Śāntideva

Qu'est-ce que l'Absolu ? Dieu existe-t-il ?

He refutes the creator god; buddhas do not create the world, they teach the path

Pas de Dieu créateurIl le dit expressément

In chapter 9 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, devoted to wisdom, Śāntideva expressly discusses the thesis of a creator god (Īśvara) and rejects it: if it were an eternal and independent cause, it could not produce effects that arise and cease; if it depended on other conditions, it would no longer be the origin of everything. In the same section he refutes the primordial matter of the Sāṃkhya school. What he upholds instead is the Madhyamaka analysis: nothing has its own existence, and when neither being nor non-being remains before the mind, it comes to rest without support (9.34). This does not make his work a cold text: chapters 2 and 3 are of veneration and offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. But those awakened beings neither create nor govern the world; they teach the path.

Qui suis-je ? Existe-t-il un vrai soi ?

The self is like a row or an army: an aggregate without an owner

Il n'y a pas de soi permanentIl le dit expressément

Śāntideva approaches the self by two complementary paths in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. In chapter 9 he searches for it in body and mind, part by part, and finds it in none: neither the teeth, nor the hair, nor the sensations, nor consciousness are the self, and there is no self apart from them either. In chapter 8 he draws an ethical consequence from this. The continuum and the collection are unreal like a row or an army, so there is no owner of suffering who would justify protecting oneself alone; therefore one must meditate on the equality of self and others, who feel pain and joy equally (8.90). The absence of self is not, for him, a philosophical curiosity: it is the rational foundation of compassion.

Pourquoi souffrons-nous ?

All who suffer suffer from desiring their own happiness

Le désir et l'attachementIl le dit expressément

Śāntideva's answer is at once psychological and moral. In the Bodhicaryāvatāra he states that all who suffer in the world suffer from desiring their own happiness, and all who are happy are so from desiring that of others (8.129). Attachment to oneself, the exclusive care for one's own well-being, is the source of pain; hatred is its most destructive form, and therefore there is no evil like it (6.2). Chapter 5 adds an image: one cannot cover the whole earth with leather, but the leather of one's sandals suffices; one cannot subdue the outer world, but one can subdue one's own mind. Behind all this lies the ignorance that believes in a self with its own existence, examined in chapter 9.

Que se passe-t-il après la mort ?

Death comes without warning, and only our deeds follow us

Renaissance selon le karmaIl le dit expressément

Śāntideva writes within the Indian framework of rebirth and uses it as a spur. In chapter 2 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra he depicts himself facing death: one must depart leaving everything, friends and enemies fade like a dream, and only the evil deeds committed on their account weigh. Chapter 4 recalls how hard it is to obtain a human birth with freedom to practise, like the blind turtle that finds the yoke in the ocean, and chapter 7 describes the hells to combat laziness. Death is not an end but a passage to another birth conditioned by conduct. The ultimate horizon is broader: the bodhisattva does not aspire to leave the cycle for himself, but to remain as long as there are beings who suffer (10.55).

Comment atteint-on la libération ou le salut ?

Awaken the mind of awakening and practise the perfections, up to wisdom

Par une pratique disciplinéeIl le dit expressément

The Bodhicaryāvatāra is, from beginning to end, a programme of practice. It starts by awakening the mind of awakening (bodhicitta), the aspiration to be liberated in order to liberate all, and sustains it with the confession and vow of chapters 2 and 3. Then come heedfulness, mindfulness and introspection (chapters 4 and 5), patience (6), effort (7), meditation (8) and wisdom (9). Each perfection corrects a specific obstacle: hatred, laziness, distraction. Śāntideva declares at the beginning of chapter 9 that the Buddha taught all the preceding for the sake of wisdom, which is what cuts the root. But without the prior discipline wisdom does not hold, and without compassion it is not the bodhisattva's.

Faut-il un maître ?

Never abandon the spiritual friend, even at the cost of one's life

IndispensableIl le dit expressément

Śāntideva gives the spiritual friend (kalyāṇamitra) a central place. In chapter 5 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra he asks that one never abandon, not even to save one's life, the spiritual friend who knows the meaning of the Great Vehicle and keeps the bodhisattva vows, and immediately refers to the sūtras, to the Compendium of Training and to Nāgārjuna's Compendium of Sūtras as guides to conduct. The Compendium of Training indeed gathers passages from the sūtras on how to serve and listen to the master. The spiritual friend is indispensable because he transmits discipline and view; yet the whole work is an exhortation to oneself, written, the author says at the outset, to familiarise his own mind with the teaching.

