Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Author, translator and history

Now, the end of the text usually has the information about the author, the translators involved, and the history behind the text, commentary, and the translation.

You could go to to the end of the Alex Berzin translation and compare this with the end of the ACIP version of the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Note that it is very common that various Indian texts where translated and retranslated many times.

In many cases the texts also end with a beautiful sign-off, in Sanskrit, such as sarva mangalam, may everything be auspicious.

Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Chapters

So how do we know what the chapter names are? In this text the chapter titles are defined at the end of each chapter.

One way to quickly find where an important section ends, and the next one starts, is to look for the double shah endings. You could see them on the third line.

Secondly if you go backwards from this, it says le'u dang po'o. le'u means chapter, and dang po means first. So this has to do with the first chapter.

ste is a connecting particle, so it connects the first chapter with somehing to the left.

zhes bya ba means known as, or the title. Ok, we are getting somewhere!

byang chub sems is bodhichitta, kyi binds this with the next to the right, phan yon is benefits.

bshad pa is explanations.

So we got the chapter title translated: The first chapter's title is explaining the benefits of bodhichitta. You could do similar searches in the rest of the text and find the other chapters, as well as the titles for each chapter.

The first line is the title of the text -- that we have gone through -- and the last word on the first line is the particle las, from.

Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Verses

After the homage the actual verses start. Notice that we don't have titles telling that this is the first chapter, or who the author was -- more about this in later postings.

The verses are typically based on a shloka that has four lines (padas). The other way to break down the verses is to find out that the last word usually is an ending verb such as bya (to do), and not a binding particle, or something that implies that the next line is connected with the current line. But just now it's easy to just take four lines, make sure the last word makes sense as an ending word, and this way break down the text in order to see how various translators have translated it.

We will not translate this verse, the best is to look at existing translations such as Alex Berzin's online version to see how the verses are translated. Okey, here's that translation of the first shloka!

(1) Respectfully, I prostrate to the Blissfully Gone (Buddhas) endowed with Dharmakaya,
As well as to their (bodhisattva) offspring and to everyone worthy of prostration.
Let me explain (how to) engage in the Blissfully Gone offsprings' code,
Which I’ve compiled and condensed in accord with Buddhas’ words.

Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Homage

Next is the homage, this is a classification system ordered by the Tibetan king Ralpachen long time ago, a way to define the classification of the text that is translated or composed. This text belongs to the sutra basket (sutra-pitaka) so the homage is to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The reason is that Buddha taught sutra as a question and answer session with bodhisattvas!

The other reason writers pay homage in the beginning is to ensure that they could complete the text without obstacles.

sangs rgyas is buddhas -- note again that there's no plural but later you will see why this is plural.
dang is the binding particle.
byang chub sems dpa' is bodhisattvas.
thams cad is all, so this is where the plural came fom.
la is the oblique particle, pointing at something from the right to the left.
phyag 'tshal is to pay homage, prostrate, relate to something, requesting the same realizations and qualities as the object one is prostrating towards, getting inspiration. As this is here a complete sentence, the verb is ended with a lo.

Parts of Khenpo Kunpal's excellent commentary of this text, translated by Andreas Kretschmar, is available here. Especially the introduction is fascinating, it goes through the history and lineages of various presentations of Bodhisattva Way of Life in India and Tibet.

Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Tibetan Title

After the Sanskrit (original title) we have the Tibetan title. bod is Tibet, sometimes it's also central Tibet -- Tibet is a very big area, with borderlines where other kingdoms or countries take over, but the population still speaks Tibetan -- as an example there's Mustang and similar areas in northern Nepal.

We learned earlier what skad means, language. So bod skad du is: In Tibetan.

We also went through the title earlier.

This title is very long, even for Tibetans, so they have a nick-name for the text: spyod 'jug.

Bodhisattva Way Of Life - Sanskrit Title

Next in the opening lines is the title in Sanskrit. rgya gar is India, skad is language, and rgya gar skad du is in the language of India. Now, in the Mahayana tradition, all commentaries were written in Sanskrit, so it's better to translate this all: In Sanskrit.

Next is the Sanskrit title written with Tibetan letters. The reason this entry is so late was that I took me a long time to find the right tools to get the right conversions and stackings (UDP was the only tool that worked here, and it only runs with Windows, and using Windows is another challenge).

You could see the stacking such as the first word, bodhi, where the dh is stacked, this is not common in the Tibetan language. Same with the next part, satva.

