Life Story of Arya Shantideva HOME Dharma Teachings |
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Shantideva (Sanskrit: Śāntideva, Tibetan: Zhi-ba-lha),
who was a great bodhisattva and a Indian Buddhist philosopher of the Middle Way
School (Sanskrit: Madhyamaka), was born as the only son of King Kushalavarma and
Queen Vajrayogini in the kingdom of Saurāshtra near Bodhgaya around 8th
Century.
Same as Buddha in his childhood, the young prince
Shantivarman (the name given at his birth) had all the favorable conditions that
he needed, and from his earliest age, he displayed remarkable skills in all
fields of knowledge. When he was six years old he met a yogi (a great
practitioner of the secret teachings), and from whom he received his first
initiation and teachings on the practice for reaching
the state of the enlightened being named Manjushri (the wisdom deity). As a
child he made great efforts in this practice, doing its meditations and reciting
its secret words. As a result of his engagement in this practice, he was able to
meet Manjushri and receive many teachings directly from him.
When he was fifteen, his father died. He developed deep
realizations into impermanence and death. All the people of the land requested
Prince Shantivarman to be King. Because he had practiced the
bodhisattva path in many previous lives, he had no
desire to live a life of royalty, but so as not to upset the people, he agreed.
The night before his crowning ceremony, he had a dream. In the dream he saw that
Manjushri was already sitting on the King’s throne, and He said: Son, this is my
seat and because I am your teacher, it would be improper for both of us to sit
on the same throne.” The same night, Arya Tara (the female compassion deity)
also appeared to him in a dream in the guise of his mother. She poured hot water
over his head and said, “kingship is like the hot water of the hells; such is
the situation that you are about to enter.” Prince Shantivarman considered his
awaiting kingship as a poisonous tree and he regarded these visions as clear
indication that he should not take over his kingdom, so before dawn, he hastily
fled the kingdom.
Twenty-one days after his escape, Shantideva felt very
thirsty, so he went in search of water. He found a beautiful spring in the
middle of the forest, but just as he was about to have a sip, a beautiful girl
appeared and told him not to take the water because it was poisonous. She
offered him pure water to quench his thirst and led him to a yogi (her teacher)
who was meditating in the forest. This yogi empowered him and opened many doors
of wisdom and concentration. The yogi was a manifestation of Manjushri and the
girl was a manifestation of Tara. He stayed to study with his master for a long
time devoting himself to meditation. During this time, Shantideva achieved
advanced states of samadhi and various siddhis, and from that time forward he
constantly experienced visions of Manjushri who guided him as his spiritual
mentor
After about twelve years, his teacher said that he should
go to east India. When Shantideva left the forest, he carried with him a wooden
sword which symbolized the wisdom sword of Manjushri. He journeyed to the
kingdom of Pancamasimha and found a great crowd of mighty, but merciless people.
There were a lot of them gathered already, and many others like them on their
way. These people were aware of the King's great wealth, and this fact was
causing the King much distress. The King thought that if he were to use all of
his wealth to pay off these people, then having obtained the kingdom would be of
no point; but also that if he did not, then they would surely take his life. The
King of that country recognized Shantideva as a man of great wisdom and
proficiency in all worldly fields of knowledge and appointed him as one of his
ministers. Shantideva accepted this position. He was arranged to be the King’s
bodyguard. Due to his limitless power and might, he was able to overpower all of
the evil people, and put the King and his people at ease. During his term of
office, he introduced the skills of various crafts into the kingdom and always
performed his duties in accordance with the Dharma. The whole kingdom began to
develop great faith and respect for Shantideva and they made many offerings to
him. Shantideva had a strong and beneficial spiritual influence in the kingdom,
which made other ministers jealous and they could not bear all of his success.
They told the King, “This man is very deceitful. Even his
sword is not a real one; it is just made of wood. How can he guard your body if
anything happens? Please investigate.”
