Book review
In the whole of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition there is no single treatise more deeply revered or widely practiced than The way of the Bodhisattva. Composed in the eighth century by the Indian Bodhisattva Shantideva, it became an instant classic in the curricula of the Buddhist monastic universities of India, and its renown has grown ever since.
Shantideva's presentation of the methods to harmonize one's own way of life with the Bodhisattva ideal begins with a praise of the spirit of awakening, the Bodhisattva's altruistic aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings. In the chapters that follow, Shantideva inspires the reader to cultivate each of the six perfections that provide the basis for the Bodhisattva way of life -- generosity, ethics, patience, zeal, meditative concentration and wisdom.

This authoritative prose translation by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace from the original Sanskrit provides a close comparison to the canonical Tibetan translation.

Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient beings dwelling throughout infinite space,

So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout space until they are all liberated.




About the author This is the Tibetan text with romanization of Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva. Shantideva is representative of the Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism. Shantideva was a king's son from South India. He flourished in the 7th to 8th centuries and was a monk at the monastic university Nalanda. He was the author of two surviving works, the Collection of Rules and Entering the Path of Enlightenment