The Bodhicaryavatara of Santideva

This work contains the first complete English translation of the Sanskrit  Bodhicaryavatara of the Buddhist poet Santideva. In this beautiful and moving classic of Mahayana Buddhism. Santideva, a monk living in Nalanda in the early eighth century A.D. describes the Bodhisattva vow, the promise of heroic beings to strive for nirvana but to postpone full entrance into the realm of the absolute until every other sentient creature also attains the bliss of Enlightenment. The classic of Mahayana Buddhism has often been compared to both the Dhammapada of Hinayana Buddhism and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis.

THE MIND OF THE BODHISTAVA is the real theme of Santideva’s work, and to him as to any Mahayana adherent, it is a truly tremendous theme. It is like taking the mind of Christ as defined by orthodox Christianity and typing to find out all that is contained within it. Perhaps, in some ways it is an even greater theme….for to understand the Mind of Enlightenment Being, as defined by the Mahayana is to understand all the myriad works of illusion through which we are said to be swept by karma and it is to understand exactly how to escape from those terrible worlds and it is to find out precisely what lies beyond them and in the end it is to be what lies beyond them. It is not only to understand all things. It is to become oneself the mind of the Bodhisattva…. Such is the theme which Santideva examines.’

Kalyana Mitra the good friend so highly praised by Santideva has many representatives standing in the background of this translation and study Professor Horace L. Friess of Columbia University for so many years an invaluable help to countless students in the Department of Religion, merits and herewith receives an acknowledgement for encouraging and presiding over this project when it was in its embryo form as a doctoral thesis. My advisor in those days, Professor Royal W. Weiler (now of the University of Pennsylvania), who was intimately connected with its preparation in its original form, offered help which was indispensable and which remains in evidence in many of the superior parts of the translation. He is responsible for an abundance of its most attractive features, yet none of its flaws; and my appreciation for his assistance is unbounded. Sentimental though it may be mentioned also must be made of Professor Robert A. Fowkes of New York University who saved me from a terrible death by drowning in the raging and merciless sea of beginning Sanskrit. To these three outstanding teachers the thanks of a grateful student.

Among the many other scholars to whom this work also is indebted it will be obvious to anyone knowledgeable in the field that heavy reliance has been placed upon the work of Franklin Edgerton a truly great man of Indic studies Louis de la Vallee Poussin, Louis Finot T.R.V. Murti, Har Dayal Heinrich Zimmer and many others to whom this work is obligated, have become like old friends but most of all Edward Conze and D.T. Suzuki Dr. Conze through the courteous intermediary of the Buddhist society has allowed me the use of several of his translations in typescript, and a microfilm version of his dictionary of Prajna-paramita terms. This is only the beginning of an indebtedness however which is shared by a whole generation of men and women who have learned of the great concepts of Buddhism by way of his lucid translations and enthusiastic studies Likewise, Dr Suzuki another great scholar who had the ability to speak to multitudes of people beyond the boundaries of academic concern is a towering figure before whom anyone at all interested in Buddhist studies must stand in awe. His generosity was as great as his scholarly achievement.

I should also like to mention the unfailing courtesy and interest of the Lamas and others of Labsum Shedrub Ling, the Lamaist Buddhist monastery of America and its presiding genius, Geshe Wangyal. In addition, my wife Eleanor Matics and daughter, Kathleen Matics, have rendered assistance of many sorts which has been of enormous benefit to this enterprise of interpreting understanding and explaining the thought of one of the greatest Mahayana authors.

The Guide which precedes the translation is an effort, first of all, to comprehend and to explain sympathetically the beautiful and profound classic which is the Bodhicaryavatra, and secondly to place it in perspective in the evolving history of Buddhist thought. It is not a critique of Santideva but an appreciation that it is hoped will speak for itself. However, if a critique had been intended it might have been suggested that monastic asceticism carried to excess e.g. all that interest in cemeteries the vileness of the beloved’s corpse excrement etc, always has been an embarrassment to the teaching of the Buddha. Surely human affection is more – far more – than the enslavement describe by some celibate ascetics. A critique also might have commented on the curious doctrine of the equality of the self and the other and the transference of the self and the other as exercises belonging primarily to the realm of trance. At the same time, it is an insight which does make its point quite clear that we are creatures of extreme self-interest and need some such drastic treatment to cure us of the ultimate sickness. Perhaps we should view this notion as an exercise of preparation and acknowledge that we are indeed so selfish that just such a type of meditation might help us all.

Most of all however a critique would document the main thrust of Santideva and the Mahayana in general the compassion of the Buddha for all sentient beings. It is an awesome and overwhelming compassion which finds its expression both in the Bodhisattva’s career and in reference to another dimension than that in which e usually lives and sorrow – a dimension both transcendent and immanent – which is total compassion, beauty, tranquillity and peace. Santideva’s vision not selfishly limited to humanity encompasses every creature which can suffer pain for every form of life is a brother and every living entity is a challenge to be kind.