Upon hearing this, the King asked all the ministers to
show their swords. When Shantideva’s turn came, he said, “O Lord, it is not good
for you to view my sword, it will harm you.” Of course, the King became even
more suspicious and insisted on seeing the sword. Then Shantideva said, “If you
really want to see it, please cover your right eye and look at it only with your
left.” When Shantideva drew his sword out of its sheath, the radiance was so
powerfully brilliant that the King’s left eye went blind and fell out. Quickly
Shantideva put his sword back and he picked the King’s left eye up, pushed it
back and healed it completely. The King realized that Shantideva was in fact a
great siddha, and faith arose in him. The King apologized, made many offerings
to Shantideva, took refuge in him and entered into the teachings of the Buddha.
The King requested Shantideva to remain in his kingdom, but he declined. He
urged the King to always rule his kingdom in accordance with the Dharma and
establish twenty centers for Buddhist learning. Then Shantideva left for the
great monastic university of Nalanda.
At this time, Nalanda was the center of Buddhist and
worldly studies in the northern India. At Nalanda, he met and was ordained by
his preceptor Abbot Jayadeva and received the name Shantideva (Lord of Peace).
At the monastery, he lived among all other great masters and mahapanditas. He
served his preceptor well and devoted himself to the Buddhist studies. He
perfected within himself the three characteristics of a great Buddhist
master—teaching, debating, and writing—and continued to rise up all the
spiritual levels and paths. He achieved the ability to remember everything he
had ever been taught, the ability to perform miracles effortlessly, and
incredible clairvoyance; thus he became a god among bodhisattvas. He understood
the arising and passing away of phenomena. The original nature of all things had
been revealed to him. He constantly received teachings from Manjushri and
realized all the important points of both sutra and tantra. Shantideva was
meditating all the time. By overcoming all internal and external distractions,
he attained realizations of the highest stages of the path. It was during this
period that he composed the Shiksasamuccaya (Compendium of Trainings) and the
Sutrasamuccaya (Compendium of the Sutras) which describe the amazingly powerful
and effective way of living one’s life as a bodhisattva.
According to the rules of the monastery, the monks could
not decide to expel a monk without getting permission from the principal abbot.
So they went to the abbot and explained the situation and what they wanted to do
about it. Contrary to their expectations, the abbot did not give his permission
to expel Shantideva. He said, “You don’t know whether he’s someone special, or
just an ordinary lazy person. Since we really don’t know, and we can’t tell
what’s going on inside of him, it’s better just to leave him alone. Don’t do
anything.” The disciplinarians were left without recourse, since they could not
expel the sleeping monk. However, there was one custom at Nalanda that they
could use to publicly humiliate Shantideva so that he would leave of his own
accord. There is a custom that professors at the university took turns giving
public lectures in the central courtyard. The lecture would be announced some
time prior to the scheduled date, and on the day before it was to take place,
the disciples of that particular professor would gather together, clean up the
courtyard, and cast flower petals. On the day of the lecture, they would lay out
all of their outer robes and pile them on top of each other, and these would
serve as the throne of the lecturing professor. Making use of this custom, the
Nalanda disciplinarians said, “Although Shantideva is not a member of the
faculty, perhaps we can tell him that he has to lecture. If we schedule a
lecture, he would leave on his own since he has no ability to deliver it.”
So they asked Shantideva to recite sutras from memory
before a gathering of the monastery. He answered them by saying, "How could
someone like me ever be able to recite scripture?" and declined. However they
insisted that he do so, and after some hesitation, he agreed if they built him a
throne to sit on.
Of course, since Shantideva was not a professor on the
faculty, he did not have any students, so there was no one to clean up the
courtyard on the day before the lecture. Nevertheless, in the evening before the
talk, a great wind came up and blew away all of the dirt and dust in the
courtyard. Then a light rain fell, causing the remaining dust to dissipate.
