by Donald Lopez
Only in the final section (51–56) does Śāntideva ask for anything for himself, but even here he asks that he progress on the bodhisattva path, advancing to the first of the ten stages, and that he be protected by the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī and emulate his deeds. In the end, he asks to take on the sufferings of all beings, that they may find happiness, ‘Let all the sufferings of the world come to an end in me; and let the whole world achieve happiness through the virtues of the bodhisattvas.’
May the merit I have obtained by composing this Introduction to theBodhisattva’s Career transform all sentient beings so that the bodhisattva’s conduct will be their ornament. (1)
Those who in every corner of the universe suffer torments of mind and body, may they find oceans of joy and happiness, through the power of my merit. (2)
May these living beings never lose this happiness for as long as they remain in the cycle of transmigration. May the world enjoy without interruption the bliss of the bodhisattvas. (3)
May all embodied beings in the different hells in all the world realms enjoy the happiness and the joys of the Land of Bliss. (4)
May those who suffer cold be granted warmth. May those who suffer heat be refreshed by streams of water that pour down from those prodigious clouds, the bodhisattvas. (5)
May the forest of sword-leafed trees of hell acquire the splendid qualities of the heavenly Nanda forest, and the thorn bushes of hell turn into Indra’s wish-fulfilling trees. (6)
May the very centre of hell resound with the song of sandpipers, drakes, wild ducks and wild geese, and be filled with ponds adorned with perfumed lotus blossoms. (7)
May the burning coal mounds of hell turn into mounds of jewels, the red-hot pavements into cool crystal, and the grinding mountain millstones of hell become heavenly palaces worthy of adoration, the abode of so many buddhas. (8)
Let the rain of red-hot stones, coals and swords turn into a rain of flowers. Let the sword battles of the asura demons turn into playful jousts with swords of flowers. (9)
May the merit I have gained serve those who, as their bodies lose their flesh turning to blanched skeletons, descend into the boiling currents of Vaitaraṇyā, the river of hell. May each one of them gain a celestial body in Mandākinī, the Ganges of the heavens, and live there in the company of celestial nymphs. (10)
Let the servants of Yama, and the terrifying jackals and vultures that accompany them, tremble upon seeing that the darkness of the nether world everywhere vanishes miraculously. Let them wonder then, ‘Whose is this soothing light that brings such bliss and joy?’ Then, as they look upwards and see, descending from the sky, the flaming Vajrapāṇi, let the force of their joy make them abandon their wickedness, that they may then leave with him. (11)
Let a shower of red lotuses, mixed with perfumed water, rain down to extinguish the fires of hell. ‘What is this?’ will say the denizens of hell, suddenly cooled by joy, as they gain sight of Vajrapāṇi, the one who holds the lotus in his hand. (12)
‘Come, come at once, my brothers. Do not fear. We have come back to life. This youth, wearing a triple band, blazing with light, chases all fear away. By his power all sufferings vanish, joy overflows, and one is able to give rise to the thought of awakening, motivated by compassion, which is the mother that rescues all living beings.’ (13)
‘Look at him, the crowns of hundreds of gods stoop before the lotus of his feet; his eyes show the tears of compassion; over his head rains a shower of different kinds of flowers, descending from the towered palaces of heaven, where one can hear the praises of hundreds of singing goddesses.’ May the denizens of hell also praise the bodhisattva Mañjughoṣa in this way when he appears before them. (14)
And in this way let them, through the power of my merits, accept and rejoice at the clouds of bodhisattvas that now surround them, with the bodhisattva Samantabhadra at their head. From these clouds descend fresh, perfumed breeze and a rain. (15)
Let the intense pains and terrors of hell disappear, and let those who are in evil rebirths become free of them. (16)
Let the animals be free from the fear of being devoured by others, and let the hungry ghosts reach satisfaction equal to that of the human beings in the land of Uttarakuru. (17)
May the hungry ghosts be sated and may they be able to bathe and refresh themselves in the rivers of milk emanating from the hands of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. (18)
May it be that everywhere the blind will see shapes and colours, and the deaf be able to hear. Let expectant mothers give birth without pain, like Queen Māyā. (19)
May all humans have clothing, food, drink, garlands, sandalwood powder, ornaments – may they obtain as much as they desire of everything necessary for their well-being. (20)
May those who are afraid lose all their fears. Let the grieving find joy, and the anxious become serene and even-minded. (21)
May the sick find health; prisoners, freedom; the weak, strength. May [all] have loving thoughts towards each other. (22)
May all localities be friendly to those who travel through their roads, and may these travellers meet success in the enterprise for which they have set out on their journey. (23)
May all those who travel by sea reach their desired destinations, returning safely to shore to rejoicing with their families. (24)
