Entering the Path of Enlightenment: The Bodhicaryavatara of the Buddhist Poet Santideva PDF
Preview Entering the Path of Enlightenment: The Bodhicaryavatara of the Buddhist Poet Santideva
Entering the Path o f Enlightenment t I ne noatucarv avatar a of the Buddhist poet Santideva A T I U N S I . A T I O X W I T H G f I l> E IJ Y Marion L. Matics The Macmillan Company Collier-Macmillan Ltd., London D E D I C A T I O N While Buddhas laugh, no readers, books, Nor point of view: but only flower rain. Yet still to Eleanor this book is given As if there were a world and gifts exist. Copyright © 1970 by Marion L. Matics All rights reserved. No part of this book may he reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. The Macmillan Company 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022 Collier-Macmillan Canada Ltd., Toronto, Ontario Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73—110466 First Printing PHINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contents Preface PART ONE Guide to the Bodhicaryavatara Tribute Introduction The Rise of the Madhyamika I The Great Work 11 The Perfections I I I The Perfection of Contemplation I V The Perfection of Wisdom PART TWO Translation of the Bodhicaryavatara by Santideva I Praising the Thought of Enlightenment 11 Confession of Evil I I I Grasping the Thought of Enlightenment IV Vigilance in the Thought of Enlightenment V Guarding of Total Awareness 5 6 Contents V I Perfection of Patience V II Perfection of Strength V I I I Perfection of Contemplation I X Perfection of Wisdom X Consummation P A R T T H R E E Appendices Abbreviations Notes and References for the Guide Notes and References for the Boclhicarydvatara Bibliography Glossary of Selected Terms Preface Kahjana mitra, the Good Friend so highly praised by San- tideva, has many representatives standing in the background of this translation and study. Professor Horace L. Friess of Columbia University, for so many years an invaluable help to countless students in the Department of Religion, merits and herewith receives acknowledgment for encouraging and presiding over this project when it was in its embryo form as a doctoral thesis. My advisor in those days, Professor Royal W. Wciler (now of the University of Pennsylvania), who was intimately connected with its preparation in its original form, offered help which was indispensable and which remains in evidence in many of the superior parts of the translation. He is responsible for an abundance of its most attractive fea tures, yet none of its flaws; and my appreciation for his assist ance is unbounded. Sentimental though it may be, mention also must be made of Professor Robert A. Fowkes of New York University who saved me from a terrible death by drowning in the raging and merciless sea of beginning Sanskrit. To these three outstanding teachers, the thanks of a grateful student. Among the many other scholars to whom this work also is 8 Preface indebted, it will be obvious to anyone knowledgeable in the field that heavy relianee has been placed upon the work of Franklin Edgerton, a truly groat man of Indie studies. Louis de la Vallec Poussin, Louis Finot, T. R. V. Murti, Har Daval, Heinrich Zimmer, and many others to whom this work is obligated, have become like old friends: but most of all, Edward Conze and D. T. Suzuki. Dr. Conze, through the courteous intermediary of the Buddhist Society, has allowed me the use of several of his translations in typescript, and a microfilm version of his dictionary of Prajna-paramita terms. This is only the beginning of an indebtedness, however, which is shared by a whole generation of men and women who have learned of the great concepts of Buddhism by way of his lucid translations and enthusiastic studies. Likewise, Dr. Suzuki, another great scholar who had the ability to speak to multitudes of people beyond the boundaries of academic concern, is a towering figure before whom anyone at all in terested in Buddhist studies must stand in awe. His gen erosity was as great as his scholarly achievement. I should also like to mention the unfailing courtesy and interest of the Lamas and others of Labsum Shedrub Ling, the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America, and its presiding genius, Geshe Wangyal. In addition, my wife, Eleanor Matics, and daughter, Kathleen Matics, have rendered assistance of many sorts which has been of enormous benefit to this enter prise of interpreting, understanding, and explaining the thought of one of the greatest Mahayana authors. The Guide which precedes the translation is an effort, first of all, to comprehend and to explain sympathetically the beautiful and profound classic which is the Bodhicanjavatara, and secondly, to place it in perspective in the evolving history of Buddhist thought. It is not a critique of Santideva, but an appreciation which it is hoped will speak for itself. However, if a critique had been intended, it might have been suggested that monastic asceticism carried to excess, e.g., all that interest in cemeteries, the vileness of the beloved’s corpse, excrement, Preface 9 etc., always has been an embarrassment to the teaching of the Buddha. Surely human affection is more—far more— than the enslavement described by some celibate ascetics. A critique also might have commented on the curious doctrine of the equality of the self and the other, and the transference of the self and the other, as exercises belonging primarily to the realm of trance. At the same time, it is an insight which does make its point quite clear, that we are creatures of ex treme self-interest and need some such drastic treatment to cure us of the ultimate sickness. Perhaps we should view these notions as an exercise of preparation and acknowledge that we are indeed so selfish that just such a type of meditation might help us all. Most of all, however, a critique would document the main thrust of Santideva and the Mahayana in general: the com passion of the Buddha for all sentient beings. It is an awesome and overwhelming compassion which finds its expression both in the Bodhisattva’s career and in reference to another dimen sion than that in which we usually live and sorrow—a di mension both transcendent and immanent—which is total compassion, beauty, tranquillity, and peace. Santideva’s vi sion, not selfishly limited to humanity, encompasses every creature which can suffer pain, for every form of life is a brother and every living entity is a challenge to be kind. M arion L. M atics Brooklyn, New York January 1970
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