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Bodhicharyavatara (Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) - June 16 - July 12, 2009
General Course Description
Bodhicharyavatara is one of the great masterpieces of Buddhist literature. Written by the Madhyamika poet and scholar Shantideva in the 8th century CE, it is the most read and practiced text in all Mahayana Traditions. This text has been quoted so often by the great Tibetan masters due to its clear and direct presentation of the view and practice of the Bodhisattva path as encapsulated in the Six Perfections. Khenpo Jamyang Tenzin will present a detailed line by line explanation of the last 4 chapters directly in English, relying on Gyalsay Togme Sangpo’s commentary.
This course will be the second half of Bodhicharyavatara Studies. Students who did not participate in the 2008 course may attend this second one month course in 2009 but they are recommended to read the first 6 chapters before attending the IBA to familiarize themselves with the work. This course will cover the remaining 3 crucial chapters of the text: Enthusiasm, meditation and wisdom. The tenth and last chapter is a very moving dedication prayer.
Specific Content
These last three chapters dealing with enthusiastic effort, meditation and wisdom indicate how to cultivate, progress, and further develop the Bodhicitta mind. The chapter on enthusiasm shows how to eliminate all forms of laziness and despondency by finding joy in what is wholesome.
The meditation chapter advises us on meditational states in general, and enjoins us to abandon their opposites - our attachment to worldly goods and worldly beings, in favour of generating a delight in solitude. It then gives detailed instructions how to adjust our view of those things that delight and distract us and introduces meditations to develop compassion and equanimity, in order to develop the relative and ultimate bodhicitta.
The wisdom chapter advises us to generate wisdom and teaches the method to do so; and then describes the activities after acquiring wisdom. Shantideva’s aim is to establish the right view in beings, which is the correct basis for contemplation and meditation, as well as the basis for the correct practice of the paramitas. Intellectual understanding is clearly a vital part of coming to hold the right view with confidence. The generation of wisdom involves identifying its nature, and then entering into the selflessness which is the object of the path, and refuting phenomena as truly existing. This account of the method for generating wisdom first discusses the nature of wisdom at length. It begins with an exposition on the nature of the two truths and goes on to defend that position in relation to the relative and in relation to the ultimate. It refutes the earlier Buddhist schools and non Buddhist schools.
Traditional Teaching
This presentation of the Bodhicharyavatara will be further illuminated by Khenpo Jamyang Tenzin's use of Togme Sangpo's precise and inspiring commentary. Shantideva's Bodhisattva comes into being with the development of the "Awakening Mind", a shift away from self purpose, towards achieving the limitless benefit of all beings. This "Awakening" process is not linear, nor even cumulative, but fully transformative. Shantideva's bold, insightful reasoning is unforgettably resonant.
Students who attend this course may have read a text translation and/or received teachings on Shantideva's work, and may already have engendered an appreciation for the power and subtlety of this classic Mahayana text. In this course, Khenpo Jamyang Tenzin will reveal the complexity and brilliance of Shantideva's words, in a depth not possible for students to achieve on their own, even after repeated readings. For those who see themselves as having a future role in teaching Dharma or sharing it with others, it is of special benefit to receive this highly influential Mahayana teaching in line by line detail along with the oral transmission (lung). Such an opportunity, to explore Shantideva at a profound level under skilled guidance, is not to be missed.
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Schedule - June 16 - July 12, 2009
| Weekly Schedule - Tuesday to Sunday |
| 6:30am |
Voluntary Silent Meditation |
Shrine room |
| 7:00am |
Breakfast |
|
| 8:00am |
Main Teaching |
Shrine room |
| 9:30am |
Tea Break |
|
| 10:00am |
Intro to Translation |
Classroom I |
| 11:00am |
Tibetan 101 |
Classroom II |
| 12:00 |
Lunch |
|
| 1:00pm |
Tibetan 102 |
Classroom I |
| 2:30pm |
Revision with Q&A |
Shrine room |
| 3:30pm |
Tea Break |
|
| 6:30pm |
Dinner |
|
There is no revision class on Sundays.
There are no classes on Mondays.
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SHANTIDEVA - short biography
Chandrakirti laid the foundations and initiated the Prasangika Madhyamika school of Buddhist thought, but Shantideva provided it with mystic vision and ecstatic fervor. Born in the eighth century, he was a son of the ruler of Saurashtra, a small kingdom in modern Gujarat. While still a child, he was granted a vision of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom, and the vision was repeated near the time for his accession to the throne. Manjushri declared that he was Shantideva's kalyanamitra, spiritual friend, and warned him not to take the throne of Saurashtra. At about the same time, Shantideva had a dream in which Tara, the feminine aspect and counterpart of Avalokiteshvara, appeared to him in the guise of his mother and consecrated him. In an act reflecting the renunciation of Buddha, he fled the kingdom and wandered in a forest for twenty-one days. He came upon a woman who offered him sweet water and led him to a yogin who initiated him into Buddhist doctrine and meditation. He soon attained samadhi and recognized the woman and the yogin as Tara and Manjushri. From that moment, the vision of Manjushri remained with him throughout his life.
In time he came to Nalanda, where he received ordination and the name Shantideva from the upadhyaya Jayadeva. Since he ate large quantities of rice and seemed to sleep much of the time, many monks suspected that he was a spiritual fraud. To unmask his pretensions, they set up a recitation of the sutras from memory, expecting him to fail when his turn came around. When it was his time to recite, he asked if they would like to hear an old sutra or something wholly new. They chose the latter, and he at once began to utter the Bodhicharyavatara (Entering the Path of Enlightenment), a poetic and philosophical discourse on the Bodhisattva Path. When he began to utter the verse (IX, 35), "When existence and non-existence cease to be present to the mind. . . ", he rose into the air and became invisible, though his voice could be clearly heard. There was no more gossip in Nalanda regarding Shantideva's routines, and reverence for him was so great that he joined Chandragomin as one of the select few to whom Taranatha gave the sacred title acharya in his history of the Buddhist tradition in India.
While at Nalanda, Shantideva also composed the Shikshasamuccaya, a compendium of Buddhist doctrines, which drew together citations from a vast number of sutras and texts. It emphasizes the moral dimension of the Bodhisattva Path, whilst the Bodhicharyavatara focuses on the Path from the standpoint of consciousness. Shantideva also engaged in dialectical debates, advocating a mystical view of the highest doctrines and insisting that logical clarity serve the ends of intuitive insight. According to tradition, he traveled south to a now unknown place to debate a number of tirthikas who rejected the teachings of Buddha. He won a great number of them over with his dialectical skills, and though many attested to his magical powers, his memorable "seven wonderful acts" emphasized the conversion of different groups of opponents. Sometime late in the seventh century he disappeared from history, which remains silent on the time, place and manner of his death.
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Bodhicharyavatara - texts available for download
This collection was compiled from various net sources and is meant for personal study only. For a description of available books on sale, please visit Amazon.com.
Bodhisattva’s Way of Life - English
Bodhisattva’s Way of Life - Tibetan
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