For more than twelve centuries, the Bodhicharyavatara, or the Way of the Bodhisattva, has guided readers along the Buddhist path of compassion turned into action. This modern-English edition makes the eighth-century Indian master Shantideva's radiant verses clear, inviting, and faithful to the original's meaning and spirit. Step by step, Shantideva shows how the awakening resolve of bodhichitta can be cultivated in ordinary life: through gratitude and confession, careful attention, patient endurance, joyful diligence, steady meditation, and the liberating wisdom of emptiness. The poem culminates in a sweeping dedication of all goodness to the welfare of every living being. Here is both a practical manual of the heart and a profound work of contemplation, with an introduction, a biographical note, and helpful appendices for readers coming to the text for the first time. Part of The World Scriptures Library.
