Santideva

1
Santidevas Bodhicaryavatara A Mahayana Path to
Altered States of Consciousness Randall Studstill
2
Question How might the bodhisattva path as
presented in the Bodhicaryavatara1 transform the
consciousness of the practitioner and create
altered states of consciousness? Method Assess
ing the potential psychological effects of the
texts teachings using a systems-based model of
mind.
3
Contents

• Preliminaries and Background
• Mind as a System
• Santideva on Forbearance
• Conclusions
• Appendix 1 Santidevas Life Tibetan Hagiography
• Appendix 2 Themes and Topics in the
  Bodhicaryavatara Organized by Chapter
• Notes
• References

4
Preliminaries and Background
5
Who was Santideva?

• 8th century Indian, Mahayana Buddhist monk
• Affiliated with the Madhyamaka school
• Resident of Nalanda
• In addition to the Bodhicaryavatara
  (Introduction to the Conduct that Leads to
  Enlightenment or Undertaking the Way to
  Awakening), author of the Sik?asamuccaya
  (Compendium of Doctrines or Compendium of the
  Training)
• Beyond these few details, no historically
  reliable information

6
An overview of the text

• Part of the text used in Mahayana ritual
  (anuttara-puja)
• Primarily, the text is a guide for contemplative
  reflection aimed at cultivating the paramita
  (generosity, morality, forbearance, diligence,
  meditation, wisdom) and the altruistic motivation
  for enlightenment (bodhicitta)
• Key themes
• Relentless negation of the self (renunciation
  abandoning any tendency to protect the self)
• The rewards of virtue and merit
• The suffering (now and/or in future hell realms)
  of cyclic existence, the defilements (greed,
  anger, and delusion), and selfish thought and
  action in general
• Developing compassion and bodhicitta by extending
  ones locus of concern to include all beings

7
The texts significance

• the single greatest Indian poem2 about
  cultivating the Mahayana spiritual life3
• the most widely read, cited, and practiced text
  in the whole of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist
  tradition4
• the primary source of most of the Tibetan
  Buddhist literature on the cultivation of
  altruism and bodhicitta5
• 9th chapter on emptiness one of the principal
  sources for Mahayana philosophy6
• One of the Dalai Lamas principal sources of
  religious inspiration (specifically,
  Bodhicaryavatara 10.55 As long as space abides,
  so long may I abide, destroying the sufferings of
  the world)7

8
The organization of the Bodhicaryavatara8
Canonical, Sanskrit text 912 verses (at least some of this extra material is derived from the Sik?asamuccaya) 10 chapters Dunhuang, Tibetan text(s) Bodhisattvacaryavatara (Undertaking the Way of the Bodhisattva) attributed to Ak?ayamati 701 ½ verses 9 chapters Narrative Structure Narrative Structure
Ch. 1 Praise of bodhicitta (36 verses) Ch. 1 (untitled) Part of the Supreme Worship (anuttarapuja)? Cultivating the altruistic motivation for enlightenment bodhicitta, stage 1 the Mind resolved on Awakening (115) a person who desires to go (116)
Ch. 2 Confession of Faults (66 verses) Ch. 2 Adopting (or Seizing) bodhicitta Supreme Worship (anuttarapuja) Generating merit9 Cultivating bodhicitta Cultivating the altruistic motivation for enlightenment bodhicitta, stage 1 the Mind resolved on Awakening (115) a person who desires to go (116)
Ch. 3 Adopting (or Seizing) bodhicitta (33 verses) Ch. 2 Adopting (or Seizing) bodhicitta Supreme Worship (anuttarapuja) Generating merit9 Cultivating bodhicitta Cultivating the altruistic motivation for enlightenment bodhicitta, stage 1 the Mind resolved on Awakening (115) a person who desires to go (116)
Ch. 4 Vigilance Regarding bodhicitta (48 verses) Ch. 3 Selflessness (nairatmya) strengthening the aspiring Bodhisattvas resolve (p. 11) Cultivating the altruistic motivation for enlightenment bodhicitta, stage 1 the Mind resolved on Awakening (115) a person who desires to go (116)
Ch. 5 Guarding of Awareness (109 verses) Ch. 4 Bodhisattva training proper cultivating the paramita Generosity Morality Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
Ch. 6 Forbearance (134 verses) Ch. 5 Cultivating the paramita (Forbearance, etc.) Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
Ch. 7 Vigor (75 verses) Ch. 6 Cultivating the paramita (Forbearance, etc.) Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
Ch. 8 Meditative Absorption (dhyana) (186 verses) Ch. 7 Cultivating the paramita (Forbearance, etc.) Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
Ch. 9 Understanding (167 verses) Ch. 8 Cultivating the paramita (Forbearance, etc.) Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
Ch. 10 Dedication (58 verses) Ch. 9 Vows (pra?idhana) Putting the altruistic motivation for enlightenment into practice bodhicitta, stage 2 the Mind proceeding toward Awakening (115) a person . . . who is going (116)
9
Notable passages10

