m i A G u id e t o t h e B o d h is a t t v a W L ay o f if e hU i_ Santideva Translated from the Sanskrit an d Tibeta n by VESNA A. WALLACE and B. ALAN WALLACE mm A G uide to the Bodhisattva W ay of Life (Bodhicary avatar a) A Guide to the Bodhisattva W ay of Life {Bodhicary avatar a) by S Sántideva Translated from the Sanskrit and Tibetan by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace Snow Lion Publications Ithaca, New York USA Snow Lion Publications P.O. Box 6483 Ithaca, New York 14851 USA Tel: 607-273-8519 Copyright © 1997 by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means without written permission of the publisher. ISBN 1-55939-061-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Santideva, 7th cent. [Bodhicaryavatara. English] A guide to the Bodhisattva way of life : Bodhicaryavatara / by Santideva; translated from the Sanskrit and Tibetan by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace. -- 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-55939-061-1 1. Mahayana Buddhism-Doctrines-Early works to 1800. I. Wallace, Vesna A. II. Wallace, B. Alan. III. Title. BQ3142.E5W36 1997 294.3’85-dc21 96-47279 CIP Table of Contents Preface 7 Introduction 11 Chapter I: The Benefit of the Spirit of Awakening 17 Chapter II: The Confession of Sin 23 Chapter III: Adopting the Spirit of Awakening 33 Chapter IV: Attending to the Spirit of Awakening 39 Chapter V: Guarding Introspection 47 Chapter VI: The Perfection of Patience 61 Chapter VII: The Perfection of Zeal 77 Chapter VIII: The Perfection of Meditation 89 Chapter IX: The Perfection of Wisdom 115 Chapter X: Dedication 137 Bibliography 145 Dedicated to the memory of Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey Preface Santideva's classic treatise, the Bodhicaryavatara, translated here as A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, has been the most widely read, cited, and practiced text in the whole of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Bu ston rin chen grub, a renowned Tibetan scholar of the thirteenth century, wrote in his History of Buddhism in India and Tibet1 that according to the Buddhist tradition, one hundred commentaries on the Bodhicaryavatara were extant in India, but only eight of them were translated into Tibetan. Moreover, His Holiness the Dalai Lama comments that the Bodhicaryavatara is the primary source of most of the Tibetan Buddhist literature on the cultivation of altruism and the Spirit of Awakening,2 and his recent comprehensive work entitled The World of Tibetan Buddhism frequently cites this text. The Bodhicaryavatara has also been a widely known and respected text in the Buddhist tradition of Mongolia, and it was the first Buddhist text translated into classical Mongolian from Tibetan by Coiji Odser in 1305. Although the Bodhicaryavatara has already been translated several times into English, earlier translations have been based exclusively on either Sanskrit versions or Tibetan translations. To the best of our knowledge, no earlier translation into English, including the recent 1. Bu ston, The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, trans. by E. Obermiller (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1986), p. 166. 2. The Dalai Lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism, trans., ed., and annot. by Geshe Thupten Jinpa (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), p. 59. 8 A GUÏDE TO THE BODHISATTVA WAY OF LIFE translation by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton, has drawn from both the Sanskrit version and its authoritative Sanskrit commentary of Prajnâkaramati as well as Tibetan translations and commentaries. Our present translation is based on two Sanskrit editions, namely, Louis de la Vallée Poussin's edition (1901) of the. Bodhicaryâvatâra and the Panjikâ commentary of Prajnâkaramati, and P. L. Vaidya's edition (1960) of the Bodhicaryâvatâra and the Panjikâ commentary; and it is also based on the Tibetan Derge edition, entitled the Bodhisattvâ- caryâvatâra, translated by Sarvajnàdeva and dPal brtsegs. We have also consulted two Tibetan commentaries to this work: sPyod 'jug mam bshad rgyal sras 'jug ngogs by rGyal tshab dar ma rin chen and Byang chub sems pa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i 'grel bshad rgyal sras rgya mtsho'i yon tan rin po che mi zad 'jo ba'i bum bzang by Thub bstan chos kyi grags pa. As becomes apparent throughout the text, contrary to popu­ lar assumption, the recension incorporated into the Tibetan canon is significantly different from the Sanskrit version edited by Louis de la Vallée Poussin and P L. Vaidya. This would seem to refute the con­ tention of Crosby and Skilton that the canonical Tibetan translation by Bio ldan shes rab was based on the Sanskrit version available to us today. Moreover, pronouncements concerning which of the extant Sanskrit and Tibetan versions is truer to the original appear to be highly speculative, with very little basis in historical fact. This trans­ lation attempts to let these versions speak for themselves—as closely as the English allows—leaving our readers to make their own judg­ ments concerning the degree of antiquity, authenticity, and overall coherence of the Sanskrit and Tibetan renditions of Sàntideva's clas­ sic treatise. In terms of our methodology, we have primarily based our transla­ tion on the Sanskrit version and its commentary, though we have al­ ways consulted the Tibetan translation and its commentaries. Thus, the main text constitutes a translation of both the Sanskrit and Ti­ betan versions where they do not differ in content. However, in those verses where the Tibetan differs significantly from the Sanskrit, we have included English translations of the Tibetan version in footnotes to the text. Explanatory notes drawn from the Panjikâ commentary and other sources have also been given in footnotes to the text. Many of the Sanskrit verses of this text are concise and at times cryptic, and they often entail complex syntax. Thus, at times we were forced to take certain freedoms in our translation in order to make the English intelligible.