People were amazed at this, but they still wanted to humiliate Shantideva. They
said, “Well, he doesn’t have any students to pile up their robes as his throne,
so they build him a very high one. To make it humiliating, we’ll build it
without stairs so he can’t get on it. He’ll have to stand there looking like a
fool beside this very high throne which he’ll be unable to mount.”
At the appointed time for the lecture, the clacker was
rung, and the entire monastery gathered. They put on their ceremonial outer
robes and, holding flowers in their hands, filed into the courtyard in an
elaborate procession. Shantideva calmly walked in among them. When he reached
the front of the throne, he simply touched it gently, it immediately shrank to a
size that he could sit upon, then immediately the throne grew back to its
original size. So without the slightest effort he appeared sitting on top of it.
As soon as he took his seat on the throne, he showed not only his accustomed
tranquility, but he also seemed majestic and somehow awe-inspiring. He then
asked, "What kind of teaching would you like to hear? Something that had been
taught before or something that had never been taught before?" The monks
requested, “Oh please, something new!” and asked for a previously unheard
teaching hoping that he would embarrass himself. Shantideva recited the entire
Bodhicharyavatara “The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life” as spontaneous
verses.
Although at that time, there were in India loads and
loads of the Buddha’s teachings—all of the sutras and tantras, and loads and
loads of shastras or commentaries, but there was not a single book that
comprised the quintessence of all of the teachings. Bodhicharyavatara was
written for sentient beings who wish to discover the Buddha nature through the
practice of bodhichitta. Bodhicaryavatara was a condensed teaching relating to
all three baskets of Buddha’s teachings (the Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma), but
it primarily concerned with the development of transcendent wisdom which dispels
ignorance, the root of the other two poisons of anger and attachment. More on
Bodhicaryavatara can be found at the end.
It became clear to this audience of great scholars that
Shantideva’s teaching was something extraordinary, so they started to memorize
it. Many in the audience saw him appear in the form of Manjushri. Eventually he
came to verse 34 in the ninth chapter on wisdom explaining the profound view on
emptiness:
Once neither an entity nor a non-entity remains before
the mind,
there is no other mental flux (either).
Therefore, there is utter non-referential peace.
At this point, he rose up into the sky. His body left the
throne and as he continued reciting stanza after stanza, he floated in the air
higher and higher until he not only floated above the assembly but also
circumambulated it. He circled like an airplane. By the time he got to the tenth
chapter (the aspiration chapter), he was so high in the sky that the crowd could
no longer see him. Then, eventually, he disappeared completely, but his voice
could be heard until the end of the last chapter.
What he did was to fly to
southern India where his teacher, Nagarjuna, was living at the time. He remained
in Nagarjuna’s presence, but his audience did not know that yet. Back at
Nalanda, as soon as Shantideva’s voice was stopped, there were some highly
realized beings who possessed clairvoyance of the ear and they were able to hear
his complete recitation while there are others who possessed the Dharani of
perfect memory recorded Shantideva’s words. They started to compare what they
have memorized. However, they found that there were three different versions.
The
Kashmiri scholars had memorized more than ten thousand verses (more than 10
chapters) but had missed the verses of homage in the beginning. Of course,
nobody had been paying attention at the beginning, since everybody thought that
Shantideva had no clue about anything. The scholars from east India had less
than eight hundred verses (less than 10 chapters). The version of the scholars
from central India had one thousand verses (ten chapters). So they discussed the
matter. Also they began to get curious about two of his other books which were
mentioned in the fifth chapter of Bodhicaryavatara.
They finally decided to send three scholars to
see Shantideva and ask for his advice.
When they finally discovered that he had landed in
southern India and was living with Nagarjuna, three scholars travelled to a
stupa in the south of India called Pelyun Chen supplicated him to come back to
Nalandra. Shantideva refused. But he did tell them that he recited ten chapters.
In addition, he told them to find and study two other books that he had written
secretly while at Nalanda and was mentioned in Bodhicaryavatara: “Compendium of
the Training” and “Compendium of the Sutras”. He said that they were both
written in tiny letters on birch bark and could be found on the windowsill in
the room assigned to him at the monastery. He then gave these monks a complete
explanation of the two books.
