- Chapter 1 - The Excellence and Benefits of Bodhicitta
- Chapter 10 - Dedication
- Chapter 2 - Confession of Negativity
- Chapter 3 - Taking Hold of Bodhicitta
- Chapter 4 - Conscientiousness
- Chapter 5 - Vigilant Introspection
- Chapter 6 - Patience
- Chapter 7 - Diligence
- Chapter 8 - Meditative Concentration
- Chapter 9 - Wisdom
In chapter 8 Śāntideva then moves on to discuss the real heart of what is required for spiritual transformation—that is, the ability to see and experience the suffering of others as one's own suffering. Such a goal requires the cultivation of meditative concentration and the conditions conducive to achieving such a goal.
Concise Summary of Essential Points
A proliferation of conceptual thoughts plague our lives. As the twenty-first century unfolds in a world of technology and instant media, the fast-paced life that this induces provides a breeding ground for distraction. We find ourselves often lost or distracted, unable to properly focus on any given task at hand, whether in our personal or professional lives.
Even without modern life's fertile field of distraction, the mind, when left to its own devices, will habitually gravitate toward sensual pleasures, convinced of their value to us. We feel this effect on ourselves and see it all around us. There are many cases of young people with attention deficiency disorders, and we cannot but feel apprehension at the increasing societal impact of this lack of attention. It is obvious to us that distraction is almost always an unhealthy thing, and we all understand the benefits of some level of concentration in our lives, but how do we counteract this situation?
The first step is to understand the disadvantages of being distracted. In our secular lives it is hard to retain focus, and with the mind following any train of thought that arises, it is difficult for any of our normal activities to be brought to a successful conclusion.
In chapter 8 Śāntideva leads us on from the joy of practicing diligence to the importance of calming distraction and having a concentrated mind.
Cultivating diligence as just described, In concentration I will place my mind. For those whose minds are slack and wandering Are caught between the fangs of the afflictions.
Page(s) 109
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.
༈ དེ་ལྟར་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་བསྐྱེད་ནས་ནི། །
ཡིད་ནི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ལ་བཞག ། སེམས་ནི་རྣམ་པར་གཡེངས་པའི་མི། །
ཉོན་མོངས་མཆེ་བའི་ཕྲག་ན་གནས། །!_de ltar brtson 'grus bskyed nas ni/_/
yid ni ting nge 'dzin la bzhag_/ sems ni rnam par g.yengs pa'i mi/_/
nyon mongs mche ba'i phrag na gnas/_/In the spiritual context, distraction leads us to easily fall into cycles of negative behavior. Though we may have developed some joy for virtue, without the ability to keep focused, it is easy to be led astray into actions driven by the afflictive emotions. Even if we can retain some attention to virtue, it is hard to get our positive intentions to have their full impact. We need concentration in order to develop the different realizations of wisdom that lead us toward enlightenment. But how to remedy this situation? To counter these natural tendencies toward distraction, the antidote of concentration is essential.
There is a traditional Buddhist story of two people arriving in an ancient temple cave on a stormy night. They carry a lamp with which to examine the frescoes on the walls around them. They wish to use the light of the lamp to examine the wall paintings, yet they must also protect the flame from the wind blowing into the cave in order to see them clearly.
The light of the lamp is wisdom itself, and concentration is what provides protection for the flame from the wind. Without a flame, there is no hope to see the paintings at all. If the flame is not protected from the wind, then some rough outlines can be made out, but none of the details can be seen. Similarly, when our mind becomes clear, still, and free from agitation and dullness, we are able to develop penetrating insight into the nature of reality.[1]
In the eighth chapter, Śāntideva deals with the development of meditative absorption in two main ways. The first is to instruct us on how to quiet our distracted and unruly minds. He extols the virtues of solitude, describing the need for renouncing the world, and he dispenses advice on how to deal with strong emotional states, particularly attachment, which draw us away from this state of concentration.
The eighth chapter takes the diligence and mental awareness from earlier chapters and encourages us to drop distraction in all its forms. By applying the antidote to attachment, which plays a central role in distracting us, we establish some control over our minds.
