Shantideva

Works

• c. 720The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryavatara)

  Ten chapters on the mind set on awakening – from patience and the exchange of self and other to the wisdom of emptiness.

Position

The Bodhicaryavatara describes the path of the bodhisattva, who seeks awakening for the sake of all beings. It starts from the mind of awakening (bodhicitta) and moves through the perfections. The chapter on patience shows anger to be self-destructive: an enemy is an occasion for practising patience. The chapter on meditation argues for the equality and exchange of self and other: suffering is to be removed simply because it is suffering, and since the self is a mere construct, there is no reason to remove only one’s own. The ninth chapter defends Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka against Yogacara and other schools. Atisha, Tsongkhapa and the present Dalai Lama drew on it.

Life & context

Shantideva was a Buddhist monk at the monastic university of Nalanda, probably in the early 8th century. Later Indian and Tibetan hagiographies make him a prince who renounced his throne and a monk thought idle by his fellows, until, asked to recite, he delivered the Bodhicaryavatara and rose into the air as he taught emptiness. Beyond his authorship and his link with Nalanda, little is certain.

Further main works

• Compendium of Training (Shikshasamuccaya, early 8th century)