The Bodhisattva Ideal: Selected Key Texts
Thupten Jinpa
Apr 2026 · Library of Tibetan Classics Book 11 · Simon and Schuster
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About this ebook
The power and promise of enlightened altruism, a life lived for the benefit of all beings, is on full display in this collection of Buddhist works on the heroic way of the bodhisattva.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of Mahayana Buddhism is what many contemporary writers on Buddhism call the “bodhisattva ideal.” This refers to a spiritual outlook and way of life rooted in a resolute vow and dedicated to the welfare of all sentient beings. This volume features authoritative Tibetan presentations of the ideal based on key Indian Buddhist treatises, especially Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland, Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way and Compendium of Training, Maitreya’s Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, and Asanga’s Bodhisattva Ground. Together, the nine Tibetan texts translated here embrace the complete spectrum of the bodhisattva ideal as understood, taught, and practiced in Tibetan Buddhism. From first generating the faith of admiration toward the compassionate teacher, the Buddha, by recollecting his altruistic deeds in former births (jatakas) to generating the awakening mind (bodhicitta) followed by the solemn act of taking the bodhisattva vow, from cultivating oneself through everyday mindfulness rooted in an altruistic outlook to the specifics of living life according to the bodhisattva’s moral precepts, and from the initial stages of training in the six perfections to the full flowering of the union of awakening mind with the wisdom seeing things as they are, this volume offers a comprehensive roadmap to making the bodhisattva ideal an animating reality in the practitioner’s own life.
The volume includes celebrated commentaries, including Thokmé Sangpo on Guide to the Bodhisattva Way, Tsongkhapa on the Compendium of Training, Gyaltsab on the Precious Garland (fully translated here), and Chankgya Rolpai Dorje on the bodhisattva precepts. It also contains a lucid structural comparison of Ornament of Mahayana Sutras and the Bodhisattva Ground, along with inspiring verses on the Buddha’s past births, mind training, and the altruistic aspiration. Finally, it contains a fresh translation of Thokme Sangpo’s famous Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva and Dza Paltrul’s verse distillation of the bodhisattva vows.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of Mahayana Buddhism is what many contemporary writers on Buddhism call the “bodhisattva ideal.” This refers to a spiritual outlook and way of life rooted in a resolute vow and dedicated to the welfare of all sentient beings. This volume features authoritative Tibetan presentations of the ideal based on key Indian Buddhist treatises, especially Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland, Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way and Compendium of Training, Maitreya’s Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, and Asanga’s Bodhisattva Ground. Together, the nine Tibetan texts translated here embrace the complete spectrum of the bodhisattva ideal as understood, taught, and practiced in Tibetan Buddhism. From first generating the faith of admiration toward the compassionate teacher, the Buddha, by recollecting his altruistic deeds in former births (jatakas) to generating the awakening mind (bodhicitta) followed by the solemn act of taking the bodhisattva vow, from cultivating oneself through everyday mindfulness rooted in an altruistic outlook to the specifics of living life according to the bodhisattva’s moral precepts, and from the initial stages of training in the six perfections to the full flowering of the union of awakening mind with the wisdom seeing things as they are, this volume offers a comprehensive roadmap to making the bodhisattva ideal an animating reality in the practitioner’s own life.
The volume includes celebrated commentaries, including Thokmé Sangpo on Guide to the Bodhisattva Way, Tsongkhapa on the Compendium of Training, Gyaltsab on the Precious Garland (fully translated here), and Chankgya Rolpai Dorje on the bodhisattva precepts. It also contains a lucid structural comparison of Ornament of Mahayana Sutras and the Bodhisattva Ground, along with inspiring verses on the Buddha’s past births, mind training, and the altruistic aspiration. Finally, it contains a fresh translation of Thokme Sangpo’s famous Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva and Dza Paltrul’s verse distillation of the bodhisattva vows.
About the author
Thupten Jinpa was educated in the Tibetan monastic system, where he received the highest degree of geshe lharam at Shartse College of Ganden Monastery. Jinpa also holds a BA in philosophy and a PhD in religious studies, both from the University of Cambridge, England. Since 1985, he has been the principal translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, accompanying him on tours throughout the world and translating and editing many books. Jinpa’s own works include Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Thought, several volumes of translations in The Library of Tibetan Classics, and the modern biography Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows. He is currently the president and the editor-in-chief of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, based in Montreal, and he also chairs the Mind and Life Institute and the Compassion Institute.
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