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In chapter 2, Śāntideva demonstrates the importance of making offerings—material and nonmaterial—paying homage through veneration (prostrations), going for refuge, and, in particular, confessing one's evil deeds. By openly acknowledging one's past negative behaviors and tendencies through confession, only then can one begin to move in a different direction and transform oneself.
Concise Summary of Essential Points
Chapter 1 introduces to us to the incredible qualities and vast intent of bodhicitta, the mind wishing to attain complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
We may feel tremendous appreciation for this incredible altruistic thought for the welfare of all sentient life. Its great depth and profundity may inspire us to begin the process of cultivating that noble mind, but we need to know how to set out on that journey.
The Supreme Worship
In chapters 2 and 3, Śāntideva provides us with a framework within which to begin the journey of cultivating bodhicitta, the seven-limb prayer. This is one form of the ancient Buddhist practice of the supreme worship (annutara pūja), which includes the practices of accumulating merit and purifying the negative actions that we have performed. This practice seems to date back to at least the fourth century CE, and in its shortest form is literally seven lines. The roots of this prayer are found in the Mahāyāna sūtra entitled Samantabhadra's Prayer Called The King of Prayers (Samantabhadracarīpraṇidhānarāja), which makes up the last section of the Gaṇḍavyūha in the Avataṃsakasūtra.
This second chapter contains the first three branches of the supreme worship—the practices of prostration or paying homage, making offerings, and the confession of negative actions. In this chapter Śāntideva also adds the central practice of taking refuge to the traditional seven-limb prayer, to make a total of eight limbs or branches.
The initial part of the chapter, verses 1 to 23, actually starts with the practice of making offerings. We make offerings primarily to the Three Jewels—the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. These offerings include things which we ourselves possess and which we manifestly offer up, but they also include all the beautiful and wonderful things of the whole universe, such as those things of natural beauty, which are not personally owned. Moreover, they also include the virtue that we have performed throughout all of our lives, whether that be our physical, verbal, or mental actions. And these offerings are not limited to that which is physically manifest. It is also considered very positive to imagine many wonderful places, environments, or things which we create in our minds and to offer them up.
There are also verses of homage and prostrations to the Three Jewels. We pay reverence to them for the incredible qualities of wisdom and compassion that they possess.
Refuge
Śāntideva then describes one of the key elements of a Buddhist practitioner’s life, that of taking refuge in the Three Jewels. Refuge is a practice shared by all the Buddhist traditions across the world, although here, in the context of the conduct of a bodhisattva, there is special emphasis on Mahāyāna refuge.
Until the essence of enlightenment is reached, I go for refuge to the Buddhas. Also I take refuge in the Dharma And in all the host of Bodhisattvas.
Page(s) 41
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོར་མཆིས་ཀྱི་བར། །
སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། ། ཆོས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཡི། །
ཚོགས་ལའང་དེ་བཞིན་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། །byang chub snying por mchis kyi bar/_/
sangs rgyas rnams la skyabs su mchi/_/ chos dang byang chub sems dpa' yi/_/
tshogs la'ang de bzhin skyabs su mchi/_/This means that we take refuge in the Three Jewels as our guides and sources of protection but with the specific purpose of attaining complete enlightenment for the welfare of all. This refuge is maintained until we reach the state of buddhahood. It is not a process of asking for another powerful and omnipotent force to help us out. It is an active process of training one’s own mind. The Buddha very clearly stated that he can only show us the path but that it is up to us to actually walk that path.
Confession of Our Negative Actions
Having oriented ourselves with refuge, we need to create a stable ground on which the qualities and practices can be built.
If we look closely, we may understand how a lot of our lives have been characterized by harmful actions of body, speech, and mind.
We do not need to look any further than this life to see that there are many negative things which we have done, which have either directly or indirectly harmed other sentient beings. At times we have rejoiced in being negative and have even encouraged others to join in. If we bring in the perspective of past lives, then there must be countless actions which we need to feel remorse for and to purify. This is not supposed to make us feel bad about ourselves or cause us to sink into guilt. We are not trying to beat ourselves up but to recognize the reality of who we are and where we are. Confession is not an avoidance of responsibility. Indeed, it is the opposite. We approach all these past negative actions with the goal of letting the bad habits go and moving forward positively. The second half of the chapter, from verse 27 until the end, focuses on the process and sentiment of laying open our actions through confession. We then purify our negative actions through wisdom that understands what we did, and we make a commitment to not repeat the same mistakes. This is done in a formal way through the four antidotal forces or strengths, such as the force of regretting what one has done wrong, which are explained more fully in the introductory essay.
Avoiding Laziness
Even though we may be inspired by the spirit of bodhicitta and now have the tools at our disposal to start building a solid foundation for our Dharma practice, it is easy for us to get sidetracked or to lose sight of our long-term goals.
We may easily become lazy and drawn into the byways of distraction. To counteract this, Śāntideva forcefully points out to us that we cannot wait for tomorrow. Verses 32 to 45 provide us with powerful reminders of how everything, including our own lives, is momentary, in a state of constant flux.
We cannot trust the wanton Lord of Death. The task complete or still to do, he will not wait. In health or sickness, therefore, none of us can trust Our fleeting, momentary lives.
Page(s) 42
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
We, as individuals, those for whom we engaged in negative actions, and those who we harmed in the process will all eventually pass. Death will not wait for us to finish all that we have planned, and nothing but our Dharma practice can help us at the time of death.
These verses are there to inspire us to ensure we do not pass away with so much negativity left unresolved. We will carry forward the effects of those actions imprinted on our mental continuums, and in the future we may be born in realms of great suffering. There is no way to avoid the unwanted and painful results of these negative actions if we cannot overcome them.
Understanding the fragility of our situation, we are encouraged to confess everything right away and to rid ourselves of all our destructive habits. The remaining verses, from verse 54 until the end of the chapter, relate an essential part of the confession process—that is, to regret what we have done and to promise to restrain ourselves from ever doing it again. There must be some commitment moving forward, a real positive sense of change of direction. Without this sincere commitment, the process of purification will not be complete.
Additional resources
Here we need to think about what would be particularly useful to the student/reader at this point. Link to key terms found in chapter two? Any thoughts?
The Way of the Bodhisattva
The Compendium of Training
