Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life)

The Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, is the eighth century Indian monk Shantideva's own foundational verse treatise on the path of the bodhisattva, cited here in this Aditya Prakashan edition presenting the original Sanskrit text alongside an English translation and exposition drawing on Prajnakaramati's classical commentary. Its strength as a primary source is direct, it is Shantideva's own text, most notably his careful distinction between the initial aspiration toward enlightenment for others' sake and the sustained undertaking of the bodhisattva path itself, presented with a scholarly commentarial apparatus rather than a loose paraphrase. Its limit is that a classical Sanskrit verse text of this density is traditionally read with commentary, so a specific difficult verse benefits from checking against more than one translator's rendering.