) and vipaśyanā (special insight) and progress through the bodhisattva stages (bhūmi) to buddhahood. The three texts are widely cited in later Tibetan Buddhist literature, especially on the process for developing śamatha and vipaśyanā.
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Bodhipathapradīpa (བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།)
The Bodhipathapradīpa, or "Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment," is a work composed by the Indian scholar Atiśa Dīpamkaraśrījñāna shortly after he arrived in Tibet in 1042. Tibetan histories often note that Atiśa wrote this text in order to clarify problematic points of Buddhist practice, especially tantra, which were thought to have degenerated and become distorted, and to show that tantra did not render basic Buddhist practice irrelevant. The Bodhipathapradīpa emphasizes a gradual training in the practices of the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna and became a prototype and textual basis first for the bstan rim, or "stages of the teaching" genre, and then for the genre of Tibetan religious literature known as lam rim, or "stages of the path."
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Seven Points of Mind Training (བློ་སྦྱོངས་དོན་བདུན་མ།)
The Seven Points of Mind Training (Lojong Döndünma) is an influential Tibetan work in the mind training (blo sbyong) genre. The work was composed by the Kadam scholar Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, based on the tradition of generating bodhicitta known as "mind training" transmitted by the Bengali master Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. It also follows the system laid out previously by Langri Tangpa in his Eight Verses on Mind Training. Comprised of a series of pithy instructions and meditative techniques, The Seven Points of Mind Training became influential in Tibet, with scholars from numerous traditions writing commentaries to it.
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Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།)
Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is an important lojong text by Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo. In thirty-seven verses, it gives instructions on how to follow the bodhisattva path. Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche has said that The Eight Verses of Training the Mind represents the short version of lojong, The Thirty-Seven Practices is the medium, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra is the extensive version. Written during a fourteenth-century retreat, the text transforms complex Mahāyāna philosophy into accessible instructions for handling life's challenges.
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The Library
Dive into the ultimate in bodhicitta resources—an unprecedented digital collection spanning ancient sūtras to modern scholarship. Find everything from classical commentaries to cutting-edge research, all connected through detailed cross-references that reveal surprising links across traditions and time periods. Browse author profiles featuring the scholars and masters who've shaped our understanding of bodhicitta. Whether you're a practitioner, researcher, or simply curious, this is your gateway to centuries of wisdom on the mind of awakening—all in one place for the first time.
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More Resources
Immerse yourself in the world of bodhicitta! Explore the most extensive bibliography ever compiled on the topic, navigate complex concepts with our comprehensive glossary of key terms, trace the rich interpretive tradition through an interactive timeline of Bodhicaryāvatāra commentaries spanning over a millennium, and discover connections you never knew existed with our powerful advanced search tool. These resources will illuminate your journey into the heart of the bodhisattva path in exciting new ways!
The Other Doorways
