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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 2025 and 2026 to include additional critical texts and research materials. As of August 2025, 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. Regular updates to the website will expand the coverage of the concept of bodhicitta with important texts such the Bhāvanākrama and Bodhisattvabhūmi, and others listed below.

 

Bodhicaryāvatāra (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།)

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

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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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Bodhicittavivaraṇa (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།)

A compendium of Mahāyāna theory and practice, intended for bodhisattvas, both monastic and lay, organized around the theme of bodhicitta. Traditionally ascribed to the great Nāgārjuna.

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Bhāvanākrama (བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ།)

Kamalaśīla's Stages of Meditation focuses on wisdom (prajñā) and sets forth the process of cultivating bodhicitta and then developing śamatha and vipaśyanā and progressing through the bodhisattva stages to buddhahood.

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Bodhipathapradīpa (བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།)

Atiśa Dīpaṃkara's The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, emphasizing a gradual approach to training the bodhisattva, became a prototype for the genre of Tibetan religious literature known as lamrim, or stages of the path.

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Seven Points of Mind Training (བློ་སྦྱོངས་དོན་བདུན་མ།)

Consisting of concise teachings and meditation practices, the Blo sbyong don bdun ma gained widespread influence throughout Tibet, inspiring commentaries from scholars across various Buddhist traditions.

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Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།)

Tokmé Zangpo's essential reading for all bodhisattva's-to-be.

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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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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 from Śāntideva's works, 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!

 

Bibliography

The most complete bibliography of academic and traditional sources on bodhicitta.

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Glossary: Key Terms related to bodhicitta and Śāntideva's works

Discover the meaning of key terms used in bodhicitta-related texts and commentaries.

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Timeline

The commentaries of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Over the centuries

The Other Doorways

Discover

Begin here. Discover the basics of bodhicitta, its meaning and purpose, and learn about the main concepts of the Mahayana path. Get to know the people and texts on this website, and find key resources for beginners.

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Explore

The understanding and practice of bodhicitta depends on the knowledge of the stories, key concepts, texts, and people associated with it. Explore bodhicitta, the desire to seek the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

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Practice

What use is a powerful medicine if one does not take it to cure the illness? say Buddhist masters. Learn how to put bodhicitta into practice in order to bring the highest good—perfect enlightenment—to all sentient beings.

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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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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'

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'

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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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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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་). 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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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  

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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 '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  

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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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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). Bodhipathapradīpa [बोधिपथप्रदीप]. byang chub lam gyi sgron ma [བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།]. [A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment]. Tengyur, RKTST 3288 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3288&typ=2.

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). Bodhipathapradīpa [बोधिपथप्रदीप]. byang chub lam gyi sgron ma [བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།]. [A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment]. Tengyur, RKTST 3288 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3288&typ=2.

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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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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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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