Shantideva 

Shantideva (sometimes Śantideva) was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar at Nalanda University and an adherent of the Prasangika Madhyamaka philosophy.

He was the son of a royal chieftain, Kusalavarmana by name, of Gujerat in western India. His mother is reputed to have been an emanation of vajra-yogini. His childhood name was Santivarman and, even at an early age, he showed an extraordinary aptitude for religion and studies. When he was six years old a great yogi gave him his first initiation and teachings and introduced him to the methods of higher meditations. Through the practice of these meditations he had a direct vision of Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, in his early youth. Being heir-apparent, he was to be enthroned when his father died. However, a few days before his coronation, the prince had a dream in which he saw Manjusri seated on a throne telling him: ‘O son! I am your ‘kalyanmitra’. This throne belongs to me and it will be improper for you to occupy it.’ Tara, in the disguise of his mother, appeared to him in another dream in which, while pouring hot water on his head, she told him: ‘kingship is nothing but a constant torture like the hot waters of hell’. So enlightened by Manjusri and Tara, prince Santivarman left his kingdom during the night preceding the coronation day. Hungry and tired after about three weeks of wanderings, he sat down near a spring to slake his thrist. Suddenly a woman appeared on the scene, forbade him to drink from the spring and then led him to a cave-dwelling yogi in the forest. The yogi gave him the ’samayaka’ teaching and Santivarman at once went into a trace. In fact, the yogi was none other than Manjusri himself and the woman was Tara.

Continuing his wanderings, this fugitive from the throne entered the domain of king Panchamasinha. Somehow, he was prevailed upon to stay there for a while and work as a minister. Like all other ministers Santivarmana also carried a sword with him but it was a wooden sword in a sheath. It was an emblem of Manjusri. When other ministers displayed their swords before the king, he too was asked to do so. He refused saying it would be no good. When the ruler insisted he told him ‘Alright, I will unsheath it. Kindly close your right eye’. The king did as requested and the dazzling flash of light from the wooden sword made the king’s left eye fall out of its socket. Santivarmana picked it up, restored it to its socket and made it whole as before. Thereupon Santivarmana left the king’s service and proceeded towards ‘madhya-desa’. Before leaving he asked the king to always rule in accordance with dharma and also to establish twenty dharma foundations.

Acharya Dharmapala had already left Nalada for Suvarnadvipa and Jayadeva was now the upadhyaya of the famous Nalanda University. Santivarmana joined the monastic University and was ordained by Jayadeva who gave him the name Santideva. Here Santideva pursued his studies of sutra and tantra further and became a great yogi endowed with many powers but he practised and meditated secretly at night and spent the daytime asleep. To his fellow monks it appeared that he did nothing but eat, sleep and defecate; he had the reputation of eating five seers of rice a day. He was thought to be a good-for-nothing fellow, a mere parasite. As was the custom, each monk had to periodically give a discourse to the entire monastic assembly and, in time, it was Santideva’s turn to do so. His fellow monks had now an opportunity to humiliate him and denigrate him in the eyes of the Upadhyaya so that he would, for shame, leave the University. Out of fun alone they prepared a very high throne for him as desired by Santideva. Santideva tapped in with his finger and the throne lowered itself for him to ascend it conveniently. All the monks assembled in strength and he was asked to recite the sutras. Calmly queried Santideva: ’should I recite old ones or something new?’ The audience burst into a jeery laughter and all chorused: “new, new, brand new!” Even the king who was present joined the chorus. WIth great ease and self-confidence, Santideva began his discourse and verse of delectable wisdom flowed from his Manjusri-inspired lips. It is this discourse which has come to be known as Bodhisattvacharyavatara, one of the great classics of Mahayana. It is said that when he reached the thirty-fifth verse of the ninth chapter, he suddenly left his throne, rose into the air and disappeared from view although his voice could still be heard clear and resonant. The contents of the entire discourse were retained in their memory by ’sruti-dhara’ pandits for the benefits of posterity.

