Shantideva Quotes on Life
Shantideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) gives Mahayana Buddhist philosophy its most enduring vision of how the entire course of a human life is to be reordered around the bodhisattva vocation. The central commitment of bodhicitta — the awakening mind that resolves to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings — frames the well-lived life as the systematic practice of the six perfections (pāramitās) sustained over countless lifetimes, with the corresponding analysis of the impermanence and fundamental emptiness of the apparent self serving the practical work of redirecting the passions away from self-concern toward the relief of others’ suffering. The framework, especially the famous chapters on patience and meditative concentration, shaped Tibetan Buddhist practice through Atisha, the Kadampa lojong tradition, and the modern Western reception through Geshe Kelsang and the Dalai Lama.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Shantideva:
“If a problem can be solved, what is the use of worrying? If it cannot be solved, what is the use of worrying?”
-
Attributed to Shantideva:
“May I become a protector for those without protection, a guide for travelers on the way.”
-
Attributed to Shantideva:
“There is nothing whatsoever that does not become easier with practice.”
-
“May any spiritual energy thus generated By my devotion to the enlightened ones Be dedicated to dispelling the misery Of living beings without exception.”
Wikiquote -
“As long as diseases afflict living beings May I be the doctor, the medicine And also the nurse Who restores them to health.”
Wikiquote -
“May I fall as rain to increase The harvests that must feed living beings And in ages of dire famine May I myself serve as food and drink.”
Wikiquote -
“Thus today in the presence of all awakened Ones I invite every living being to this festival Giving both immediate and lasting joy. May the gods and all others rejoice.”
Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra