The Bodhisattva Ideal

Selected Key Texts

Thupten Jinpa

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9798890700186
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Message from the Dalai Lama
• Special Acknowledgments
• Publisher’s Acknowledgment
• Contents
• Preface
• Translator’s Introduction
• Technical Note
• Melodies of Mahayana Teaching: Verses Distilling Thirty-Four Birth Stories of the Compassionate Teacher
• An Ocean of Excellent Discourses: A Commentary on Guide to the Bodhisattva Way
• A Concise Summary of the Compendium of Training
• Illuminating the Essential Meaning of the Madhyamaka Text Precious Garland
• Sun Illuminating the Mahayana Path: A Brief Explanation of How to Practice the Bodhisattva Path Based on Combining the Topics of Ornament of Mahayana Sutras and the Bodhisattva Ground
• Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva
• Mahayana Mind Training Aspiring for Others’ Welfare
• Garland of Ambrosial Rays of Altruism: A Concise Presentation of the Bodhisattva Precepts
• A Brief Presentation of Essential Practice of the Bodhisattva Precepts
• Appendix 1. Ārya Maitreya’s Aspirational Prayer
• Appendix 2. Table of Tibetan Transliteration
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Contributors
• Institute of Tibetan Classics
• The Library of Tibetan Classics
• Become a Benefactor of the Library of Tibetan Classics
• About Wisdom Publications
• Copyright