After his disappearance, a search began for the lost monk and everyone cursed himself for having berated such a great yogi. Santideva reached Sri-daksina in the region of Trilang. When three leading monks from Nalanda reached his hide-out, he refused to accept their plea to return to his old university. Having been told that a controversy had arisen as to whether he had composed nine or ten chapters of Bodhicharyavatara, Santideva confirmed that the Magdha’ pandits were correct and the Kashmiri scholars were incorrect because his discourse had consisted of ten chapters and not nine. As to the dispute about the authorship of ‘Siksa-samuchaya’ and ‘Sutra-samuchaya’, he disclosed that he himself was the compiler of both the texts and that they could find their birch-bark manuscripts under the window sill of his cell in Nalanda.

Many are the miraculous events attributed to Santideva, such as the monks in the forest where he lived seeing all animals, supposedly eaten by him, coming back alive out of his cave; the boiling of cold water as it was accidently thrown at his feet by a householder; the blowing away of tirathika Shankardeva’s mandalas into the sky; an intense ray of light from his forehead stopping the storm; providing food for 500 pasandika’s and 1000 beggars etc. Santideva never returned to Nalanda but lived out his remaining years in south India.

 

Bodhisattvacaryavatara

Santideva  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. 

Bodhicaryavatara  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. A commentary by Pema Chodron was published in 2005 as “No Time To Lose”. An introduction to and commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara by The Dalai Lama called “A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night” was printed in 1994. A commentary on the Patience chapter was provided by the Dalai Lama in “Healing Anger” 1997, and his commentaries on the Wisdom chapter can be found in “Practicing Wisdom” 2004.

References:

Santideva’s Bodhicharyavatara. 1990. New Delhi: Aditya Prakshan (translated into English by Parmanda Sharma, with the original Sankrit)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantideva

http://www.shantideva.net (Whole English translation of the Bodhicaryavatara)

http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/52548501.html (source of the above picture)

 

 

寂天菩薩

寂天菩薩 (Shantideva / Śantideva) 是8 世紀印度佛教那爛陀大學的學者，亦是應成中觀派(Prasangika Madhyamaka)學者。

  

他是西印度固加拉特國國王Kusalavarmana的兒子。他的母親被譽為是金剛瑜珈母的化身。童年時他的名字是Santivarman，幼年時已顯示了其在宗教研究上的非凡才能。在他六歲的時候，一個出色的瑜伽士授予了他第一次灌頂和教學，並且教授他高深的禪定方法。通過這些高深的禪定，他早年已能夠親見以智慧見稱的文殊師利菩薩。他是王國的承繼人，當他的父親死去，他將登上國王之位。但是， 在加冕前數天，他在夢中看見文殊師利坐在寶座上，並告訴他: 「兒子! 我是您的‘kalyanmitra’。這王位是屬於我的，若您佔有了它，這並不正當。」在另一夢中，他的母親喬裝著度母，把熱水在灌在他的頭上，並告訴他: 「王位並沒有意義，只會如受著地獄中的沸水酷刑般痛苦」。在文殊師利和度母的啟示下， Santivarman王子在加冕前的晚上離開了他的國家。三個星期的流浪生活使他飢餓和疲乏不堪，他坐下在一泉水附近正打算止息他的口渴，突然有一位婦人出現， 阻止他喝這泉水，並帶他去見一位在森林山洞隱居的瑜伽士。這瑜伽士給了他 Samayaka和Santivarman 的教學，然後這瑜伽士立即消失了蹤影。實際上，這瑜伽士就是文殊師利的化身，而那婦人則是度母的化身。

  Santivarman繼續他的流浪生活，這位拋棄王位的流浪者走到了Panchamasinha國的領域，並擭得了一個大臣的職位。如同所有其它的大臣，Santivarmana亦配備了一把劍，只是在他的劍鞘中的是一把木劍，這劍是文殊師利的象徵。當其他大臣在國王面前顯示了他們的劍，他也同樣被要求顯示他的劍。他拒絕了並說這樣做對誰也沒有好處。當國王仍堅持這樣做，他只好說:「好吧，我將會把劍拔出，請您閉上您的右眼」。國王閉上了右眼，但從木劍發出燦爛目眩的強光，使國王的左眼從眼窩中掉下來。Santivarmana 把國王的左眼從地上拿起，放回到國王的眼窩中，國王便沒事了。自此以後，Santivarmana放下大臣的職務，並向著末睇提捨(madhya-desa)出發。在離開之前他請求國王要把佛法融入治國之道中，並且建立了二十個佛法的基礎。 