• This world is a confusion of insane people
  striving to delude themselves. (869b)
• Those who have developed the continuum of their
  mind . . . , to whom the suffering of others is
  as important as the things they themselves hold
  dear, plunge down into the Avici hell as geese
  into a cluster of lotus blossoms. (8107)
• All those who suffer in the world do so because
  of their desire for their own happiness. All
  those happy in the world are so because of their
  desire for the happiness of others. Why say more?
  Observe this distinction between the fool who
  longs for his own advantage and the sage who acts
  for the advantage of others. (8129-130)
• I make over this body to all embodied beings to
  do with as they please. Let them continually beat
  it, insult it, and splatter it with filth. Let
  them play with my body let them be derisive and
  amuse themselves. I have given this body to them.
  What point has this concern of mine? (312-13)
• Whatever suffering is in store for the world,
  may it all ripen in me. (1056a)

10
Mind as a System
11
11

• The mind viewed as an interdependent network of
  variables/events
• These variables/events function together to
  maintain the integrity of the system as a whole
• These variables/events include
• Concepts/schema/beliefs
• Internal narrative
• Attention (selective self-referentially oriented
  on the internal narrative)
• Defense mechanisms (e.g., denial, distortion,
  projection, displacement)
• Distraction-seeking addiction

12
System functions

• Constrain awareness within a dualistic frame of
  reference
• Perceptual dualism a self situated in a world of
  spatially removed and distinct objects
• Evaluative dualism the reflexive evaluation of
  things, persons, conditions, events, etc. as
  either attractive (good) or repellant (bad)
• Maintain that state of reference in response to
  perturbing influences

13
Constructive processes

• Perceptual and evaluative dualism based on two
  types of mutually-reinforcing concepts/schema/beli
  efs
• Perceptual concepts that organize and interpret
  sensory data, establishing the background and
  focal dimensions of the perceptual field with
  reference to a substance-based, intuitive
  ontology and the objectification and reification
  of ordinary appearances
• Evaluative concepts that assign positive or
  negative associations to particular things,
  situations, conditions, etc. (and thereby prompt
  positive or negative emotional responses)

14
Homeostatic processes

• Homeostasis or self-stabilization is maintained
  through negative feedback
• The content of the experiential stream (a blur of
  thought and sensation) is monitored by the system
  in terms of its correspondence with system
  constructs (i.e., its confirmation of positive
  evaluative associations)
• Inputs that contradict evaluative constructs
  initiate processes to adjust the content of the
  input so that it matches those constructs

15
Homeostasis

• Inputs regulated in two ways
• acting to change the self and/or environment
• regulating the experiential stream (independent
  of the environment)
• Active shaping (fantasy)
• Inhibition of inputs (distraction drugs)

16
The minds transformative potential

• Disruption of cognitive variables / boundary
  conditions may initiate the transformation of the
  cognitive system
• This transformation is associated with a
  qualitative shift in experience that has both
  epistemological and affective implications

17
Key points

• Perceptual and evaluative concepts fuel an
  uninterrupted internal narrative characterized by
  obsessive self-monitoring and self-concern and
  manipulation of the experiential stream (often in
  the service of protecting the self-image)
• These factors help maintain a persons ordinary
  (and, from a Buddhist point of view,
  unsatisfactory) state of consciousness
• Undermining these concepts may help pacify the
  internal narrative and play a role in eliciting a
  shift in a persons state of consciousness,
  associated with altered states of consciousness

18
Santideva on Forbearance
Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 6
19
Overview

• Forbearance (k?anti) the 3rd paramita
• A means of integrating suffering into the
  spiritual path12
• Forbearance described as the highest spiritual
  practice (6102) (perhaps because it is an
  antidote to anger, one of the most problematic
  emotions for an aspiring bodhisattva)
• General concern developing a non-defensive,
  open, emotionally positive attitude in response
  to suffering, attacks from others, and threats to
  ones social status and self-image
• The ideal state is a 180 degree shift from
  ordinary concerns oriented around
  self-protection, e.g., suffering is good and
  should be welcomed, enemies are good and should
  be honored, public humiliation is good and should
  be embraced
• Key ideas the negative consequences of anger and
  hatred (suffering and hell), the rewards of
  patience (happiness and buddhahood), cultivating
  sympathetic joy, giving oneself over to all
  beings, self-castigation (observing ones own
  egotism)

20
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to suffering in general

• As aspiring bodhisattvas, we are at war with the
  defilements suffering is a necessary and
  inevitable part of war (619)
• suffering overcomes complacency, awakens
  compassion, and supports resolve to follow the
  path (621)

21
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Offensive behaviors arise through conditioning
  factors (6 22-33) they are not willed into
  being (there is no way to intelligibly conceive a
  relationship between an unchanging Self and
  changing mental events)
• Since, like a magical display, phenomena do not
  initiate activity, at what does one get angry
  like this? (631)

22
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Anger towards others is unjustified because
  others are deluded
• If others cause themselves great suffering, how
  can I expect them not to cause me suffering?
• If it is their very nature to cause others
  distress, my anger towards those fools is as
  inappropriate as it would be towards fire for its
  nature to burn. (639)
• But in fact, this tendency to cause others
  distress is adventitious. Beings are by nature
  pleasant. So anger towards them is as
  inappropriate as it would be towards the sky if
  full of acrid smoke. (640)

23
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Anger towards others is nonsensical because it is
  mistakenly directed
• The other person is impelled by hatred, so hatred
  itself is the proper object of anger (if there
  were a proper object) (641)
• Emotional upset is ultimately caused by my own
  attachment to my body and personal well being
  (643-44) if the cause of the problem is my own
  attachment, anger at others makes no sense (645)
• Some commit offenses out of delusion. Others,
  deluded, grow angry. Who among them should we say
  is free from blame, or who should we say is
  guilty? (667)

24
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Anger towards other is nonsensical because it is
  often inconsistent with the actual offense
  Humiliation, harsh speech, and disgrace . . .
  does not oppress the body (653)
• The Buddhist version of Sticks and stones . . .

25
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Exposing self-deceptive justification for anger
  I become angry at someone speaking ill of me
  because they are causing harm to living beings
  (see 662)
• But if thats the case . . .
• why . . . do you feel no anger when he defames
  others in the same way? (662)
• You tolerate those showing disfavor when others
  are the subject of it, but you show no tolerance
  toward someone speaking ill of you . . . . (663)

26
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Exposing self-deceptive justification for anger
  I hate those who desecrate sacred images or
  teachings (see 664)
• Why should you hate them when the Buddhas and
  Bodhisattvas are not distressed? (664)

27
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• All unpleasant experiences are karmic the result
  of the pain I have caused others (642)
• Why did you behave before in such a way that
  others now trouble you in this way? Everybody is
  subject to the force of prior actions. Who am I
  to change this? (668)

28
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Recognizing the negative consequences associated
  with anger/hatred (and, therefore, the need to
  suppress it the moment it arises)
• . . . when the mind is catching alight with the
  fire of hatred . . . , hatred must be cast
  aside immediately for fear that ones body of
  merit might go up in flames (671)

29
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to suffering occasioned by the path

• The path is the means of avoiding hell the path
  involves suffering therefore, suffering on the
  path is the means of avoiding hell therefore,
  suffering is good (672)
• The path is a means of becoming a Buddha and
  benefiting other beings the path involves
  suffering therefore, suffering on the path is a
  means of becoming a Buddha and benefiting others
  therefore Delight is the only appropriate
  response to suffering which takes away the
  suffering of the universe (675)
• Any difficulty you may have enduring suffering
  now is all the more reason to restrain anger and
  hatred, since these will cause much greater
  suffering in hell (673)