The Rise of The Madhayamika

The warm, friendly, and attractive Hindu sage whom men called Gautama Sakyamuni, the Buddha which is to say the Awakened One, lived in northern India approximately from 563 to 483 B.C. His life and the legends surrounding his life are indistinguishable at this late date and while present Buddhists do not insist upon the accuracy of every story told about him they interpret them all as expressions of the humane and kindly spirit which he unvaryingly displayed. The basic outline is familiar to all lands which have been touched by his dual teaching of Compassion and Enlightenment – how a prince of the Sakya tribe, brought up in a little Kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas and showered with every materialistic luxury, was so impressed by the Four Signs of sickness, old age, death and asceticism, that he fled from his palace to seek release from the inevitable suffering which is the fate of all sentient beings. After living for a time with ascetic yogins whose torture of the body distracted from the search for truth, he discovered the Middle Way between mortification and self-indulgence as the proper path leading to his supramundane goal. In due course after a heroic meditational effort involving direct confrontation with the King of Hell and his daughters of Lust, Restlessness, and Greed, along with every demonic power and temptation, Gautama did achieve the ultimate Enlightenment at Bodhgaya. His first Sermon in the deer park at Benares enunciated the Four Noble Truths i.e. life is marked by suffering, the cause of suffering is desire (which is to say, in effect, selfishness in its most profound psychological and ontological sense) the cessation of suffering is the extinguishing of desire the way to this cessation of sorrow is the noble eightfold path of Right View, Right Intent, Right Speech Right Conduct, Right Means of livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Mindfulness, Right Meditation. This great sermon set in motion the Turning of the wheel of the Dharma, which was the beginning of Buddhism in the present world cycle for followers quickly gathered in order that they might learn to overcome temporal distress and achieve an ultimate potential so vast that it could hardly be described other than as Nirvana, a timeless state of truth beyond all concepts of being and nonbeing the fundamental happiness and the only peace. For many years the Buddha wandered from place to place with his followers doing many wonderful and seemingly miraculous deeds of kindness to all creatures and teaching the Dharma without regard for caste or rank to all who cared to listen. When an old man, died (so to speak) composedly and peacefully entering Parinirvana – the permanent Nirvana beyond what we call death; commending his teaching to all who suffer and comforting his bereaved disciples with the famous words, “Doomed to extinction are composite things; exert yourself in wakefulness.” At his death, the air itself became luminous and clear, sounds of music came from nowhere and his funeral pyre leapt into spontaneous flame while the air was filled with the scent of jasmine.

To this day one of the oldest formulas of faith is the Triple Refuge: I go for refuge to the Buddha I go for refuge to the Dharma I go for refuge to the Sangha Repeated thrice the threefold statement refers to the followers of the Buddha’s way to the original Sakyamuni Buddha who pointed out the way; as well as to the Dharma – the corpus of his teaching and the reality which his teaching signifies; and the Sangha – the ongoing body of monks, and in a larger sense, the worldwide community which preserves knowledge of the Dharma practices it, and shares it with all who are inclined to a profound and beautiful interpretation of man’s existential predicament in a heartless universe.

In due time, of course, in company with other great religions of the world, Buddhism developed and acknowledged with good grace many variant forms of philosophic, ritualistic devotional, and artistic expression. The diverse ethnic backgrounds and religious traditions of the scattered population which welcomed this gentle teaching, along with the variations of temperament, education, and taste, on the part of individuals sympathetic to it, demanded the utmost flexibility and tolerance. Buddhism’s record of friendly toleration of variant schools of thought has been regarded by many observes as one of the happier achievements of mankind and while sectarianism is perhaps not unknown to any human institution this missionary faith is singularly marked by a spirit of accommodation which has made religious wars impossible and kept exclusive dogmatism at the minimum. In the golden ages of Buddhism, as in that happy era of modern Tibet before the barbarous Communist invasion, the monks of radically differing schools lived side by side, debating and teaching with mutual respect and good humour and demonstrating even to the fellow member that their religion, as one of the sutras say is founded on “boundless goodwill.”

The definition of the original Buddhism, as taught by Sakyamuni Buddha is to some extent determined by the particular outlook to which one gives allegiance within the general system. The same thought may be applied to any religion; and it may be that some scholars of both East and West particularly of the past, have occasionally been a little quick in defining the teaching of original Buddhism in the most gaunt and simple terms. Many books have pictured the Buddha as presenting an ethical system of uttermost simplicity which gradually deteriorated into an elaborate complex of polytheistic design and metaphysical emphasis. The evidence is really too slight for such cut-and-dried analysis, whatever the germ of truth it may contain; and in a way, the whole argument between the schools of Buddhism (as between the schools of any other religion) lies precisely in this question, of what is authentic? What is true? What is accurate? Perhaps all of the schools are true in the sense that they represent emphases which were latent within the original Dharma.

In any case, the Madhyamika school of Buddhist philosophy, to which the poet Santideva adhered, is a truly noble attempt to elucidate and make vivid the basic teachings of Sakyamuni Before examining Santideva’s great classic, the Bodhicaryavatara, “Entering the path of Enlightenment,” a brief outline of the rise of the Madhyamika is necessary as a background of understanding and appreciation of Santideva’s specific contribution. The easiest way is to start with the early Councils of Buddhism and to note the basic division between Hinayana and Mahayana schools, corresponding roughly to Southern and Northern Buddhism and the development is one of the Mahayana point of view. The Madhyamika is one of several versions of this general interpretation of the way of the Buddha.