Theology
c. 685 to 763 CE, Nalanda, India
The awakening mind, the patience that disarms anger, and the exchange of self and other - Mahayana Buddhism's great poem of compassion.
Start learning Shantideva →Bodhicitta - the resolve to attain awakening for the sake of all beings - as the seed of the whole bodhisattva path: why the Bodhicharyavatara opens by praising it, how aspiration differs from engagement, and what the b…
Chapter 6 of the Bodhicharyavatara: a single flash of hatred destroys ages of good, so Shantideva dismantles anger with analysis - wrongdoers are driven by conditions, the enemy is a teacher - and recasts patience as th…
The great meditations of chapter 8: all beings are equal in wanting happiness and fearing pain, self-cherishing is the root of every misery, and the exchange of self and other is the heart of the path.
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