Then there is tsa rya (I though it was cha rya, but I checked an original Tibetan text, and it's a tsa there.... OK). Finally we have abataara, but the ba is really a pronounced wa, so it's awataara. Note the snippet below the ta to make the ta letter a long wovel. In Tibetan there are few if any long vowels, while those are common in Sanskrit -- hence the use of the small stroke at the bottom of the letter to indicate this.

So we have the title, bodhisatvatsaryavataara. Expect interesting letter combinations with Sanskrit titles, names, and also mantras that are mostly in Sanskrit.

Bodhisattva Way of Life - Title

Let's start looking at Shantideva's text Bodhisattva Way of Life -- In Tibetan -- so you learn how to navigate around this text. You could always download the Tibetan version from ACIP, and look at the online translation by Alex Berzin.

The first sentence is the title of the text, this is usually on the first page as a separate pecha page, framed, and has illustrations such as a buddha figure and the author on each side.

It is easy to recognize the title, it ends with the verb bshugs so. bzhugs so means herein contains. This is a complete sentence, so the verb bzhugs ends with a so.

It is good to continue reading this opening line backwards; 'jug pa means to enter. nyid here means the very. spyod pa means the engage, engagement, or the way.

byang chub sems dpa is bodhisattva, notice the ending 'i which is a genitive particle that binds the right side to the left side. So it is the way of the bodhisattva.

Engaged Bodhichitta Verse - Translation

Here's the translation of this famous 55:th verse from the tenth chapter of Shantideva's Bodhisattva way of life. I'm using the translation by Alex Berzin:

(55) For as long as space remains,
And for as long as wandering beings remain,
May I too remain for that long,
Dispelling the sufferings of wandering beings.

You could actually take this translation -- or any of the other ones -- and compare it with the actual Tibetan text, for example the version available from ACIP.

We will actually look through this text next, so you will learn how to navigate around it.

Engaged Bodhichitta Verse - Part 4

'gro ba, as mentioned before, is sentient beings. Note this ends with a genitive particle, gro ba'i, so you need to connect the next to the right to the left.

sdug bsngal is suffering.

sel ba is to purify, to dispel. There's another particle in here, sel bar, the r at the end. This is a sub-ordination particle, it establishes a hierarchy or relationship between the right and the left side. A quick word to substitute this particle is as.

shog is a typical word that ends verses and sentences, may it be so, to use a term from Captain Picard. As mentioned in the first posting, there's no need to make a final shah (like the one in the beginning of the sentence), as the ga letter has a long stroke at the end.

Engaged Bodhichitta Verse - Part 3

This is the third verse.

de srid means until then.

bdag is me.

ni is an empthatic particle, it binds the right side to follow with the first part, de srid bdag. Again, this is verse, this particle is not needed, but you need those seven syllables...

gnas is again to abide, in short format (gnas pa).

gyur nas is having become, or from becoming, this is a little bit constructed, gyur is become, a very common word, good to learn. nas is a location particle, from, in the context of a known place or thing something comes from (otherwise the particle is las). Anyway, in this case it's a so called gerund with the combination of a verb and nas (becoming).

Engaged Bodhichitta Verse - Introduction

Next, let's take a verse from Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life that HH Dalai Lama is very fond of, and is often quoting. This has to do with the mind of enlightenment, or byang chub kyi sems, bodhichitta.

There are actually two forms of byang chub kyi sems, the first one is smon pa'i byang chub kyi sems, aspirational bodhichitta. This form is agreeing and supporting the ideals of benefiting all sentient beings -- in other words, you like the concept, and support it. smon pa means aspiration.

The other form is 'jug pa'i byang chub kyi sems - engaged bodhichitta. The person is actually working each moment with the bodhisattva ideal, benefiting all sentient beings. 'jug pa means to engage.

The four verses will be presented as four entries, with just the word translations explained, and it will be your job to figure out the translation. The full translation of all four verses will be given at the end.

PS: Here's the full Shantideva Bodhisattva Way of Life text from ACIP.

byang chub sems mchog rin po che

I just saw that my friend Erik Schmidt uploaded the famous Shantideva dedication about the precious and supreme bodhichitta up on www.dharmadictionary.net. And I added links in the verse back to the dictionary itself.

This verse is very profound, it is used in many occasions to dedicate merit, and so on. It's actually worth memorizing.

But study the words and the verse, as it has many good words to learn, and the two translation examples below in the same page also shows how it's translated.