阿闍黎達摩帕拉已經離開那爛陀而前往金洲(Suvarnadvipa)，而現時著名的那爛陀大學的方丈(upadhyaya)為勝天大師 (Jayadeva)。Santivarmana在那爛陀大學進行修學，在此受戒並依止勝天大師(Jayadeva)，得法名「寂天」(Santideva)。在這裡寂天進一步追求他對經論和密續的研究，他已經是一個擭得殊勝成就的瑜伽士，但他總是秘密地在晚上才修行，白天則在睡覺。在其他僧人的眼中，寂天只是一個什麼也不會做，只會吃、睡和排糞的人;他在寺裡有 ‘每天吃五袋米’的稱號。他被認為是一個無所事事的傢伙，只不過是一條寄生蟲。 

在慣例上，每位僧人必須定期在整個僧團前進行演說，這次輪到寂天。他的同伴心裡想，這是一個很好的機會去欺凌他，使他在方丈面前出丟臉，他在被羞辱下將會離開那爛陀。為了戲弄他，他們預備了一張非常高的座位。寂天輕輕用他的手指在座位上一敲，這座位便降低使他方便地登上。所有僧人都聚集在一起並要求他背誦經文。寂天平靜地問：「您們想聽我開示以往祖師之論著呢，還是想聽我自己所著的論作呢？」僧人們都恥笑著答：「新的，全新的，不妨就說說你新的『論著』吧！」，就連方丈亦異口同聲說。寂天輕鬆和自信地開始演說，從他被文殊師利啟發的唇中，流溢出令人心悅、充滿智慧的偈句。這個演說就是廣為人熟悉的《入菩薩行論》(Bodhisattvacharyavatara)，大乘經典中的其中一部偉大著作。據說當寂天頌至第九章第三十五偈時（般若教法中之偈句「一切如虛空」），他突然離開了座位，升至半空中消失了，雖然看不見他的身體，但他的聲音仍然十分清悉和洪亮。整個演說的內容留存在他們的記憶裡，其後被sruti-dhara智者們所記載而留給後世。

 在他消失以後，眾人都在尋找他，並責罵自己竟然指責這樣一位了不起的瑜伽士。自此，寂天去了位於Trilang 的Sri-daksina。三名從那爛陀來的僧人找到他的隱居處，並請求他回到那爛陀，但寂天拒絕了他們。他們告訴寂天，現在大家都議論著到底他編寫了九章還是十章《入菩薩行論》，寂天證實了摩揭陀國（Magdha）(即現今之中印度)的智者是正確的，而喀什米爾（Kashmiri）的智者是不正確的，因為他的演說包括了十個章節而非九個章節。至於有關Siksa-samuchaya和Sutra-samuchaya原著的爭論，他透露，他自己是這兩部文本的原作者，他們可到回到他在那爛陀時所住的小室去，在那裡的窗臺下就能找到寫在樺樹樹皮的原稿。  還有許多關於寂天的神奇事跡的記載，譬如一些僧人在他居住的森林裡，看見很多本以為被他吃掉的動物，從他的洞裡活生生的走出來;有一次，一位在家居士一不小心把冷水倒在他的腳上，那些冷水即時被煮沸;另一次，他示現神通把tirathika Shankardeva的壇城吹到空中去;他曾以前額所發出的強光把風暴停止; 亦曾以神通喂飽了五百名pasandika’s和一千名叫化子。餘下的歲月，寂天居住在南印度，從沒有回到那爛陀。 

《入菩薩行論》  

寂天菩薩的著作中，以《入菩薩行論》(Bodhicaryavatara / Bodhisattvacaryavatara / A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way Of Life) 最為人熟悉。此經典由梵文譯作英文版本可以在線上找到，而市面亦有琳琳種種不同的譯本流通。《入菩薩行論》是一部以偈句形式來描述由初念至成佛的整個証悟過程的典籍。至今仍然廣被大乘和金剛乘佛學者所鑽研。

References:

Santideva’s Bodhicharyavatara. 1990. New Delhi: Aditya Prakshan (translated into English by Parmanda Sharma, with the original Sankrit)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantideva

http://www.shantideva.net (Whole English translation of the Bodhicaryavatara)

http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm/52548501.html (source of the above picture)