Pure concentration in itself, however, has a neutral quality. It helps in getting things done but could be used for great negativity as much as for positive goals. Śāntideva encourages us to take up this focused mind and to apply it to cultivating the lifeblood of the Mahāyāna path, the mind of enlightenment.
In the earlier chapters of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra), there was much mention of bodhicitta, its benefits, and the practices associated with this central part of the bodhisattva path. But in the second half of chapter eight, we find a much more detailed presentation of the stages of mental development required in order to cultivate relative bodhicitta.
In the Mahāyāna tradition, there are two main methods for developing relative bodhicitta, the mind wishing to attain enlightenment to most effectively work for the welfare of all sentient beings. The first is the tradition of the seven-point cause and effect, which originates with Maitreya and comes down through Asaṅga. The second tradition, dealt with extensively in the second half of this chapter, is the equalizing and exchanging of self and others. This tradition comes down from Mañjuśrī and through Nāgārjuna to Śāntideva. In chapter 8 Śāntideva presents the development of bodhicitta through the lens of the equalizing and exchanging of self and others.
In both systems the initial stage demands that we have a perspective of equanimity in relation to all sentient life. Self and others must be felt to be completely equal. There are several methods for creating this equality. One way is to understand that all beings are equal in that they wish for happiness and do not wish for suffering. Or it could be a more personal equanimity where we understand that there is not a single being who has not at some point been in the role of our kind and caring mother. The root text of the eighth chapter introduces this process of creating a sense of equanimity with all beings through this first perspective of all being equal in wishing for happiness and not wishing to have suffering.
Strive at first to meditate Upon the sameness of yourself and others.97See appendix 2. In joy and sorrow all are equal; Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.
Page(s) 122
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.
This perspective is the bedrock on which all the following stages are built. If we cannot see all sentient beings as being equally worthy of our love and compassion, then trying to develop the awakening mind will fail. Śāntideva implores us to understand that we are all in the same boat and that others are just like oneself. Having accepted that all beings are equal with oneself, Śāntideva then argues that since we are only one, and others are limitless, then it is logical to broaden our limited desire to work only for the happiness of oneself.
We should not just think to accomplish our own happiness but work for a much greater goal, which encompasses the happiness of others. In the Mahāyāna context, this then becomes the wish to attain the fully enlightened state of an omniscient buddha, which is the most effective way to help others attain their highest potential and happiness. But what is it that gets in the way of doing this? Though we may see that others are equal in wishing for happiness and not wishing suffering, there is still an underlying sense of self-cherishing.
Śāntideva explains the importance of meditation on giving away our own happiness to others and taking their suffering on ourselves.
If I do not interchange My happiness for others’ pain, Enlightenment will never be attained, And even in saṃsāra, joy will fly from me.
Page(s) 128
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.
བདག་བདེ་གཞན་གྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག །
ཡང་དག་བརྗེ་བར་མ་བྱས་ན། ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་དུ་མི་འགྲུབ་ཅིང་། །
འཁོར་བ་ན་ཡང་བདེ་བ་མེད། །bdag bde gzhan gyi sdug bsngal dag_/
yang dag brje bar ma byas na/_/ sangs rgyas nyid du mi 'grub cing /_/
'khor ba na yang bde ba med/_/The next steps in the equalizing and exchanging of self and others are understanding the faults of self-cherishing and the qualities of cherishing others. Śāntideva explains how self-centered actions result only in suffering, and actions done for the welfare of others result in happiness.
With that context in mind, Śāntideva then gives a detailed explanation of the actual exchange of self and others. He does this through a very complex way of imagining ourselves in relation to others from an inferior, equal, and a superior perspective. From these different angles, the feelings that are evoked from these different perspectives are then used to destroy the obstacles to the exchange of self and others—our envy, competitiveness, and pride.
