Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice

José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara:
Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice has inspired Buddhist scholars and practitioners for more than a millennium. Dozens of commentaries have been written—and continue to be written—on this great work. In the last two decades European and American scholars have seriously engaged Śāntideva's work and its commentaries from many different perspectives, exploring its philological, ethical, metaphysical, and ritual dimensions, and analyzing the role it has played in Buddhist self-cultivation. This marvelous collection of essays, written by the very best Śāntideva scholars in the world, provides readers with a much-needed overview of state-of-the-art scholarship on the Guide. Sophisticated yet concise and accessible, this book is an indispensable resource for those of us who have pondered—or lost ourselves in—Śāntideva's beautiful poem.

Owen Flanagan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy, Duke University:
Śāntideva's Guide is a poem, a liturgy, a meditation manual, a phenomenology of mind, a moral psychology, an explication of the distinctive Buddhist virtues, and an invitation to the Mahāyāna way of life. Gold and Duckworth’s volume is a set of essays by brilliant contemporary philosophers and religious studies scholars that provides deep and sensitive readings of this great text. Śāntideva comes alive for the twenty-first century in these pages.

Peter Singer, author of The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically:
Anyone familiar with Western ethical thinking, but not with the Indian Buddhist tradition or with Śāntideva’s remarkable text, will have much to learn from the connections made in this volume between these distinct ways of thinking about ethics.

This book is an inspirational introduction to be read along with the text itself.

This volume offers its readers valuable insights into the multifaceted literary gem that is the Guide by bringing to bear the expertise of some of the most prominent scholars in Buddhist Studies. Overall, the results serve as an excellent introduction to the multidimensional textual history of the Guide, argue convincingly for the continued importance of the text in the world today, and demonstrate the value of higher literary criticism for Buddhist Studies.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
For more than a thousand years Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice has been a profound source of inspiration for Tibetan Buddhists. It was one of the six basic texts of Atiśa’s Kadam tradition. When teaching it to me, Khunu Lama Rinpoché told me that no other book explains the awakening mind of bodhicitta, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, as effectively as this. Śāntideva describes how a self-centered attitude gives rise to disturbing emotions like anger and fear, but also how they can be countered by altruism and warm-heartedness. He shows how we can tackle our mental afflictions and achieve peace of mind, something that can be of benefit to everyone. The Guide is a book I read, I teach, and keep with me. The readings presented in this volume make clear how much of Śāntideva's advice can be of interest and benefit to readers today.

Amy Paris Langenberg:
[A] rich volume.

Stephen Harris:
This is an exceptional collection which not only provides a useful teaching tool for the classroom, but also makes significant conceptual advances to our understanding of the Guide. I warmly recommend it for any serious student of Śāntideva’s thought.

Highly recommended.