Description
Book SynopsisŚāntideva’s eighth-century work the
Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra) is one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition. This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic, illuminating the
Guide’s many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions.
Trade ReviewHighly recommended. * Choice *
This is an exceptional collection which not only provides a useful teaching tool for the classroom, but also makes significant conceptual advances to our understanding of the Guide. I warmly recommend it for any serious student of Śāntideva’s thought. -- Stephen Harris * Journal of Buddhist Ethics *
[A] rich volume. -- Amy Paris Langenberg * Reading Religion *
For more than a thousand years Śāntideva's
Guide to Bodhisattva Practice has been a profound source of inspiration for Tibetan Buddhists. It was one of the six basic texts of Atiśa’s Kadam tradition. When teaching it to me, Khunu Lama Rinpoché told me that no other book explains the awakening mind of
bodhicitta, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, as effectively as this. Śāntideva describes how a self-centered attitude gives rise to disturbing emotions like anger and fear, but also how they can be countered by altruism and warm-heartedness. He shows how we can tackle our mental afflictions and achieve peace of mind, something that can be of benefit to everyone. The
Guide is a book I read, I teach, and keep with me. The readings presented in this volume make clear how much of Śāntideva's advice can be of interest and benefit to readers today. -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
This volume offers its readers valuable insights into the multifaceted literary gem that is the
Guide by bringing to bear the expertise of some of the most prominent scholars in Buddhist Studies. Overall, the results serve as an excellent introduction to the multidimensional textual history of the
Guide, argue convincingly for the continued importance of the text in the world today, and demonstrate the value of higher literary criticism for Buddhist Studies. * Religions of South Asia *
This book is an inspirational introduction to be read along with the text itself. * Religious Studies Review *
Anyone familiar with Western ethical thinking, but not with the Indian Buddhist tradition or with Śāntideva’s remarkable text, will have much to learn from the connections made in this volume between these distinct ways of thinking about ethics. -- Peter Singer, author of
The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living EthicallyŚāntideva's
Guide is a poem, a liturgy, a meditation manual, a phenomenology of mind, a moral psychology, an explication of the distinctive Buddhist virtues, and an invitation to the Mahāyāna way of life. Gold and Duckworth’s volume is a set of essays by brilliant contemporary philosophers and religious studies scholars that provides deep and sensitive readings of this great text. Śāntideva comes alive for the twenty-first century in these pages. -- Owen Flanagan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy, Duke University
Śāntideva's
Guide to Bodhisattva Practice has inspired Buddhist scholars and practitioners for more than a millennium. Dozens of commentaries have been written—and continue to be written—on this great work. In the last two decades European and American scholars have seriously engaged Śāntideva's work and its commentaries from many different perspectives, exploring its philological, ethical, metaphysical, and ritual dimensions, and analyzing the role it has played in Buddhist self-cultivation. This marvelous collection of essays, written by the very best Śāntideva scholars in the world, provides readers with a much-needed overview of state-of-the-art scholarship on the
Guide. Sophisticated yet concise and accessible, this book is an indispensable resource for those of us who have pondered—or lost ourselves in—Śāntideva's beautiful poem. -- José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
The essays contain the richness of classical Buddhist writing and showcase the latest trends in Buddhist studies. This is an excellent volume, and a rare one at that. -- Jacob P. Dalton, author of
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan TantraTable of ContentsA Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Participatory Authorship and Communal Interpretation: The
Bodhicaryāvatāra as a “World Classic,” by Jonathan C. Gold
1. Śāntideva: The Author and His Project, by Paul Harrison
2. Reason and Knowledge on the Path: A Protreptic Reading of the
Guide, by Amber Carpenter
3. On Learning to Overhear the “Vanishing Poet,” by Sonam Kachru
4. An Intoxication of Mouse Venom: Reading the
Guide, Chapter 9, by Matthew T. Kapstein
5. Seeing from All Sides, by Janet Gyatso
6. Bodies and Embodiment in the
Bodhicaryāvatāra, by Reiko Ohnuma
7. Ritual Structure and Material Culture in the
Guide to Bodhisattva Practice, by Eric Huntington
8.
Bodhicaryāvatāra and Tibetan Mind Training (
Lojong), by Thupten Jinpa
9. Taming Śāntideva: Tsongkhapa’s Use of the
Bodhicaryāvatāra, by Roger Jackson
10. The Middle Way of the Bodhisattva, by Douglas S. Duckworth
11. Seeing Sentient Beings: Śāntideva’s Moral Phenomenology, by Jay L. Garfield
12. Śāntideva’s Ethics of Impartial Compassion, by Charles Goodman
13. Śāntideva and the Moral Psychology of Fear, by Bronwyn Finnigan
14. Innate Human Connectivity and Śāntideva’s Cultivation of Compassion, by John Dunne
Appendix 1: A Guide to
Guide Translations: Advice for Students and Instructors
Appendix 2: Index of
Guide Verses Cited
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