The chapter ends with an injunction from Śāntideva to himself and all of us. Seeing the useless nature of self-cherishing and the worldly activities that go with it, Śāntideva now pledges to avoid anything that harms concentration and to train in meditative absorption, just as the bodhisattvas of the past have done.
Thus to banish all obscuring veils I’ll bend my mind from the mistaken path; And constantly upon the perfect object I shall rest my mind in even meditation.
Page(s) 136
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.
དེ་བས་སྒྲིབ་པ་བསལ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །
ལོག་པའི་ལམ་ལས་སེམས་བླན་ཏེ། །[p.102]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990. 
de bas sgrib pa bsal ba'i phyir/_/
log pa'i lam las sems blan te/_/[p.102]Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa (1990)
Slob dpon zhi ba lha and Mkhan po kun dpal. Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa rtsa ba dang 'grel pa. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1990.
Additional resources
Learn About Śāntideva's Texts
The Way of the Bodhisattva
The Compendium of Training
Recommended Texts Related to Chapter 8
Recommended Books Related to Chapter 8
Throughout this transcript, Rimpoche uses the English translation by Stephen Batchelor, published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Since Rimpoche frequently makes reference to Tibetan words and phrasing, the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit original is included in Wylie transliteration in [Appendix I].
Rimpoche did not introduce a traditional extensive outline in giving this teaching. For those interested, an outline of this sort may be found in Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's Meaningful to Behold. The headings, subheadings and footnotes in this present volume have been added by the editor for ease of reference, and to help delineate changes of topic. A brief bibliography is included. For a glossary, see the transcript on Chapters One through Three in this series.
The transcription of these teachings from recordings was done by Hartmut Sagolla. (Anne Warren, acknowledgements, i–ii)issues of Buddhist thought relating to the coherence of a reductionist model of the person. He argues for an irreducible subject-involvement of pain statements and suggests that given an approach to the person explicitly avowed in the Bodhicaryāvatāra it becomes impossible to make sense of subject-involvement, and thus of the removal of pain which is central to the path to Buddhahood.
Paul Williams approaches selected verses from the Bodhicaryāvatāra in the light of all the extant Indian commentaries available as well as many indigenous Tibetan commentaries from all Tibetan traditions. He is thus able to indicate varieties and
shifting patterns of interpretation and influence, showing how the Bodhicaryāvatāra comes to be used by the different Tibetan traditions according to their differing overall religious and philosophical agendas.
This book will be of interest to those concerned with the history and
interpretation of Indian and Tibetan philosophy, particularly
Madhyamaka, the detailed study of the text of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, and also those whose interest is primarily
Recommended Articles Related to Chapter 8
In recent years, Buddhism has won many converts in the West. It appears to offer a perspective which is at once religious and free from the theistic notion, unacceptable to many modern minds, of a personal creator-God. But its attraction owes, as well, to a moral doctrine of universal compassion that knows no boundaries of nation, class, sex or even species. The exhortation 'whatever living beings there be: feeble or strong . . . seen or unseen . . . far or near . . . may all beings be happy![1] seems more congenial to the modern sensibility than the Gita's call (see chapter 6 above) to performance of duties, military ones included, for their own sake.
The importance of compassion and 'loving-kindness' seems to be implied by the first of the 'four noble truths' announced by Gotama, the Buddha, in the sixth or fifth century BCE — that life is 'suffering', 'sorrow', 'dis-ease', 'unsatisfactoriness' (just some of the suggested translations of the Pali word dukkha). But other Buddhist doctrines make it problematic as to why and how moral concern should have a central role. The other noble truths suggest that it is essentially through understanding and wisdom that 'suffering' is to be overcome — through, above all, recognizing that the desires or 'cravings' which are responsible for 'suffering' are due to a mistaken 'clinging' to a non-existent 'self'. Morality, it can seem, is at most a useful preparation for that 'renunciation' of self-centred desire which is a prerequisite for entry into the enlightened condition of nirvana ('extinction'). Moreover, one is bound to ask, if this 'extinction', this release from the round of rebirth, is the proper goal, why should one care too much about improving conditions for creatures still caught up in this process? Anyway, if a person is 'not-self, but perhaps merely a bundle of passing mental states without any centre of identity, to whom exactly are compassion and loving-kindness directed?
