Bhāvanākrama
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The Bhāvanākrama (Bhk, "cultivation process" or "stages of meditation";
vipashyana in Tibetan Buddhism and have been "enormously influential".[1] The texts survive in full Tibetan translation, part 1 and 3 also survive in Sanskrit.[1] The Bhāvanākramas are also one of the favorite texts of the 14th Dalai Lama, who has translated and written a commentary on the middle Bhk.[2]
Outline
According to Martin T. Adam "taken as a whole the Bhāvanākramas appear to constitute a kind of apology or justification for a gradualist approach to the Mahayana Buddhist goal of Awakening."Sravakayana.
The first book consists of a summary of Mahayana doctrine and teachings and the three kinds of wisdom (associated with study, thinking and meditation), the second book focuses on cultivation (
prajña).[1] Kamalashila opens the first book by stating: "The Bhāvanākramas is briefly set forth with regard to the regulation of conduct of a beginner in the Mahayana sutras."[1] Other important topics include compassion, bodhicitta, and the Bodhisattva stages
.
An overview of the path outlined by Kamalashila is as follows:[4]
- Meditation on great compassion
- Generation of bodhicitta
- Importance of practice
- Practicing samatha
- Practicing vipassana
- Accumulation of merit
- Practice of skillful means
- Attainment of wisdomand compassion.
English Translations
- Stephen Beyer (1974), Bhk 1.
- Yen. Geshe Sopa (1998, with Yen. Elvin Jones and John Newman), Bhk 2.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2001, trans. Yen. Geshe Lobsang Jorhen, Losang Choephel Ganchenpa, and Jeremy Russell), Bhk 2.
- Thrangu Rinpoche, Essential Practice: Lectures on Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation (2002), Bhk 2.
- Robert F. Olson and Masao Ichishima (1979), Bhk 2.
- Parmananda Sharma (1997), Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśila (full translation of all three books).
See also
- Buddhist meditation
- Mahayana
- Samatha
- Vipassana
Sources
- ^ a b c d e f g Adam, Martin T. Meditation and the Concept of Insight in Kamalashila's Bhavanakramas, 2002
- ^ Dalai Lama, Stages of meditation.
- ^ Min Bahadur Shakya; Bhavanakrama: Acarya Kamalashila's views on the path to Buddhist Enlightenment, Nagarjuna Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal
- ^ Min Bahadur Shakya; Bhavanakrama: Acarya Kamalashila's views on the path to Buddhist Enlightenment, Nagarjuna Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal