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The Path of Light: Rendered for the First Time from the Bodhicharyāvatāra of Śānti-deva; A Manual of Mahā-yāna Buddhism
Book
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Description
The following pages contain an abridged translation of the original Sanskrit of the Bodhicharyāvatāra, based upon two editions, that contained in vol. ii. of the Journal of the Buddhist Text Society (Calcutta, 1894) and that published with Pranjākara-mati's commentary by Professor L. de la Vallée Poussin in the Bibliotheca Indica.[1] I have omitted a good deal of the text where it seemed needlessly prolix, and the whole of the scholastic disputation which makes up the bulk of the ninth chapter. But I hope that even in this curtailed form my translation will enable readers to understand and fairly appreciate the fervent devotion and brotherly love which make this little book, in spite of its errors, a lasting monument of true religious emotion, " an everlasting possession." (Barnett, introduction, 35–36)
Notes
- I have much pleasure in acknowledging my debt of gratitude to Professor Poussin's masterly French translation of the text published in the Revue d'Histoire et de Littérature Religieuses, vols. x.-xii. (1905-1907) under the title Bodhicaryāvatāra: Introduction à la Pratique des futurs Bouddhas.
Citation
Barnett, Lionel David, trans. The Path of Light: Rendered for the First Time from the Bodhi-charyāvatāra of Śānti-Deva; A Manual of Mahā-yāna Buddhism. Wisdom of the East. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1909.
Interconnections
1 Full translation of
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. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.
1 Other editions
Lionel T. Barnett's English translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra based upon the Sanskrit editions edited by Louis de la Vallée Poussin and Hara Prasad Shastri.