It is unsurprising, therefore, that some commentators, such as Max Weber and Albert Schweitzer, have regarded Buddhism as a 'cold', amoral religion—and certainly in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism, the emphasis has tended to be upon renunciation and asceticism rather than moral action.[2] But in the Mahayana ('Great Vehicle') tradition which arose in opposition to the earlier one, a central tenet is that of universal compassion, understood as a loving commitment to help all creatures escape from 'suffering'. The pledge of the bodhisattva ('the being of enlightenment'), who postpones his or her attainment of nirvana, is 'However numerous are the sentient beings that exist, I vow to save them all!'.[3]
While there are many moral 'manuals' in the Buddhist literature, edifying precepts enjoining temperance, charity, friendship and so on, there is a dearth of sustained discussion attempting to reconcile the importance of morality with the doctrines mentioned above. In my two selections—both from the Mahayana tradition—one discerns, however, arguments for universal compassion compatible with, or even grounded in, those doctrines. In his commentary on the poem Three Principal Paths by the most famous Buddhist philosopher of Tibet, Tsongkapa (1357-1419), the monk and university teacher Pabongka Rinpoche (1878-1941} mentions two methods of 'training one's mind' for aiming at 'saving' all creatures—the 'seven-part, cause-and-effect instruction' and 'exchanging self and others'. It is the former which he adumbrates, the latter being the main theme in my selection from the eighth-century CE Indian monk Śāntideva's 'Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening', 'one of the great spiritual poems of mankind'[4] and a text especially influential in Tibetan Buddhism. Although both authors speak of 'methods' for inducing a compassionate attitude, we
might instead think of these as arguments for why one ought to adopt such an attitude.
The two 'methods' or arguments are, I think, fairly self-explanatory: both aim to cultivate a 'selfless' or 'neutral' attitude towards ourselves and others. In the Tibetan text, the argument is based on our relationships with other people in past and future lives. This raises the question of the relevance of such arguments to those non-Buddhists who are unable to accept the doctrine of rebirth. I invite readers to try amending the arguments, to treat them as grounded in reflections not on how we actually were and will be related to other people in past and future lives, but on how we might have been related to them in this one. Instead, for example, of reflecting, like Tsongkapa, that this woman, whom I may be treating badly, was my mother in a previous life, reflect on the facts that she might have been my mother in this one and that she probably is the mother of someone who might have been my best friend.
A residual worry may be that, for all the talk of selfless compassion, the motive for it remains a selfish one—ensuring nirvana for oneself. But, as a great commentator pointed out, 'if a Buddhist undergoes the discipline that leads to nirvana . . . it is in order to diminish by one the number of living and suffering beings'.[5] In other words, someone with a selfless or neutral attitude will regard his own future lives as just one more series of 'bundles of suffering', no more, but no less, deserving of compassion than any other. Moreover, as Śāntideva reminds us (e.g. verse 98), the doctrine of 'not-self' entails that these future lives are not in any substantial sense 'mine', but only loosely continuous with 'my' present one, so that aiming to forestall them (by achieving nirvana) is no more egocentric than it is altruistic.[6]
Notes
- The Sutta-Nipata, London: Curzon Press, 1985, 16:4–5.
- In the authoritative Theravada treatise, Buddhaghosa's The Path of Purification, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1991, 'virtue' is only the first stage, before 'concentration' and 'understanding', on this path. But see Steven Collins, Selfless Persons, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 194f, on not exaggerating the difference between the two traditions.
- Quoted in Heinrich Dumoulin, Understanding Buddhism, New York: Weatherhill, 1994, p. 76.
- Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, London: Routledge, 1989, p. 198.
- Louis de le Vallée Poussin, quoted in Collins, Selfless Persons, p. 193.
- For an interesting attempt by a modern Western Philosopher to explore the implications of something like the Buddhist 'not-self' doctrine, see Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.