Whole Second Commentary Sentence on Wisdom Being Foremost

Ok, let's tackle the second sentence in the commentary about the starting verses of the chaper of wisdom.

I must confess that I'm not that happy with my rough translation -- but to keep this realistic it's very common that it takes a long time before a translation is fully settled down with. A common reason -- as also in this case -- is lack of context. To fully translate a text, you need a common understanding of the topic, as well as possibly translating the text from beginning, or looking at the original commentary upon a specific commentary is based upon. You will see soon what I'm talking about.

Anyway, it's worth trying, and feedback is most definitely appreciated. To recap, we are dealing with the definition of why wisdom is much more important than either the previous perfection, or all the five perfections.

sbyin sogs par is giving and the rest, with the ending r being a subordination particle.
Let's skip to the end! 'chad pa'i lugs gnyis las means from the two traditions of explanations. This is where it becomes tricky, what are the two traditions? Earlier context might have given us the clue to this part...

Back to the beginning part, phyin lhag ma means the remaining perfections. thams cad la - to all those.

Puzzling all this together: In the two traditions of explanations this is referring to giving and the other five perfections.

Phew. Let's do Nagarjuna emptiness root verses next!

First Sentence of the commentary about ninth chapter

Here's the first sentence of the Khedrup Je commentary about the opening lines of Master Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life, Wisdom (ninth) chapter. We have gone through the words in previous blog entries, so now here's an attempt to make a cohesive sentence from this.

First a rough block-by-block sentence breakdown that usually does not make sense.

yan lag 'di di dag was these branches. ces pa means like that. le'u brgyad pa is chapter eight. nas is from, binding all this on the left with something to the right. bshad pa'i zhi gnas is single-pointed meditation teachings. tsam is merely. la is a particle, like a pointer, connecting things on the right with the left side. 'chad pa is explanation.

The end is dang, so it means there's more, but for this case we could just ignore the follow-up and use a whole sentence in English.

So, to really understand this is to make boxes around the two particles, nas and la, and connect things together, nothing that the verb is at the end.

Another rough translation pass is: These branches taught only to the practice of single-pointed meditation from the eight chapter like that.

To do a better pass on this. "These branches" are sometimes explained referring to the single-pointed meditation practice taught in the eight chapter.

This sentence could be reworked even more, but let's stop here and continue with the next sentence. I think this gave us a flavor of how there's a need to redo and rework on sentences while we translate them.

Complete Introduction to Chapter Nine of Bodhisattva Way Of Life

This is the opening lines in the ninth chapter of Master Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life. You've seen the partial and the full translation before, but here's another translation of this verse.

The Able One has taught all these branches
For the sake of the Wisdom

This points out the importance of the Perfection of Wisdom, it is the tool that will perfect the other five perfections.

Now, how this is interpreted, especially what is meant with 'all these branches', is the next step. Root texts such as this one is short and to the point, and there's a need to further elucidate the meaning. There are many cases where even the author of the root text has written an auto-commentary based on the text.

Looking at this from a higher point of view, all the teachings about the Perfection of Wisdom are in the Sutras, but to understand those you need to read about it in the commentaries by Indian masters. To understand such commentaries you need a second level of a commentary, in the Tibetan tradition by a Tibetan master who further explains this. We will use Khedrub Je's commentary on Bodhisattva Way of Life to see how he explains this verse. At the same time you get a taste of how to read and translate commentary texts.

Next Going through a Text Commentary

Let's go through a famous quote, and a small mini-commentary around this quote. The ninth chapter in Master Shantideva's text has the interesting quotation about all the earlier material presented, and how it's related to this ninth wisdom chapter. Or, as translated by Alexander Berzin:

The Sage has spoken about all these branches
For the sake of discriminating awareness.

There has always been debate what this really means. We will look at Gyaltsab Je's commentary explaining this verse. Gyaltsab Je was one of the two main disciples of Je Tsongkhapa.

But first we will translate the root text. As many might have started from zero, we will go through each word once again -- does not hurt to repeat.

Bodhisattva Way of LIfe

One way to get up to speed with Tibetan translation is to examine existing translations of a common text, and see how it's done -- this with an option to first try to translate the text, and then see what the outcome is, comparing it with various other translations.

One of the most famous Indian Buddhist commentaries is Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life. It has been translated into English many times. Here are some references where to download original Tibetan texts, and so forth.

Here's a site where you could get the Tibetan as a PDF file. A commentary by Khenpo Kunpal including some input in Wylie is here. You could get the Asian Classics Input version here.