The Great Hūṃ: A Commentary on Śāntideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva

Constance Kassor’s review for Buddhadharma:

Few Buddhist texts have been as influential as the Way of the Bodhisattva, the 8th-century poem composed by the Indian philosopher-monk Santideva. The work and its many commentaries have been translated into English countless times, and one more translation of a commentary might seem superfluous by now. But Douglas Duckworth’s The Great Hūṃ proves otherwise, shining light on Santideva’s work in new and important ways.

The Great Hūṃ is Duckworth’s translation of an extensive commentary of the first eight chapters of the Way of the Bodhisattva by the Tibetan monk Kunzang Sonam. Kunzang Sonam was a student of Patrul Rinpoche, who is credited with reviving the study and practice of this text in eastern Tibet in the 19th century.

The focus of these first eight chapters is the cultivation and practice of bodhicitta—the altruistic “spirit of awakening” central to the Mahayana path. Kunzang Sonam’s commentary does more than simply explain Santideva’s verses; it illuminates them with remarkable depth and breadth, drawing on more than a hundred Buddhist sutras and more than a hundred Tibetan texts and commentaries. But most importantly, this commentary interweaves the Way of the Bodhisattva with Santideva’s other important work, Anthology of Training (Siksasamuccaya). This interweaving of the two texts shows that they are not merely complementary but form a cohesive philosophical vision embedded in the wider Mahayana tradition.

[Please note that the text from which this excerpt derives makes use of footnotes and diacriticals; these are not represented in this excerpt.]

Excerpt:

Guarding Meta-Awareness

The chapter on meta-awareness

This section has two parts: the text of the chapter and the title of the chapter.

The text of the chapter

This section has four parts: guarding the mind as a method to guard the trainings, relying upon mindful awareness (dran shes) as a method to guard the mind, training in the activities of mind training through mindful awareness, and showing other aspects of excellent practice.

Guarding the mind as a method to guard the trainings

This section has two parts: a concise demonstration and an extensive explanation.

Concise demonstration

This shows the reason we must guard the mind:

Beings who wish to guard and purify the practices of a bodhisattva’s training, like the six perfections, from decline due to discordant factors must strive one-pointedly to guard from distractions and the diffusion of mind toward perverse objectives by making a strong effort to rely on methods for protection. This is because the mind is unstable and moves about like lightning or a wave; one will misbehave and never be able to guard the trainings in this life without protecting and controlling the mind well. To guard the trainings here is described in the great commentary as cultivating the spirit of awakening and holding the vows, through which one trains in doing what is prescribed and in not doing what is prohibited.

The Letter to a Friend shows that we must guard the mind from moving toward perverse objects:

It says to guard the mind by stopping the mind from undeliberate wandering toward objects. Also, it says:

It shows that the mind should be guarded by knowing the characteristics of objects.

Extensive explanation

This section has three parts: showing how all harm comes from the mind, showing how all virtue comes from the mind, and thus showing that the mind should be guarded.

Showing how all harm comes from the mind

Many different misbehaviors take place when the elephant of mind does whatever it wishes, is drunk with afflictions like attachment, and is not controlled by the whip of mindful awareness—as it runs wild on its own toward perverse objects. Later, this elephant-mind will bring devastation and produce a lot of suffering in the hell of Utter Torment and so on. A wild, ordinary elephant that has not been tamed and is drunk with an intoxicating drink cannot produce this kind of great damage in this world that is evident now or in the hell of Utter Torment in an unseen future. So you should not lapse in guarding the mind.

Next it shows the general benefits of guarding the mind:

With the rope of clear mindfulness that never forgets what is to be adopted or rejected, the elephant-mind, haughty and drunk on the intoxicating drink of afflictions produced by attention to what is improper, is prevented from engaging in perverse objects. When it is tied tightly to the steady pillar of a virtuous observation—a proper object of attention—there will be no harmful dangers in this life or future lives. Also, in general there will be virtue, which is the cause for producing every benefit and happiness—the higher states and definite goodness—for yourself and others in the short and long term. In particular, all of the virtues of the six perfections, as will be explained below, will be followed and accomplished without difficulty; they will come effortlessly, as if placed in your hand, since their cause has been obtained. For example, it is like saying that rice sprouts grow due to rain. It is said in a sūtra:

Therefore it makes sense to strive to guard the mind from faltering by relying on mindful awareness at all times and in all circumstances. This is the general demonstration.

Next it shows in particular that this eliminates every fear:

You might think, “Even if the mind is guarded internally, there are many external dangers, so how can it come to be that there will be no fear at all?” It will happen. Singly tying your internal mind tightly to a virtuous observation with the antidotal rope of mindfulness that does not forget any of the foundations of training concerning what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected turns away what produces any fear. This includes anything that brings fear in this life, such as tigers, lions, elephants, bears, poisonous snakes, and all human and nonhuman enemies. Also, it includes what brings fear in future lives, such as the henchmen of the Lord of Death, the fearsome beings who are the wardens in hell. Further, this includes witches who bring harm by spells, sorcerers who bring harm through using black magic to do things like oppress and burn, as well as all harm-doers, including monsters among the beings who are hungry ghosts. All of these vicious and ferocious external things become as if bound or tied by this, and thus they cannot bring the slightest violence or harm.