Let those who are lost in the jungle find a caravan. Let them continue in their journeys free from fatigue and the fear of bandits and wild beasts. (25)
May friendly deities protect from disease, the dangers of the jungle and other ills all those who are feeble-minded, mad, or drunk, and those who are unprotected, children and the aged. (26)
May all humans be free from conditions unfavourable to following the path. Let them have faith, wisdom and compassion, positive attitudes and good conduct, constantly remembering their past lives. (27)
May they come to possess inexhaustible treasures equal to those of the bodhisattva Gaganagañja. Let them not be tied to the pair of duality. Let them be free from coercion, acting in complete freedom. (28)
May those hermits who lack vigour acquire energy, and deformed sentient beings become beautiful. (29)
May all women in the world be reborn as men. May those who are small and insignificant achieve greatness, without pride. (30)
Let this my merit help all beings, without exception, to stop sin and practise the good (31)
Let no one lack the thought of awakening. Let them be totally devoted to the conduct of the bodhisattva, guided and protected by the awakened ones, having renounced the works of Māra. (32)
Let all sentient beings have a long life. Let them live in eternal happiness. Let even the word ‘death’ vanish for ever. (33)
May all regions of the universe be filled by the presence of the awakened and the sons of the awakened, and may these regions be adorned with parks where wish-fulfilling trees grow, and may the parks be filled with the melody of dharma. (34)
Let the earth become soft everywhere, free of roughness, flat like the palm of the hand and covered with beryl. (35)
Let the large assemblies of bodhisattvas everywhere sit in circles; and may they adorn the whole earth with their resplendent majesty. (36)
May all embodied beings hear incessantly the melody of dharma as it is sung by birds, trees, the sun’s rays and the sky. (37)
Let them always walk in the company of the awakened and their sons. Let them worship the Teacher of the World with infinite clouds of adoration. (38)
Let the sky god bring rain in proper season, giving abundant crops. May the people prosper, and may the king be just. (39)
Let all medicinal herbs and all the curative mantras of the healers effectively heal. May all ḍākinīs, rākṣasas, and other demons become compassionate. (40)
May there be no sentient being who is unhappy, evil, ill, scorned or rejected – may not one among them be heavy hearted. (41)
Let monasteries be a refuge for those devoted to the study of the teaching. Let there be harmony in the com
munity, and may the goals of the community be fulfilled. (42)
May all monks succeed in keeping their life of solitude, and may they love the precepts. May they practise meditation with alertness and without distractions. (43)
May nuns receive abundant offerings. May they avoid quarrels and jealousy. May all sages and hermits observe all the precepts. (44)
Let those monks who are careless in their morality become aware [of their faults] and apply themselves to the destruction of these faults. May they all attain a favourable rebirth, where they will be able to keep their vows. (45)
May the truly wise receive honours, offerings and alms; may the truly pure achieve universal renown. (46)
May all beings achieve buddhahood through a single rebirth in the heavens, without further suffering in the unfortunate rebirths, and without having to engage in the difficult practices of the bodhisattvas. (47)
May all beings pay homage to the awakened in a variety of ways, and that they may thus become happy many times over by acquiring the inconceivable bliss of awakening. (48)
Let the bodhisattvas’ wishes for the well-being of the world become reality. May everything that these protectors intend be realized for all sentient beings. (49)
May solitary buddhas and mere disciples attain to happiness, venerated with the greatest honours by gods, asuras and humans. (50)
May I, by the grace of Mañjughoṣa, become capable of renunciation and the recollection of past lives, that I may reach the first stage, the stage of Joy. (51)
May I bring to all my enterprises effort and vigour, and obtain the conditions necessary to lead a life of solitude in all my rebirths. (52)
May I be able to see and speak to the protector Mañjughoṣa whenever I wish to do so. (53)
May I be able to follow by myself the conduct practised by Mañjuśrī, which effects the goals of all sentient beings in the ten directions, to the very end of space. (54)
For as long as the vastness of space remains, and as long as the world exists, may I too subsist that long, destroying the suffering of the whole world. (55)
Let all the sufferings of the world come to an end in me; and let the whole world achieve happiness through the virtues of the bodhisattvas. (56)
May the teachings of dharma, the only medicine for the world’s ills, the cause of all perfection and happiness, long endure in this world, worshipped with offerings and honours. (57)
I pay homage to Mañjughoṣa, by whose grace my mind has come to settle on the good. I salute this friend in the path, whose grace increases this thought of the good. (58)
Translated from the Sanskrit by Luis. O. Gómez, based on the edition of Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya [et al.], Bodhicaryāvatāra. Bibliotheca Indica, no. 280 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1960), pp. 229–44.
