Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

　　Conscientiousness

　　Instructions on Chapter 4 of the

　　Bodhicharyavatara

　　by Shantideva

　　I am very happy to be here and to see everyone, and I am very happy that we will look at the fourth chapter of the Bodhicharyavatara, "The Way of the Bodhisattva," together. Before we begin, though, I will recite the Lineage Prayer of the Dagpo Kagyu in Tibetan and ask you to generate the attitude of Bodhcitta.

　　The Way of the Bodhisattva was composed by the great master Shantideva, who was an excellent person and presented extraordinary teachings. There is a story behind the composition of The Way of the Bodhisattva that I wish to share with you.

　　Shantideva was residing at the glorious Nalanda University in India and he was always practising alone and by himself. For others, it looked like he was lazy, because it seemed like he wasn”t doing anything at all. So all of the other scholars and learned monks living in the monastery called him Buksuku, which means "the lazy monk who hangs around and doesn”t know anything." They all felt that it wasn”t proper for him to stay at the monastery because those living there should either be practising diligently or studying the texts so that they would become learned, but just to hang around, be lazy, and do nothing did not accord with the rules. They wondered how to mob him so that he would leave the monastery and decided to set up a teaching situation in which he would have to teach the Dharma. They were convinced that he would fail and then they would have a reason to force him to leave. They carried out their plans and invited a huge crowd to attend the meeting. They announced to everyone, "Today Buksuku is going to teach, but can he

　　”

　　They set up a high throne for the event. While Shantideva got up to sit down, the audience thought, "Oh, he is really playing the big-shot. What is this going to be like

　　" Shantideva asked them, "Do you want me to teach something that has already been taught or something new

　　" Thinking it would be more humiliating for him, the assembled group unanimously requested, "Oh no, you give some teachings that we have not heard before.” So, Shantideva remained seated on the throne and offered the teachings that have been handed down to us in the Bodhicharyavatara. He presented these instructions in the form of verses and perfectly, without even hesitating a moment and without ever faltering in speech. When he reached the ninth chapter, which is the very famous section on prajna, “transcendent wisdom” - that describes the very meaning of what is and what is not, what exists and what does not exist - he levitated up into the sky, disappeared out of the sight of the assembly and yet, from space, his voice could be heard bestowing the teachings on the ninth chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva.

　　Under these remarkable circumstances, Shantideva began with the first chapter and spoke about the benefits and excellence of the aspiration to attain awakening, Bodhicitta, the aspiration for enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. In the second and third chapters he taught about the vow of a Bodhisattva through confessing and the ways to keep the vow of Bodhicitta through commitment. Those are the first three chapters he taught, basically the importance of Bodhicitta and the relevance of the altruistic attitude. And the reason why this topic is extremely important is because in general, in this existence and on earth, we all live together and share in mutual concerns. We should therefore make the time we spend together good, happy, and beneficial. But when we act out on our feelings of anger, pride, jealousy, hatred, and so on, then we hurt each other. Having a harmful and malicious attitude towards each other brings on all kinds of suffering…

《Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…