Shikshasamucchaya

Shantideva

The Shikshasamucchaya (Skt. Śikṣāsamuccaya) or Compendium of Training or Compendium of Precepts (Tib. བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་བཏུས་, Wyl. bslab pa kun btus) by Shantideva presents clearly and in detail the conduct that Bodhisattvas should embrace at all times. It is the longest of the three texts written by Shantideva, the Sutrasamucchaya being the shorter one and the Bodhicharyavatara the middle length text. (Nagarjuna's text called Shikshasamucchaya, mentioned by Shanitdeva in the Bodhicharyavatara, is no longer available.)

It was translated into Tibetan by Jinamitra, Danashila and Yeshé Dé, and later revised by Kashmiri Tilakakalasa and Ngok Loden Sherab.

Gendün Chöpel discovered an Indian manuscript of the Shikshasamucchaya at Sakya Monastery.

Outline

The text has nineteen chapters:

1. The paramita of generosity (སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་, sbyin pa'i pha rol tu phyin pa)
2. The paramita of discipline (ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་, tshul khrims kyi pha rol tu phyin pa)
3. Protecting the teacher of Dharma and so on (ཆོས་སྨྲས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་བསྲུང་བ་, chos smras pa la sogs pa bsrung ba)

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1. An explanation of harm (གནོད་པ་བསྟན་པ་, gnod pa bstan pa)
2. Thoroughly abandoning harm (གནོད་པ་རྣམ་པར་སྤང་བ་, gnod pa rnam par spang ba)
3. Protecting the body (ལུས་བསྲུང་བ་, lus bsrung ba)
4. Protecting possessions and merits (ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང་བསོད་ནམས་བསྲུང་བ་, longs spyod dang bsod nams bsrung ba)
5. Purifying negativity (སྡིག་པ་སྦྱང་བ་, sdig pa sbyang ba)
6. The paramita of patience (བཟོད་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་, bzod pa'i pha rol tu phyin pa)
7. The paramita of diligence (བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་, brtson 'grus kyi pha rol tu phyin pa)
8. Praise of remaining in solitude (དགོན་པར་གནས་པར་བརྗོད་པ་, dgon par gnas par brjod pa)
9. Thoroughly purifying the mind (སེམས་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱང་བ་, sems yongs su sbyang ba)
10. The close application of mindfulness (དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ་, dran pa nye bar gzhag pa)
11. Purifying the body (ལུས་ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པ་, lus yongs su dag pa)
12. Purifying possessions and merits (ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང་བསོད་ནམས་དག་པ་, longs spyod dang bsod nams dag pa)
13. Dedication of merit (དགེ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ་, dge ba yongs su bsngo ba)
14. The benefits of prostrations and so on (ཕྱག་ཚལ་བ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་, phyag 'tshal ba la sogs pa'i phan yon)
15. Recollection of the Three Jewels (དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ་, dkon mchog gsum rjes su dran pa)
16. Increasing merit (བསོད་ནམས་འཕེལ་བ་, bsod nams 'phel ba)

Translations

• Śāntideva, Śikṣā Samuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhist Doctrine, translated by Cecil Bendall and W.H.D Rouse, 1922

Further Reading

• Barbra R. Clayton, Moral Theory in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya: Cultivating the Fruits of Virtue, Routledge (New York 2006).
• Suzanne Mrozik, The Relationship between Morality and the Body in Monastic Training according to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University (Cambridge 1988).
• P.L. Vaidya, ed., Śikṣāsamuccaya of Śāntideva, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 11, The Mithila Institute (Darbhanga 1999), in 208 pages Reprint of 1960 edition. (Introductions in English and Hindi.)