In section 2.3 of the present chapter, I will lay out the conceptual territory of contemporary views on selfhood. My goal is to better situate No-Self views. I specifically set up the conversation in light of the Madhyamaka-Buddhist "emptiness" thesis—the view that nothing in reality has intrinsic existence or inherent essence (svabhāva). I focus on Madhyamaka, because its ethical champion, Śāntideva provides one of the more systematic ethical treatises in the Mahāyāna corpus. Moreover, I need to situate Madhyamaka and Śāntideva’s altruistic project in terms of competing Buddhist No-Self views.
In 2.4, I cover with greater detail the utilitarian-leaning ethics we may extract from Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra and his Śikṣāsamuccaya. Śāntideva provides us with a version of the No-Self view that presumably aims to derive moral conclusions from ontological insights. Furthermore, as theorists like Charles Goodman have contended, Śāntideva's work aims to justify a version of act-consequentialism, which promotes altruism and agent-neutral ethics.[4] This should be taken seriously, because there are independently compelling reasons to disavow the belief in a real self or a real owner of experiences. So if we can develop a workable ethics out of such insight, then we may have an ethically compelling reason to dispense with our belief in real selves. . . .
. . . Finally, in 2.5, I will also assess some of the leading reconstructions of the crucial passages, 101-103, in chapter 8 of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra. In these passages, Śāntideva argues that we must endorse robust altruism. I will ultimately conclude, like Harris,[7] that denying the existence of the self fails in any straightforward way to justify an altruistic moral imperative. There may be better ways to reconstruct Śāntideva's work. However, I cannot currently devise a strategy for rescuing Śāntideva's argument (although I provide some original takes on the leading critiques of his argument, while providing a metaphysical option that might bolster Śāntideva’s thesis). It seems to me that the most compelling reason I might have for helping someone—or for being committed to altruism—is through some form of identification with that person. At some general level of empathic identity, your pain might as well be my pain: this is something we can share. At some level of metaphysical description "we are all one," and so any suffering is suffering for all. At some level of social generality, I would want to be free of pain, and I believe that this is a right that anyone who is sufficiently unbiased would have to extend to everyone in a Rawlsian-contractualist sort of way. However, in all these scenarios—pace the Buddhist emphasis on "emptiness"—the important distinction between self and other is always maintained. The key to altruism, I believe, rests somewhere in the paradoxical notion of forging real identity amidst accepted difference. (Maroufkhani, introduction, 39–47)
Recommended Dissertations Related to Chapter 8
This dissertation makes a contribution to the little-studied field of Buddhist compassion cultivation by tracing the transformations of important key concepts throughout Indian and Tibetan Buddhist intellectual history, highlighting the ways in which these transformational processes have enabled the contemporary secularization of compassion training. The study also clarifies conceptual discrepancies between traditional Buddhist and secular approaches to compassion training, particularly focusing on the compassion culture in which the respective training methods are embedded. The study thereby raises awareness of the scope and limitations of the secularization of Buddhist contemplative practices.
The critical comparative analysis is based on textual interpretation of relevant texts from various genres, such as Indian Mahāyāna sūtra, Abhidharma, Tathāgatagarbha, Yogācāra and Madhyamaka śāstra, Tibetan commentarial texts and practice manuals of the Lojong (blo sbyong) and Lamrim (lam rim) traditions, as well as recent scientific studies of mindfulness and compassion. The choice of textual material is determined by its relevance for the evolution of compassion cultivation, culminating in its secularization in contemporary North America.