30
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to praise and blame

• Praise has doubtful tangible benefits (690-91)
• Concern with social status causes suffering
  Like a child that howls a wail of distress when
  his sandcastle is broken, so my own mind appears
  to me at the loss of praise or renown. (693)
• Encouraging sympathetic joy Another persons
  delight should cause me to feel delight,
  regardless of whether or not that person is
  delighted with me or someone else (694-96)
• Praise is actually bad (and blame is actually
  good) for anyone serious about the path Praise
  and so on give me security. They destroy my sense
  of urgency. They create jealousy towards those
  who possess virtue, and anger at success. (698)
• Attachment to praise is an impediment on the
  path so anyone conspiring to . . . destroy my
  praise is helping me (6100-101)

31
Undermining evaluative associations responding
to offensive or malicious behavior

• Forbearance is transformative an enemy is an
  occasion for the practice of forbearance
  therefore enemies are good
• Longing for an enemy since he helps me on the
  path to Awakening, I should long for an enemy
  like a treasure discovered in the home, acquired
  without effort (6107)
• Honoring enemies When the transmission of
  Buddha-qualities comes equally from both ordinary
  beings and from the Conquerors, what logic is
  there in not paying that respect to ordinary
  beings which one pays to the Conquerors? (6113)

32
Conclusions
33

• Santidevas teachings on forbearance comprise a
  set of concepts that conflict with the evaluative
  associations that help maintain a persons
  ordinary state of consciousness by fueling
  self-concern and the internal narrative
• Sustained reflection on (and internalization of)
  those teachings may undermine evaluative
  associations and attenuate the internal narrative
• In the short term, this may manifest as the
  dissipation of emotional upset in the context of
  daily social interactions
• Over the long term, it may aid in pacifying the
  internal narrative in the context of meditative
  practice
• This pacification constitutes the disruption of
  one of the key variables in the cognitive system,
  creating conditions for possible transformation
  and the realization of altered states of
  consciousness
• Repeated suspension of the internal narrative may
  have a cumulative effect on consciousness,
  eventually crossing a critical threshold and
  initiating a naturally unfolding transformation
  with a corresponding qualitative shift in
  experience

34
Appendix 1Santidevas life Tibetan hagiography

• a prince from North India who fled royal
  consecration for fear of implication in the evils
  of kingship13
• Became a monk he was a highly advanced
  practitioner, though his advanced level of
  realization was unrecognized by his fellow monks
  (His fellow monks said that his three
  realizations were eating, sleeping, and
  shitting14)
• His spiritual stature was only recognized when he
  was asked in an attempt to humiliate this
  lazy monk to give a recitation before the
  monastery
• The Bodhicaryavatara is believed to be the record
  of that recitation
• Toward the end of his recitation he levitated
  into the air and vanished, though his voice was
  still audible

