Our compassionate witnessing of an other’s suffering shows that the mind can be free from the constricted life of excessive self-preoccupation and become open and attentive to others. In An Introduction to the Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra), the eighth century north-Indian Buddhist author, Śāntideva, invites his readers on a path to nourish the liberating attention to others. He presents the text as a guidebook on the path from the darkened perception of self-cherishing to an awakened life. In Śāntideva’s terminology, this is the path of the bodhisattva, the awakened or awakening (bodhi) being (sattva) who, guided by insight and compassion, works to alleviate the sufferings of others, and in doing so, finds freedom from dissatisfaction and anguish.

An Introduction to the Way of the Bodhisattva became a primary inspiration for Tibetan writings on the stages of the Buddhist path and mind training. In recent decades, Western teachers in a variety of Buddhist traditions have drawn on Śāntideva’s presentation of the interconnections between the components of the Buddhist path: wisdom (prajñā), moral discipline (śīla), and contemplation (samādhi).

In this program, we explore Śāntideva’s text, which is at once a poem, a meditation manual, a moral teaching, and a philosophy textbook. We will follow Śāntideva’s lead on emphasizing setting up the conditions for practice through ritual and imagery, paying attention to the place of faith, offering, and ritual on the path. We also focus on Śāntideva’s understanding of the ethical dimension of mindfulness and how Buddhist insights—for example, dependent arising, non-self, and emptiness—can be skillfully employed in or daily lives. Throughout, we attend to the ways the text insists on the interweaving of compassion and wisdom, and how the most fruitful field of practice can be our daily lives and relations with others.

This program integrates elements of a more typical retreat (including ritual, chanting, and periods of silent sitting) together with elements of a seminar (including close reading, interpretation, and discussion of Śāntideva’s text, both in small groups and all together). To make this exploration of Śāntideva’s text accessible to participants, there are some teaching that use slides to present material.