At that time, Shantideva was living with five hundred
other monks in a great Indian monastery located in a nearby forest full of deer
and other animals. These creatures were very tame and used to come to the humans
in the monastery. However, many of the deers that Shantideva’s fellow monks saw
going into his room never came out again. They also noticed that the number of
wild animals in the forest kept decreasing. So some monks started suspecting
that Shantideva ate the flesh of these animals. Especially for a monk, this was
considered a really bad thing to do. However, when the monks accused him of
doing this, Shantideva instantly revived all the animals, and they came out of
his room stronger and healthier than before. As usual, Shantideva was asked to
stay and, as usual, he refused. This time Shantideva did not just leave the
monastery but left monasticism altogether.
He became a wandering yogi practicing Vajrayana in many
unconventional ways. Thus, he acted just like other great siddhas, such as
Naropa and Maitripa. Shantideva engaged in contests of debate and magic with
non-Buddhist scholars and yogis. He performed many supernatural activities for
the benefit of others, such as miraculously providing food or stopping a war.
Thus he became one of the well-known mahasiddhas of that time in India. Below
are some of these accounts.
Once Shantideva, with his clairvoyance, saw that there
were many non-Buddhists who opposed the Buddha’s teachings and they needed to be
subdued. He went to where they lived in the south, and dressed himself as a
beggar. One day a householder who threw his washing water out of the doorway. It
felt on Shantideva’s feet and started boiling just as water does when dropped on
hot iron. The householder was startled and disconcerted by this strange event.
At that time, a non-Buddhist teacher named Shankaradeva, wanting to compete with
a Buddhist in intellect and miraculous powers. He went to see King Khatibidhari,
the ruler of this region. The conditions he proposed for the competition were
that whoever was defeated should convert to the winner’s doctrine and that his
places of worship would be destroyed. He asked the king to witness this contest.
The King agreed and sent a messenger to inform the Buddhist community of the
challenge, and the King felt very disheartened. Just then, the householder who
had thrown the water at Shantideva’s feet arrived to relate that incident to the
King and would like to find out who this mysterious ascetic could be. When the
king had heard the householder’s story, he immediately sent messengers in every
direction to find the Buddhist ascetic in hope to defeat the non-buddhist
teacher. After a long search, Shantideva was found sitting under a tree as a
beggar. Shantideva accepted the
non-Buddhist’s challenge and asked to be supplied with a pot of water, some
clothing and a fire so that he could tidy up himself for the event.
On the day of the competition, the whole kingdom
gathered. The contestants were seated on two thrones in the center. King
Khatibidhari was seated to one side with his ministers on his left and the other
pandits on his right. The debate began. Because of the power of Shantideva’s
reasoning and scriptural knowledge, it did not take long for Shantideva to
defeat Sahnkaradeva. Then Shankaradeva challenged Shantideva to compete in the
display of miraculous powers and he proceeded to draw a huge and powerful
Shiva-mandala in the air. When he had just finished drawing the eastern gate of
the mandala, Shantideva entered into the samadhi of destructive wind element and
suddenly a strong storm blew which began to tear apart the entire area. The
surrounding area was wrecked and covered with dust. The King, Queen and others
assembled ran for cover while Shankaradeva with his mandala was carried up and
tossed about like a bird in a fierce storm. Then the whole area became shrouded
in darkness. Suddenly, Shantideva shot out an intense ray of light from between
his eyebrows to light the way for the King and the Queen. Their clothes had been
ripped off and they were covered in dust, so the great bodhisattva bathed them
in the water from the bowl, dressed them in cloth and put them near the fire
where they could warm themselves. The wind stopped and instantly everyone
recovered from the ordeal, and the whole area became bright, clean and orderly
once more. To fulfill the conditions of the contest, non-Buddhist temples were
closed, and many non-Buddhists embraced the Buddhist doctrine. The town in which
the competition was held became known as "The defeat of the non-Buddhist.