35
Appendix 2 Themes and Topics in
the Bodhicaryavatara Organized by Chapter
36
Ch. 1 Praise of bodhicitta Ch. 2 Confession of Faults15 Ch. 3 Adopting bodhicitta Ch. 4 Vigilance Regarding bodhicitta Ch. 5 Guarding of Awareness
Preciousness of a human birth (dont waste it) (4) Reflecting on the incomparable value of bodhicitta Bodhicitta defined (15-16, 18) Seeking enlightenment motivated by a longing to remove the suffering of all beings Going for refuge to those who have perfected bodhicitta Having reflected on the value of bodhicitta (in Ch. 1), worshipping the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (making offerings) (1-25) Going for refuge (26, 46-54) Confession of faults and the horrific consequences of evil (27-45, 55-66) The horror of imminent death (32-34, 40-45, 59-60) Rejoicing in merit (1-3) Requesting the teaching (4) Begging the Buddhas not to abandon beings (5) Affirming ones resolve to relieve others suffering giving oneself over to other beings (6-21) Arousal of bodhicitta (22-33) prayer affirming the incomparable value of bodhicitta (25-33) The consequences of evil and failing in ones bodhisattva aspirations bad rebirths and hell recognizing and taking advantage of the precious opportunity of a human birth, etc. (4-26) Encouraging a resolve to destroy the defilements and endure whatever suffering that may entail (27-48) Practicing mindfulness (sm?ti) and awareness (samprajanya) as a means cultivating the paramita of generosity and moral discipline The paramita generosity and morality defined as mental attitudes (10-11) (the chapter therefore focuses on guarding mindfulness and awareness ) The necessity to restrain the wandering mind (1) The negative consequences of an undisciplined mind (e.g., hell, suffering) (2, 17-18, 20, 24-29, 44) The benefits of a disciplined mind (3-5, 12-16, 21, 33, 44, 100) The mind as the root cause of suffering (6-8) Encouraging resolve (19, 22-23, 43, 99) Recollecting the Buddhas (31-32) Being like a block of wood behavioral observances rules taken from the pratimok?a (34-39, 45, 48-53, 71-98, 102-107) Mindfulness the ideal state of mind (40-41, 47, 54-58) Self-castigation (59-61) Reflecting on the foulness of the body (60-70, 86) Awareness defined the observation at every moment of the state of ones body and ones mind (108)
37
Ch. 6 Forbearance (k?anti) Ch. 7 Vigor (virya)16
Teachings aimed at pacifying emotional reactivity and upset in response to suffering, offensive and malicious behavior from others, and threats to social status and self-image The negative consequences of anger and hatred reasons to restrain anger (1-5, 8-9, 70-71, 128-132) Description of the ideal state encouraging resolve (9-10 125-127) Self-examination self-castigation at ones own egoism (7, 11, 76, 79, 82, 93) The value of patience (k?ama) and forbearance (2, 6, 102, 128-134) Rejecting religious motives for anger (e.g., blasphemy) (62-65, 102-) Overcoming envy (76-86) Praise and blame (90-101) The value of enemies (99-108) Honoring ones enemies (109-118) Quotation from the Tathagataguhya Sutra honoring the Buddhas by treating others with the same regard that the Buddhas have shown toward others (119-134) Part 1 explaining the opposites of vigor and how to overcome them Part 2 the means for increasing the vigor with which one practices17 The importance of effort/vigor (1) Vigor defined, and its opposites (sloth, etc.) listed (2) The causes of sloth (3) The imminence of death/hell as an antidote to sloth (4-13) The preciousness of a human birth (14) Encouraging resolve in the face of despondency and defeatism (16-19, 53) Overcoming fear of suffering caused by the path (20-27) The pleasure of the path (28-30, 62-66) Increasing vigor through desire, pride, delight, giving up, dedication, and control (32) Self-castigation at ones own laziness(34, 36-38) The urgency of overcoming faults and cultivating virtue (33) The importance of righteous desire the blissful consequences of virtue, the horrific consequences of evil (39-46) Cultivating spiritual pride (a fierce determination to overcome obstacles and suffering )(46-61, 67) Mindfulness (68-71, 73) Remorse (72)
38
Ch. 8 Meditative Absorption (dhyana)18
Renunciation (to calm the mind) self-negation and exchanging self and other as a means of developing compassion (i.e., the extension of self-concern to include all beings) and bodhicitta The importance of meditative absorption as a means of overcoming distractions and the defilements (1) Renunciation is the means of calming the mind, which is in turn the basis of insight that destroys the defilements (4) Renunciation/social isolation to reduce distractions and therefore support meditative stabilization (2-38) (p. 79) Renunciation of persons the pain and complacency caused by attachment to or association with persons (5-16) Detachment from alms gifts and popularity praise and blame (17-24) Social isolation (26-38, 70, 85-88) Contemplating death (30-31) Developing meditative concentration (39) (p. 79) this leads directly into verses on renunciation lust, other persons, worldly life, and a renewed resolve to live in isolation Encouraging resolve to restrain the mind by reflecting on the negative consequences of the passions (40, 84) Overcoming lust contemplating the foulness of the body (asubha-bhavana) (41-69) (p. 79) Attachment to one's own body and its safety/well-being the suffering of worldly life (71-83, 173-182, 185) Meditative contemplation aimed at developing compassion and bodhicitta (89-186) eradicating self-concern exchanging self and other extending concern beyond the self to include all beings giving oneself over to others out of compassion (p. 80) (some of this from the Tathagataguhya Sutra) Viewing the self and self-concern as enemies the negative and positive consequences of selfishness and altruism respectively (121-135, 138-139, 155-156, 171) Treating yourself as a despised "other" or as a new bride (p. 81)(159-167) inspired by a fierce indignation at all the trouble and suffering caused by self-concern, encouraging a relentless assault on the self (168-176)
39
Ch. 9 Understanding19 Ch. 10 Dedication
All the other paramita just preparation for this paramita the perfection of understanding or wisdom (i.e., emptiness20) (1) A critique of the philosophical views of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical schools (Nikaya, Cittamatra, Sa?khya , Nyaya-vaise?ika) a demonstration of the inconsistencies or contradictions in any view (p. 106) Emptiness implied based on the incoherence of positing intrinsic existence about anything Two-truths (sa?v?tisatya and paramarthasatya) (2-8, 106-111) (p. 111) Ordinary appearances are illusory (5, 87) Reality is beyond the scope of intellection (2) Emptiness as a means of pacifying the mind (34) Appeal to scriptural authority and the authenticity of Mahayana scriptures (40-51) True non-grasping depends on emptiness (45-48) The urgent need to meditate on emptiness (54) Comments on the fear of emptiness the non-existence of the I and the body (55-59, 74, 78-85 ) The interdependence (and therefore, emptiness) of phenomena (60-74) If everything is empty, who has compassion for whom? (75-76) Critique of atoms (86, 94-95), sensations (88-91, 98-101, 129-137), contact (93-97), mind , consciousness, and the object of cognition (102-105, 111-115), cause and effect (116-117), God (118-125), primal matter (126-128) Emptiness and causation (141-154) A description of the misery of cyclic existence (155-165) Affirmations in which Santideva dedicates to the benefit of all beings the merit that he has generated through the training. (p. 133) Affirmations for those in hell (4, 6-16) Affirmations for animals, hungry ghosts, the blind, the deaf , the fearful, etc.(17ff) Affirmations that all beings encounter the Dharma (37-38) Affirmations for the Sangha (42-46) Affirmations that all attain buddhahood (47) Affirmations for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (48-49) Affirmations for non-Mahayana practitioners (50) Affirmations for himself, to progress on the path (51-56)
40
Notes

