bodhicharyavatara overview

8/14/2019 Bodhicharyavatara Overview

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Bodhicharyavatara Overview

by Thubten Chkyi Drakpa

Acharya Krishnapada explains the main body of the treatise in

three parts. He says that the first three verses show the reasons

for the treatise coming into being. Then the text teaches the

conduct of the six paramitas. The first three chapters and thededication chapter teach generosity, the fourth and fifth

chapters teach discipline, and the next four chapters, beginning

with the sixth, teach the remaining four paramitas. Finally, he

says, the text concludes with a homage of remembering

kindness.[1] Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the

subject matter of the first three chapters is mainly generatingbodhichitta and generosity is only taught as an ancillary topic.

Acharya Kalyanadeva describes the text by dividing it into three

virtuous parts: the virtuous beginning which is the homage, the

virtuous main part which continues until the dedication, and

the virtuous conclusion which is the dedication.


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Other past scholars claimed that the first two verses advise us

not to waste the freedoms and advantages, and to make this

life meaningful. Then the first chapter shows the benefits of

bodhichitta; the second and third show the method of

generating bodhichitta; the fourth and fifth show the way to

guard the training; and of the actual nature of the training,

which consists of the six paramitas, the first two paramitas are

to be understood from the first five chapters, while the

remaining four, beginning with patience, are taught in the next

four chapters of patience and the rest.

Acharya Vairochanarakshita says that the explanation of the

benefits of bodhichitta begins with the verse, This free and

well-favoured human form Yet Vibhutichandra and most

Tibetan commentaries quite logically explain that the first twoverses reveal the necessary support for bodhichitta, and that is

how it will be explained here. More specifically, these two

verses teach firstly the physical support, by explaining the

difficulty of gaining the freedoms and advantages, and then the

mental support by explaining how difficult it is to develop a

virtuous state of mind.


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Thereafter, the main topic of the text is explained. How? For

the most part, it is in accordance with the explanations

mentioned above, but to explain in a little more detail:

In the beginning it is necessary to develop inspiration and

enthusiasm for the Mahayana teachings by seeing the benefits

of generating bodhichitta, so the first chapter reveals these

benefits.

Then, we need to confess our misdeeds, which are not

conducive to developing bodhichitta, and to accumulate merit

in order to create the right conducive circumstances, so these

are taught in the second and third chapters.

Having generated bodhichitta, the method of training in activity

as a foundation for the attainment of great enlightenment isthen taught in general and specific terms. From the perspective

of the first, because conscientiousness is so important as a

means of ensuring that our activity does not degenerate and

that we adopt positive actions and avoid negative ones, that is

taught in the four chapter.

Then, more specifically, chapter five teaches how to train in

discipline by relying on mindfulness and awareness while

practising the six paramitas.


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Then the next four paramitas of patience and so on are taught

in the four chapters that follow.

The method of training in generosity, how to train the mind ingiving away our body, possessions and sources of merit to

others, is shown in the tenth chapter in particular.

Or, to put it another way, we could say that the fourth and fifth

chapters teach discipline. Generosity is taught in the verses on

offering to the Three Jewels and giving away ones body,

possessions and sources of merit, and although there is not aparticular chapter devoted to it, it is still to be found here

extensively, and is also taught in the tenth chapter by the acts

that conclude the treatise, the dedication of merit and the

homage of remembering kindness.

Therefore, this treatise teaches all the stages of the path to

awakening, beginning with the mind training of the path

common to beings of lesser and middling capacity, which serves

a preliminary to the mind training in the approach of great

beings, and then the generation of bodhichitta and the training

in the bodhisattvas actions. The nature of the fruition ofbuddhahood is also taught briefly in the ninth chapter.


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Taken from The Excellent Vase that Grants the Qualities of the

Bodhisattvas,, by Thubten

Chkyi Drakpa.

| Translated by Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2007.

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