This episode of 84000 In Conversation, streamed on April 6, offers a captivating discussion on The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvapiṭaka) with Professor Jens Braarvig, hosted by Joie Chen. During this wide-ranging discussion, Professor Braarvig elaborates on the historical, linguistic, and philosophical aspects of the text, comparing it to other well-known Mahāyāna sūtras. He offers insight into the text’s account of important Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Immeasurables, the Six Perfections, and the qualities of a bodhisattva.
Key Moments:
[34:52] “The Foundation of Resolve”
Asked about a bodhisattva’s quality of having “the resolve of the mind of awakening” as foundation in Chapter 3 of the text, Braarvig explains:
“The ‘foundation of resolve’ is the mind of awakening, the bodhicitta. It is connected to a vow, or a promise, that I will not give up helping other people and any living being… I will never stop that. And I will give that priority always, for endless ages, rather than give priority to my own intentions.” Braarvig explains this notion of selflessness is juxtaposed with timelessness. “Then you have this idea that you never reach awakening, because it’s not something to be reached. It is emptiness. On the one side, you can’t attain it because your commitment to helping all living beings will be forever. This is the bodhicitta promise, and it is very radical. It will take endless time to help all living beings. On the other side, you have the idea from the Mahāyāna sūtras that time really doesn’t exist, and then you have to understand those two ideas together. Your commitment will be forever, for endless time. (But) since time doesn’t exist, you are awakened just now. This gives rise to the idea of the tathāgatagarbha - that every being is really a potential buddha.”
[54:35] “Just wait a minute.”
Asked what is meant in the final chapter when the Buddha teaches engaging in bodhisattva practices in a “non-superficial” way as “nonengagement,” Braarvig explains:
“Mahāyāna Buddhism puts emphasis on how we construct our understanding of existence. This comes from the pratītyasamutpāda, the chain of the twelve causes of suffering with ignorance as the first. This is a kind of causal origin of existence but they (Mahāyāna sūtras) generalize this and say everything is dependent on everything.” Braarvig mentions how the sūtras use various terms to emphasize the way this works as we construct our experience of the world through thought and discursive thinking, which they contrast with emptiness and the lack of any real foundation for these constructions. We cannot stop our inner discursive thinking, which lead to thought constructions. To be non-superficial when engaging in the bodhisattva path is to recognize that our thoughts and experience are constructions. Braarvig muses that perhaps a very free modern interpretation would be that the Buddha is saying just to wait a minute, and reflect on your action or words before you do or say anything and create all this fake news.
[1:16:21] “You have to decide for yourself!”
“Are Mahāyāna sūtras really the Buddha’s teachings?” Braarvig explained you can look at the answer in various ways. Within the Buddhist tradition, all the sūtras are the words of the Buddha. But why are there so many versions, texts, and schools? When people asked this, as according to legend did King Kaniṣka, saying ‘Why are there so many texts around? What is true Buddhism?’ the Buddha’s response is, ‘You have to find out for yourself.’ The historical way of understanding this has to do with the impermanence and changing nature of thinking and expression, and the multiplicity of ways and languages through which Buddhism is taught. Braarvig said there are many explanations of how texts appear and evolve. But one answer is that you have to find out what is true Buddhism yourself.
Relevant Texts:
• The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisattva (Toh 56) read.84000.co/..., one of the forty-nine sūtras in the Heap of Jewels (Ratnakūṭa, dkon brtsegs) collection within the Kangyur read.84000.co/....
• The Teaching of Akṣayamati (Toh 175) read.84000.co/..., a sūtra belonging to the collection known as the Mahāsaṃnipāta, whose seventeen texts are not distinguished as a separate collection in the Kangyur but are grouped that way in the Chinese Tripiṭaka.
• The Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom) sūtras read.84000.co/...
• The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Toh 176) read.84000.co/...
• Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya (Training Compendium, Toh 3940) and Bodhicaryāvatāra (Way of the Bodhisattva, Toh 3871), Tengyur texts not yet translated by 84000, but several English translations are available.
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