Through the antidotal power of meta-awareness that is skilled in the domains of what is to be accepted and what is to be rejected, the negative actions that occur when it is let loose are tamed or disciplined by this internal mind itself. Thus by taming the causes of all fears, it is as if all the external harm-doers (like tigers and lions) are tamed. They are brought under control and do not bring any harm. So you should strive in discipline through binding the mind to a virtuous observation. Thus the Birth Stories says:

This is like the Lion Captain who guarded his mind and tamed the sea monster, and the many accomplished beings who rode lions and tigers and held poisonous snakes in their hands. Atiśa said:

To demonstrate the reason that these are tamed by taming the mind, next it shows that this is established by trustworthy scriptures:

In this way, all the terrors of this life and futures lives, every suffering of body and mind—along with mental anxiety without measure—all come about through the force of previous karma. On karma, the Densely Arrayed says: “The manifold world is born from karma, and karma is manifest intention.” And again a passage cited in the great commentary says:

Also, the Treasury of Abhidharma says:

Thus it is intention and the physical and verbal actions that arise from intention. These are contaminated karma that are accumulated by a distorted mind that is under the extrinsic power of afflictions. These do not occur in the absence of mind; so they are said to arise from mind.

The omniscient teacher himself taught this well in his authentic speech to disciples after realizing the unerring mode of reality, as it is, of all things to be known. A sūtra says: “Hey, child of the victors! The three realms are mind only.” Also, the Cloud of Jewels says:

The mind delights in things that are impermanent as permanent; it delights in what is suffering as happiness; it delights in what is selfless as a self; it delights in what is impure as pure. It is quick to wander and is unstable; it is the root of the afflictions; it is the door to the lower realms; it is the foundation of the subsidiary afflictions; it ruins the higher realms. It is the condition for attachment, anger, and delusion; it is the owner of all things. Noble child, the mind is the forerunner of all things; when just the mind is under control, all things are under control . . . The mind is the forerunner of all things; when the mind is completely known, all things are completely known.

And,

Furthermore, the mind is the author of the world. The mind is not seen by the mind. Whether virtuous or vicious, karma is amassed by the mind. The mind spins like a firebrand; the mind moves like a wave; the mind burns like a forest fire; the mind swells like a great flood. By understanding this, when the mind dwells in the close placement of mindfulness, one is not controlled by the mind; rather, the mind is under one’s control. With the mind under control, all things are under control.

Also, a sutra says:

Next it establishes this by both scripture and reasoning:

Furthermore, if the terrors of hells and the experiences of suffering were not caused by one’s previous evil mind, then who made such an effort to make all of the hell beings’ harmful weapons—their spears, saws, clubs, and the forest of razors—and for what purpose? There is no other creator. Likewise, who made the ground that is burning with scalding iron? It was not made by any other creator like Isvara or Brahma. All the hordes of frightening women that climb to the top and bottom of the sallmali tree, all these women are generated from an evil mind, from taking part in sexual misconduct. What else caused them? There is no other cause, and it does not make sense for anything to arise without a cause. The Sanskrit manuscripts and Indian commentaries read: “From where did these women come?” Pang Lotsawa also says this, so the reading of “heap of fire” (me tshogs) is said to be a textual error.

Thus the omniscient Lord of Sages said that the appearance of all these kinds of fear and suffering arise from, or are produced by, this mind itself that has performed and amassed vicious, negative actions. The Sutra Distinguishing Beings says:

The Vajra Essence Sutra says: “Manjusri, the hells of sentient beings do not exist; they are falsely contrived by immature, ordinary beings. They arise from their thoughts.” This shows that the cause for their appearance is a mind that has performed negative actions; there is no other creator.

Next is a summary:

All fears and suffering arise from only the mind. Therefore the three worlds—the world above, the world below, and the world on the surface—or all three realms (such as the Desire Realm) are mere appearances of one’s mind governed by negative deeds. There is no other cause of fear. Thus you should strive to tame your mind by bringing it under control. There is also a reading as: “Thus (de ltar) . . . the three worlds . . .” The Close Application of Mindfulness says:

Also, the great commentary cites this passage:

It is like the saying that no one can harm someone who does not harbor a mind that intends harm. Also, it is said to be similar to the Buddhist layperson’s response to the threats of the ocean god.

The Great Hūṃ: A Commentary on Śāntideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva, by Minyak Kunzang Sonam, translated by Douglas Duckworth. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications.

Douglas Duckworth

Douglas Duckworth is a professor of religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. He received his PhD in religious studies (Indo-Tibetan Buddhism) from the University of Virginia in 2005, and he previously taught at Kathmandu University. He is the author of Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition (SUNY 2008), Jamgon Mipam: His Life and Teachings (Shambhala 2011), and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature (Oxford 2019). He has translated Kunzang Sonam’s overview of the ninth chapter of Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva, entitled The Profound Reality of Interdependence (Oxford 2019), and Botrul’s Distinguishing the Views and Philosophies: Illuminating Emptiness in a Twentieth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Classic (SUNY 2011). He is a coauthor of Dignaga’s Investigation of the Percept (Oxford 2016) and Knowing Illusion (2 vols., Oxford 2021). In addition to publishing numerous scholarly articles, Duckworth has coedited (with A. Velez and E. Harris) Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity: Theravada and Tibetan Perspectives (Equinox 2020) and (with Jonathan Gold) Readings of Shantideva’s Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Columbia 2019).

Constance Kassor

Constance Kassor Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she teaches courses on Buddhist thought and Asian religious traditions, with a special interest in how Buddhism relates to questions of social justice and gender. She is the creator and voice of Religious Lessons from Asia to the World, a ten-part program on Audible. For more information visit constancekassor.net

Minyak Kunzang Sonam

Minyak Kunzang Sonam, a.k.a. Tupten Chökyi Drakpa (1823–1905), hailed from eastern Tibet and was a prominent student of the celebrated Patrul Rinpoche (1808–87) and a great scholar in his own right. He was a truly nonsectarian figure, drawing on the wisdom of all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. A translation of his commentary on Tokme Zangpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas was published as Uniting Wisdom and Compassion.