The study begins with a broad overview of etymologies, definitions and ideas pertaining to compassion in canonical Mahāyāna literature, which are contrasted with definitions drawn from contemporary secular compassion science literature, thereby setting the stage for a comparative analysis. Then I discuss compassion didactics in sūtra and śāstra literature and propose a systematization of three didactic approaches, namely, constructive, deconstructive and cognitive-analytic. I argue that these three didactic styles must be understood as embedded in a contextual framework, a “compassion culture.” The study then focuses on the specific method of tonglen, which is the formal contemplative method in both, Tibetan Lojong and secular CCT. I trace its philosophical roots to the principle of “equalizing and exchange of self and other” (Skt. svaparasamatā parātmaparivartana, Tib. bdag gzhan mnyams brje), which has been extensively developed by the seventh-century Indian master Śāntideva in his Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra. The analysis of various Tibetan interpretations thereof shows how this meditation was progressively transformed and popularized, thereby paving the way for its secularization in CCT. After a detailed presentation of the secular program of CCT, I discuss the complex relationship to its Buddhist roots and conclude with a critique of the recent phenomenon of secularized Buddhist contemplative practice.
Recommended Videos Related to Chapter 8
Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryāvatāra), one of the great classics of Indian Buddhist literature, was written by the distinguished eighth-century scholar Shantideva. This revered text is widely regarded as the most authentic and comprehensive guide for the spiritual practitioner dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings. His Holiness the Dalai Lama cites this work as one of the greatest influences in his life and repeatedly stresses the benefits of studying it.
One of the most important elements of our practice of the bodhisattva path is the skill of meditative concentration that is essential as a support for our advancement towards the goal of enlightenment. With the attainment of calm abiding, a meditative state in which all obstacles to stable concentration have been removed, we can then use the power of our minds to achieve greater and greater realizations. In Chapter Eight of the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Master Shantideva first provides instruction on developing this meditative skill to calm our minds, and then proceeds to explain how to use our meditation on exchanging our self-concern with an altruistic concern for others as a way to open our hearts and dedicate our lives fully to the welfare of all beings. (Source Accessed Oct 4, 2021)Venue: Conference Hall, Tibet House
MEDITATION & BODHICITTA
(CHAPTER 8) of Bodhisattva Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara
(A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life)
The course focuses on the Meditation & Bodhicitta aspects of the path through an in-depth and comprehensive study of this Chapter. The thematic arrangement of the text is based on the six perfections (paramitas), which provide the framework for the path to enlightenment for an aspirant of the Bodhisattva path.
The course is taught by Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul, Director, Tibet House. (Source Accessed Oct 28, 2021)Timestamps for talk:
0:00:00 - Greeting
0:02:00 - Visualizing the merit field
0:03:35 - Generating motivation
0:06:21 - Bell
0:09:39 - Verse 1
0:15:02 - Verse 2
0:55:42 - Verse 3
1:26:05 - Questions/Comments?
Reference:
- A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life - translated by Stephen BatchelorLesson 8. Meditation - Thursday 3rd June at 12pm
Online Course hosted by The Buddhist Society - Thursday 20th May 2021 during lockdown
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche will analyse the Bodhicaryāvatāra, often translated as A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, an 8th-century masterpiece from Indian scholar and yogi Shantideva. In each of the ten lessons, H.E. Ringu Tulku Rinpoche will focus on one of the ten chapters of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.
The Bodhicaryāvatāra is regarded as one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist texts and is studied extensively by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners everywhere. Rinpoche delivers his understanding of the text in a way that makes it fully accessible to anyone who is looking for support and help in these times.
Course Outline
Lesson 1. The Excellence of Bodhicitta - Thursday 18th February at 12pm
Lesson 2. Confession - Thursday 25th February at 12pm
Lesson 3. Taking Hold of Bodhicitta - Thursday 11th March at 12pm
Lesson 4. Carefulness - Thursday 25th March at 12pm
Lesson 5. Vigilance - Thursday 22nd April at 12pm
Lesson 6. Patience - Thursday 6th May at 12pm
Lesson 7. Diligence - Thursday 20th May at 12pm
Lesson 8. Meditation - Thursday 3rd June at 12pm
Lesson 9. Wisdom - Thursday 17th June at 12pm
Explore All Resources Related to Chapter 8
Key Terms for Chapter 8
Abhidharma
Notes
- ↑ This metaphor can be found in Kamalaśīla's Stages of Meditation (Bhāvanākrama) as well as in other texts.