Glossary
Abhidharma (Sanskrit; Pali: abhidhamma): literally, the ‘higher teaching’, a category of scriptures that provide systematic analyses of the constituents of the person, the process of perception, the nature of enlightenment, and other issues of a scholastic nature.
aggregates: see skandhas.
Amitābha (Sanskrit; Japanese: Amida): literally, ‘Infinite Light’, the buddha who presides over the western pure land of Sukhāvatī, the Land of Bliss. Amitābha’s vow to deliver the faithful to his pure land serves as the foundation of much Mahāyāna practice, especially in East Asia.
arhat (Sanskrit; Pali: arahant): literally, ‘one who is worthy’, one who has followed the path and destroyed all causes for future rebirth, and will enter nirvāṇa upon death. Regarded as the ideal in the mainstream traditions, where the Buddha is also described as an arhat, in the Mahāyāna the attainment of an arhat is negatively compared to that of a buddha. Certain arhats were selected by the Buddha to remain in the world until the coming of Maitreya. These arhats (called lohans in Chinese) were objects of particular devotion in East Asian Buddhism.
Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit): literally, ‘the lord who looks down’, the bodhisattva of compassion, often called upon for salvation in times of danger. A male bodhisattva in India and Tibet, Avalokiteśvara (known as Guanyin in Chinese and Kannon in Japanese) assumed a female form in East Asia. The Dalai Lamas of Tibet are considered human embodiments of Avalokiteśvara.
bhikṣu (Sanskrit; Pali: bhikkhu): literally, ‘beggar’, the term is generally translated as ‘monk’. It refers to a male follower of the Buddha who has received ordination, served as a novice, and holds all of the approximately 250 vows. The female counterpart is bhikṣunī (Pali: bhikkhunī), generally translated as ‘nun’.
bhūmi (Sanskrit): literally, ‘ground’, the levels or stages of the bodhisattva path. Ten levels are usually enumerated, extending over millions of lifetimes.
bodhi (Sanskrit): literally, ‘awakening’, commonly translated as ‘enlightenment’. The term is employed most commonly to refer to the state achieved by the Buddha and aspired to by the bodhisattva.
bodhicitta (Sanskrit): literally, ‘mind of enlightenment’; it is the compassionate aspiration to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering. The development of bodhicitta makes one a bodhisattva.
bodhisattva (Sanskrit; Pali: bodhisatta): often glossed as ‘one who has the intention to achieve enlightenment’, a bodhisattva is a person who has compassionately vowed to achieve buddhahood but has not yet done so. All forms of Buddhism set forth the path of the bodhisattva, who works for the welfare of others. In the Mahāyāna, the bodhisattva path is presented as the ideal to which all should aspire. The term often appears in conjunction with the epithet mahāsattva, meaning ‘great being’.
cakravartin (Sanskrit): literally, ‘wheel turner’, an ideal monarch who rules according to the teachings of the Buddha. The Indian emperor Aśoka is often described as a cakravartin.