Once Shantideva with his clairvoyance saw in the east
that a great many people whose lives were disturbed by a terrible dispute.
Knowing that he could help, he set off in their direction. While he was there he
acted as the opponent of the great argument maker who was causing all the
trouble, and with his great powers he was able to bring everyone back together.
Another
time, Shantideva travelled to the kingdom of Magada in order to help the people
living there who had fallen into the chasm of wrong views. When he arrived, he
found a great many people who had extremely weird wrong views, and he decided to
stay with them for some time. One day, due to his extraordinary power and to the
purity of the prayers these people had made in their past lives, an enormous
blizzard broke out. The storm lasted for seven days, and the community ran out
of food and drink. They began to go crazy, and decided that whoever was able to
come up with something to eat and drink would become their leader. Shantideva
was miraculously able to fill a single alms bowl with rice, and from it fed
everybody in the community. As their leader he was then able to demolish their
wrong views, and lead them into the practice of Buddhadharma.
Yet another time, Shantideva saw many people suffering
from a famine, and in desperate need since thousands were about to die. He
provided these people with sustenance, taught them the teachings of the Buddha
which enabled them to lead a contented existence from then on.
In Eastern Ariboshana, there lived a king who had many
evil people conspiring against him. Santideva helped the King to avert this
threat and led him and all his subjects onto the path of goodness.
Another time, he prevented a war by expounding the holy
Dharma and showed the warring parties the true means to attain happiness.
These are just a few examples of the many exalted deeds
that Shantideva, the great Bodhisattva, performed in his lifetime, and because
of which he is revered as one of the greatest Indian Masters of all time.
Shantideva's activities were exclusively dedicated to the benefit of living
beings, and to help the Buddha's teachings.
Bodhicaryavatara was not created as scholarly work but a
doha, a spontaneous yogic song of realization. All mahasiddhas such as Saraha,
Tilopa, Naropa and Milarepa composed and sang such songs. In a similar way,
Shantideva delivered his text as extemporaneous verses in superb Sanskrit
poetry. However it is more than just a masterpiece of Sanskrit literature. More
important for the Buddhist practitioner is that because the doha carries the
blessing of the supreme realization of a great bodhisattva and mahasiddaha. At
the same time, in terms of its content, Shantideva's text describes the entire
path of a bodhisattva in a lucid style that is very practice-oriented and often
sounds like personal advice. For these two reasons, this text is said to
represent the lineage of practice and blessing. Thus it is highly accessible
even for ordinary beings who wish to follow the path of a bodhisattva and at the
same time masterfully spreads both of the two great wings of this path: the
knowledge of cultivating the profound view of emptiness and the compassionate
means of vast skillful activities. Therefore, the text is said to represent the
lineage of the unity of view and activities, starting with the cultivation of
the mind of enlightenment as the root of all practices of the great vehicle and
then presenting detailed instructions of all six perfections, from generosity up
through supreme knowledge. For all these reasons, at all times, Buddhist
scholars and practitioners alike consider Shantideva's text to be very special
and it has enjoyed great popularity to the present day.
References
Life Stories of the Lineage Teachers of the Steps of the
Path by Yongdzin Yeshe Gyeltsen
Jewel Garland of Buddhist History translated by Lobsang
N. Tsonawa
Shantideva’s Life and Aspiration by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
The Center of the Sunlit Sky, Madhyamaka in the Kagyu
Tradition by Karl Brunnhözl
Dedication |
May all sentient beings gain the flavor of supreme knowledge, |
that the unexcelled joy of truth fill their minds and bodies; |
May all sentient beings obtain all the excellent flavors of nonattachment, |
and not be addicted to mundane tastes, but always diligently cultivate and practice all aspects of Buddhahood; |
May all sentient beings gain the flavor of one truth |
and realize that all Buddha teachings are without difference; |
Last updated on 2015-10-06.