Index

A Precious Human Life

Everyday, Think as you wake up, Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious Human Life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, To expand my heart out to others, To achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as i can.

The Dalai Lama

Buddha

The Buddha once summarised his entire teachings in one beautiful sentence: I teach about suffering and the way to end it.

Avatamsaka Sutra

The supreme and endless blessings of Samantabhadra’s deeds, I now universally transfer. May every living being, drowning and adrift, Soon return to the Land of Limitless Light!

Bodhisattvacaryavatara

A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life

Shantideva is particularly renowned as the author of the Bodhicaryavatara (sometimes also called the Bodhisattvacaryavatara). An English translation of the Sanskrit version of the Bodhicaryavatara is available online, as well as in print in a variety of translations, sometimes glossed as A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life or Entering the Path of Enlightenment. It is a long poem describing the process of enlightenment from the first thought to full buddhahood and is still studied by Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists today.

The Chan Ssu Lun of the Chinese Madhyamika school identifies two different individuals given the name "Shantideva": the founder of the Avaivartika Sangha in the 6th century, and a later Shantideva who studied at Nalanda in the 8th century who appears to be the source of the Tibetan biographies. Citations of archaeological discoveries supporting this thesis may be accessed through National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, a respected online resource maintained by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, or through the Bodhicaryavatara Historical Project, an academic research project started by the Mahabodhi Sunyata Seminary in Tarragona, Spain.