Chan (Chinese): the ‘meditation’ school of Chinese Buddhism that traces its lineage back to the Indian master Bodhidharma (who is said to have come to China in the late fifth century) and back to the Buddha himself. The school’s name is pronounced ‘Zen’ in Japanese.
Desire Realm (Sanskrit: kāmadhātu): the lowest of the three realms (the others being the Form Realm and the Formless Realm) in Buddhist cosmology, populated (in ascending order) by hell beings, ghosts, animals, humans, demigods and gods. The hells are divided into hot hells, cold hells and neighbouring hells. The realm of gods has several levels, both on the surface of Mount Meru and floating above it.
dhāraṇī (Sanskrit): often translated as ‘spell’, a kind of long mantra said to bestow extraordinary powers on those who know it and recite it. Such formulae sometimes occur at the end of sūtras where they are praised as potent condensations of the sūtra itself.
dharma (Sanskrit; Pali: dhamma): although difficult to translate, the term has two general meanings in Buddhism. The first is the teaching or doctrine of the Buddha, both as expounded and as manifested in practice. The second (in the plural), perhaps rendered as ‘phenomena’, refers to the basic constituents of mind and matter.
dharmadhātu (Sanskrit): literally, dharma-sphere, one of the terms for the ultimate nature of reality.
dharmakāya (Sanskrit): literally, dharma-body, the term used to refer to the transcendent qualities of the Buddha. In the Mahāyāna doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha, the dharmakāya is sometimes presented as the ultimate reality from which the other forms of the Buddha (the ‘enjoyment body’ and the ‘emanation body’) derive.
dhyāna (Sanskrit; Pali: jhāna): generally translated as ‘concentration’ or ‘meditation’, the term has two primary meanings. The first is any of several levels of single-pointed concentration achieved through the practice of meditation. The second is one of the four abodes of the Form Realm, where those who have achieved the requisite levels of concentration are reborn in their next lifetime.
Form Realm (Sanskrit: rūpadhatū): in Buddhist cosmology a realm of heavens above the Desire Realm reserved for those who attain certain states of deep co
ncentration in their previous life.
Formless Realm (Sanskrit: ārūpyadhātu): in Buddhist cosmology, the highest realm within the cycle of rebirth where beings exist as deep states of concentration. Like the Form Realm, it is reserved for those who achieve those states in their previous life.
Gautama (Sanskrit; Pali: Gotama): the clan name of the historical Buddha. His given name was Siddhārtha, ‘he who achieves his goal’.
Hīnayāna (Sanskrit): literally, ‘low vehicle’, a pejorative term used by proponents of the Mahāyāna to describe those who do not accept the Mahāyāna sūtras as authentic words of the Buddha. In Mahāyāna texts, those who follow the Hīnayāna seek to become arhats by following the path of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha, rather than following the superior path of the bodhisattva to buddhahood. In modern scholarship, Hīnayāna is also sometimes used in a non-pejorative sense to refer to the many non-Mahāyāna schools of Indian Buddhism.
Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit): literally, ‘Rose Apple Island’, the southern continent in traditional Buddhist cosmology. It is regarded as the world that we inhabit.
jātaka (Sanskrit): literally, ‘birth’, a story of one of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisattva. Among the most popular of Buddhist stories, the tales relate the virtuous deeds of the bodhisattva, often when he was an animal.
jhāna: see dhyāna.
karma (Sanskrit; Pali: kamma): literally, ‘action’, the law of the cause and effect of actions, according to which virtuous deeds result in happiness in the future and non-virtuous deeds result in suffering. Karma is accumulated over many lifetimes and fructifies to create present experience.
lama (Tibetan, bla ma): a religious teacher. The term is often used to denote an ‘incarnate lama’, that is, a teacher who has been identified as the present incarnation of a great teacher of the past.
Madhyamaka (Sanskrit): literally, ‘middle way’, a philosophical school associated with Nāgārjuna that set forth a middle way between the extremes of existence and non-existence. The ultimate reality is emptiness (śūnyatā).