The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra or Bodhicaryāvatāra (Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་ byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa; Chinese: 入菩薩行論; Japanese: 入菩薩行論) translated into English as A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text written c. 700 AD in Sanskrit verse by Shantideva (Śāntideva), a Buddhist monk at Nālandā Monastic University in India which is also where it was composed.

Structure

Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra has ten chapters dedicated to the development of bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment) through the practice of the six perfections (Skt. Pāramitās). The text begins with a chapter describing the benefits of the wish to reach enlightenment. The sixth chapter, on the perfection of patient endurance (Skt. Kshanti), strongly criticizes anger and has been the subject of recent commentaries by Robert Thurman and the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Tibetan scholars consider the ninth chapter, "Wisdom", to be one of the most succinct expositions of the Madhyamaka view. The tenth chapter is used as one of the most popular Mahāyāna prayers.

Chapter summary

Exegetical discourse and commentary

Many Tibetan scholars, such as Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso, have written commentaries on this text.

Commentaries and studies in English