Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo – Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra Based on Chapters 4 and 5
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, will base her 3 days of teachings from the Mahayana seminal classical, Guide to The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva.
The titles of Chapter 4 and 5 are translated differently by various translators in different contexts.
Shantideva is particularly renowned as the author of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. An English translation is available online, as well as in print in a variety of translations, sometimes glossed as “A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life” or “Entering the Path of Enlightenment.”
It is a long poem describing the process of enlightenment from the first thought to full buddhahood and is still studied by Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists today.
An introduction to and commentary on the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra by the 14th Dalai Lama called A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night was printed in 1994. A commentary on the Patience chapter was provided by the Dalai Lama in Healing Anger (1997), and his commentaries on the Wisdom chapter can be found in Practicing Wisdom (2004). Kunzang Pelden has written a commentary based on that given by Patrul Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. Patrul Rinpoche was a wandering monk of great scholarship, who dedicated his life to the propagation of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra.