Property:SanskritTranslation
From Bodhicitta
This is a property of type Text.
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Therefore, if I rejoice merely at the thought of receiving praise, there is no connection with this<span class="smw-highlighter pagebreaks" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Page number from:" title="418" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon pagebreak note text-80">[p.418]</span><span class="smwttcontent"><big>[[How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)]]</big> <br> <span class="muted">Gómez, Luis O., trans. "How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (''The Bodhicaryāvatāra'')." In ''Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism'', edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 395–441. New York: Norton, 2017.</span></span></span> other person, who is the cause of my happiness, and I am simply playing a childish game. +
Praise and honor destroy my serenity and the shock of transmigration. They generate jealousy toward persons of virtue, and resentment of their success. +
Therefore, those who rise against me to destroy my reputation—are they not dedicated to keeping me from falling into the evil destinies? +
One who practices patience in the above way should develop fortitude. For awakening depends on fortitude, because without fortitude there is no merit, as there is no movement without wind. +
Then as you are tormented by the memory of your sins, and you hear the cries of hell, delirious, from sheer fright your body smeared with feces, what will you do then? +
"I am like a fish kept alive in a tank.” It is only reasonable then that you should fear death, and much more the fearful pains of hell. +
When you touch hot water you get burned, my delicate friend. How can you be so indifferent when you have committed acts that will surely lead to hell? +
Without effort you expect to accomplish something, though you are so delicate, you submit yourself to the tortures of hell. Even when you are in the jaws of death you imagine yourself immortal. You poor wretch, everything you do is for your own harm! +
You have obtained this human condition, which is like a raft—cross then the river of suffering. You fool, this is no time for sleep, you will not find this craft easily again. +
In the higher pleasure of dharma you will find an infinite series of joys; how can you abandon this for the sake of the pleasure of sensual excitement, laughter, and the rest, which will be the cause of your suffering? +
The counteragents to the adversaries are confidence and the four “armies” of fortitude: single-mindedness, self-mastery, the identity of self and others, and the substitution of self with others. +
I should not become discouraged by thinking, “How could I attain awakening?” For, truly, the Tathagata, who always speaks the truth, has<span class="smw-highlighter pagebreaks" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Page number from:" title="421" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon pagebreak note text-80">[p.421]</span><span class="smwttcontent"><big>[[How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)]]</big> <br> <span class="muted">Gómez, Luis O., trans. "How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (''The Bodhicaryāvatāra'')." In ''Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism'', edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 395–441. New York: Norton, 2017.</span></span></span> said that +
those who by their own efforts have attained to supreme awakening—which is so difficult to attain—were previously gnats, flies, mosquitoes, and worms. +
Then, how would I not attain it, I who have been born a human being, and who am able to distinguish good from evil? Why should I not be able to attain to awakening if I do not neglect the instructions of the all-knowing one? +
What is fortitude? It is persevering effort in the cultivation of virtue. And what are the adversaries of fortitude? They are indolence, a fondness for evil, despondency, and self-deprecation. +
If what I fear is having to give up my hands, my feet, and my body, it must be that in my lack of judgment I confuse a minor and a greater evil. +
I will be mutilated, hacked, burnt, cut again and again, for innumerable millions of cosmic ages, and still I will not attain awakening. +
But the pains I now suffer, which lead to awakening, are limited. They are like the pain caused by the extraction of a thorn from the flesh, which prevents greater pain. +
All physicians also heal by means of unpleasant treatments. Therefore, in order to get rid of the greater sorrow I should forbear the lesser pain. +
The best of physicians, however, does not follow this method of treatment, though it is customary among other physicians. He cures the greatest ailment by means of sweet remedies. +