Le monde est-il réel ?

Things are like illusions: they lack own-being, yet they function

Un réseau de causes sans substanceIl le dit expressément

Chapter 9 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra sets out the Madhyamaka view of the world against other Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools. Śāntideva distinguishes two truths, conventional and ultimate, and warns that what is real in the ultimate sense is beyond the reach of the intellect, which is itself conventional. Things arise from causes and conditions and, on examination, show no nature of their own; they are like a magical illusion, which appears and produces effects without being what it seems. He answers the objection that, if all is illusory, compassion would be meaningless: the illusion keeps operating on its own level, and the suffering of beings, though empty, is undergone. The world is not denied; it is seen without the solidity we attribute to it.

Qu'est-ce que l'amour ?

As long as space endures, may I endure to end suffering

Une compassion sans limitesIl le dit expressément

Few works have given compassion as accomplished a form as the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Its engine is the mind of awakening: the aspiration to attain buddhahood for the good of all. Chapter 8 grounds it in reasoning: one must meditate on the equality of self and others, since all feel pain and joy equally (8.90), and then on exchange, placing others where one used to place oneself. All who suffer do so from desiring their own happiness, and the happy are so from desiring that of others (8.129). Chapter 10 culminates in the vow the Dalai Lama read on receiving the Nobel Prize: for as long as space endures and the world endures, may I too endure to destroy the sufferings of beings.

Sommes-nous libres ou tout est-il déterminé ?

No one acts by their will alone, and yet one must strive

Le karma et le choixIl le dit expressément

Śāntideva holds two claims at once. In chapter 6 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, on patience, he argues that whoever harms us does so moved by conditions they do not control, just as bile causes illness without wishing to; nothing arises by itself, and so anger at a person has no proper object. But chapter 4, on heedfulness, and chapter 7, on effort, urge insistently that the human birth not be wasted: today's actions determine future births and one's own path depends on diligence. Freedom does not consist in an independent self that chooses, but in the real possibility of changing causes: cultivating mindfulness, patience and the mind of awakening alters what is to come.

Pourquoi méditer ou prier ?

Mindfulness, introspection and meditation in the service of wisdom

Voir la réalité telle qu'elle estIl le dit expressément

The Bodhicaryāvatāra integrates prayer and meditation into a single path. Chapters 2 and 3 are liturgy: offering, confession, rejoicing in others' good, supplication to the buddhas and taking the bodhisattva vow. Chapter 5 teaches how to guard the mind with mindfulness and introspection, like someone watching over a wild elephant. Chapter 8, devoted to meditation, recommends the solitude of the forest and develops the equality and exchange of self and others. But all of this, he says on opening chapter 9, the Buddha taught for the sake of wisdom, which sees that nothing has its own existence. Meditation is ultimately seeing reality as it is, and that seeing is what frees the mind from its support (9.34).

La raison peut-elle connaître l'ultime ?

The ultimately real is beyond the reach of the intellect

L'ultime est au-delà du mentalIl le dit expressément

At the beginning of chapter 9 of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva concisely formulates his answer: there are two truths, conventional and ultimate, and the ultimately real is not the domain of the intellect, because the intellect itself is conventional (9.2). This does not prevent him from arguing throughout the chapter against other schools, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, with meticulous dialectic: reason serves to dismantle false ideas, such as the permanent self or the creator god. But its function is negative. When neither being nor non-being remains before the mind, there being no other option, it comes to rest without support (9.34). Realisation is not the conclusion of an argument but what remains when all the arguments have done their work.

Se retirer du monde ou le transformer ?

Be for beings whatever they need: medicine, food, path, boat

S'engager dans le mondeIl le dit expressément

The Bodhicaryāvatāra has two movements. Chapter 8 recommends withdrawing to the forest, far from the company of fools and the craving for gain, as a condition for meditation. But the horizon of the whole poem is service. In chapter 3, on taking the vow, the author wishes to be medicine and physician for the sick, food in times of famine, protector of the destitute, guide for travellers, boat and bridge for those who wish to cross. Chapter 10 ends with the vow to remain as long as the world lasts to end its sufferings. Retreat is a means; the end is to abandon no being. That is why the text has become a reference for contemporary engaged Buddhism.