OF THE MANY renowned Nalanda masters, there’s a special place reserved for Buddhist monk, scholar, and poet Shantideva. His Bodhicaryavatara remains one of the most beloved texts in the Buddhist canon, distinctive for its poetic, practical, yet deeply personal articulation of the Mahayana path. Since its composition in the early eighth centuryce, the Bodhicaryavatara has served as a complete guide to the view, meditation, and ethical practice of a bodhisattva, showing us how to develop awakened mind, enter the Mahayana path, receive the bodhisattva precepts, and train in the six transcendent perfections of generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.
Contemporary readers may be challenged when they first encounter this text. Despite its lauded place in Buddhist literature, Shantideva’s guide, brimming with urgency, may seem moralistic, exuding a passion—both in the sense of vigor and of suffering—that may be difficult for us to relate to. Indeed, Shantideva assumes that readers accept Buddhist teachings on karma and metaphysics that may rub up against modern psychological views of the person, relationships, and society in general. On a deeper level, Shantideva assumes a readiness within the hearts of those who engage with his text: a genuine desire to relieve the suffering of the world and a longing for enlightenment that emerges from such a desire.
The is at once a work of exacting theoretical argumentation and intimate aspirational prayer. Its title—variously translated as or —could also be understood as a guide on “How to Lead an Awakened Life.” It includes within it one of the most influential and condensed digests of Middle) philosophy. Likewise, it is a motivational poem, and can be read as Shantideva’s own meditation manual, a record of personal recollection, which he composed to cultivate and nurture the motivation of bodhicitta within himself.