• All translations are from Santideva, Crosby,
  Skilton, 1996. The translation is based on Louis
  de la Vallée Poussins critical edition of the
  Sanskrit text of Prajñakaramatis 8th-9th
  centuries commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara,
  the Bodhicaryavatara-pañjika (Santideva et al.,
  1996, p. xl). Return
• On the poetic form of the Bodhicaryavatara
  (anu??ubh), see Santideva et al., 1996, p.
  xxxviii. Return
• Williams, 2004, Santideva, p. 749. Return
• Santideva, Wallace, Wallace, 1997, p. 7.
  Return
• Vesna and Allan Wallace, reporting on a view
  expressed by the Dalai Lama (Santideva et al.,
  1997, p. 7). Return
• Paul Williams, in Santideva et al., 1996, p.
  viii. Return
• Paul Williams, in Santideva et al., 1996, p. ix.
  Return
• Quotations and other information in this table
  from Santideva et al, 1996, pp. xxx-xxxiv, 9-13.
  Return
• Merit (pu?ya . . .) is karmic virtue acquired
  through moral and ritual actions it is widely
  regarded as the foundation of Buddhist ethics and
  salvation (Tanabe, 2003, p. 532). Return
• See also 540, 561, 444, 621, 849, 880,
  8165, 8170. On emptiness, see 9103, 9110,
  9139, 9149-154a. Return

41
Notes

• For a more detailed description of a
  systems-based model of mind, see Studstill, 2005,
  Ch. 3. Return
• See Cozort, 2010, p. 209. Return
• Paul Williams, in Santideva et al., 1996, p.
  viii. Return
• Chödrön, 2005, p. xi. Return
• Comments on Chapters 2 and 3 based in part on
  Santideva et al., 1996, pp. 12-13. Return
• According to Crosby and Skilton, in this chapter
  Santideva follows the traditional teaching on
  the four correct efforts (1) avoiding
  unskillful mental states, (2) overcoming
  unskillful states, (3) developing skillful
  states, and (4) sustaining skillful states.
  (Santideva et al., 1996, p. 63). Return
• Santideva et al., 1996, p. 63. Return
• All page references from Santideva et al., 1996.
  Return
• All page references in this table are from
  Santideva et al., 1996. For another topical
  overview of the chapter by verse, see Santideva
  et al., 1996, pp. 111-112. Return
• Emptiness is generally defined as the absence of
  intrinsic or inherent existence (svabhava) in all
  phenomena. The Madhyamika claim is that nothing
  is permanent, unchanging, or exists in
  independence from other factors (see Santideva et
  al., 1996, p. 106). Return

42
References

• Chödrön, P., Berliner, H. (2005). No time to
  lose A timely guide to the way of the
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