No Time to Lose

We don’t know much about Shantideva. We do know that the author of How to Lead an Awakened Life (Bodhicaryavatara)—the text from which these verses are drawn—lived in the 8th century and taught at Nalanda University, which was in the present-day state of Bihar in eastern India. From its founding in the 5th century until its destruction in the late 12th century, it was the largest, most cosmopolitan university in the world, and its ruins, even though only partly excavated, are dramatic.

Regarding Shantideva, we have only legend. Here is the story of his life that we find in Buddhist canonical literature: Shantideva had a reputation for being very lazy. His colleagues said of him that all he did was eat, sleep, and shit. So one day, in order to embarrass him publicly, they invited him to give a talk in the main lecture hall to a huge assembly of students and scholars. He asked them whether they wanted him to talk about something old or to present some new ideas. They asked for the latter.

On the appointed day, Shantideva settled on the high teaching throne and recited the poetic text of How to Lead an Awakened Life. Upon concluding the lecture (and wowing the audience with what was to become one of the most beloved texts of the Mahayana—the Great Vehicle—tradition), he rose into the air and flew from the lecture hall, disappearing into space, never to be seen again. When some of his fellow monks went to his room, they found two books: How to Lead an Awakened Life and its companion reader, A Student’s Anthology (Shikshasamuccaya).

How to Lead an Awakened Life is one of the most beloved and frequently taught texts in the Indo-Tibetan Mahayana tradition. It is a favorite of the present Dalai Lama, and he often teaches it in public. It is the most systematic presentation of ethical thought in that tradition and is composed in beautiful poetry that appeals to scholars and to laypeople alike. The topic of the text is the life of a bodhisattva (a person committed to attaining awakening for the benefit of all beings) represented as a path of ethical cultivation leading to awakening.

The bodhisattva’s commitment, called bodhicitta (the resolve to awaken), is the hallmark of the Mahayana practitioner. In a religious context, such a person resolves to attain the status of a buddha—to become omniscient and supremely skillful—and, instead of leaving existence in order to enter into nirvana, to remain in order to help others become liberated from the suffering of life. This resolve is motivated by the attitude of care (karuna), which is one of the four “divine moral attributes” in Buddhist moral theory. (The others are friendliness, impartiality, and the ability to rejoice in the success of others.) Care in this sense is the commitment to relieve suffering.

But all this does not mean that this text is only of use to serious Buddhist practitioners. It speaks to all of us. We can understand this aspiration in a more modern, secular vein as the resolve to become the most effective agents possible for the betterment of the world and for the relief of suffering. Shantideva’s core insight is that because there is so much suffering in the world, and because its alleviation is often so difficult, if we are to become effective, caring agents for the improvement of life, we must assiduously cultivate ourselves as moral agents—that is, the first step to solving the problems of the world is to conquer our own psychopathologies and to become better, more caring people. And that insight speaks to us just as it did to medieval Buddhist monks in India. This book is about how to become that kind of moral agent.

Shantideva begins by reminding himself—and inviting us to remind ourselves—of the urgency of the moral task at hand. This task is that of transforming ourselves from ordinary agents of suffering into agents for the relief of suffering, or replacing our egocentric orientation to the world with a caring orientation to everyone. This is no mean feat. And, Shantideva asks us to remind ourselves, our lives are limited. We are urged to remember that we now have the opportunity to undertake this transformative journey. We don’t know how long our lives will be or what misfortunes we may encounter later that may make it difficult to make real moral progress. So there is no time to lose!

The verses drawn from the beginning of chapter 1 emphasize the value of the opportunity we have—life, good health, and time to devote ourselves to contemplation and self-improvement. Verses 1.15 and 1.16 introduce us to the difference between merely thinking about becoming agents of change and actually doing so. And the verses drawn from chapter 2 bring us face-to-face with our own imminent demise. This may seem morbid, but Shantideva wants to remind us that to fail to think about our own death is to fail to recognize the most important aspect of our life; to keep death in the forefront of our consciousness is not only realistic and healthy but also the best motivation for seizing the time we have.

In a classical Indian context, such as that in which Shantideva lived, many people would think of this motivation in terms of karma and rebirth. Karma literally means “action,” yet can also mean “the effects of action.” So, to talk about karma is to talk about action and its effects. Taken literally, belief in rebirth is the belief that after death, another being psychologically connected to us will be born and will experience the effects of actions we have performed. Those who take this view seriously will want to make sure that while alive, they perform effects that will have positive results for their successors.

But we don’t have to think this way to take karma and the future seriously. The actions we perform now all have effects after our deaths. How we travel and heat our houses will affect the lives of those who come after us; whether we work for peace or make war will have effects after our death; how we raise our children will also have such effects. So, we don’t have to think about the future in terms of personal rebirth in order to care about it. These verses urge us to take our mortality seriously because we only have so much time to make sure that our lives are not harmful but beneficial to those who come after us, and they urge us to take seriously the long-term consequences of whatever we do.

–Jay L. Garfield

1.4
It is so hard to find the time and tools I need
To help those with whom I share this world.
If I don’t seize the chance now,
It may never arise again!

1.5
Just as a thunderbolt
Can light a dark cloudy night for an instant,
An awakened being can sometimes
Inspire people to do the right thing.

1.6
Virtue is so feeble;
Vice is so powerful and terrible!
How can good ever triumph over evil
Without the resolve to awaken?

1.8
If I want to vanquish the suffering of the world,
Relieve the suffering of all beings,
And find true joy in life
I must never abandon the resolve to awaken!

1.15
In brief, there are two kinds
Of resolve to awaken:
Aspirational resolve
And engaged resolve.

1.16
Just as you can tell the difference between
One who is planning a trip and one who has been there,
A smart person can tell
The difference between these two kinds of resolve.

2.32
Death may overtake me
While I am still consumed by vice!
How can I escape this fate?
Somebody, please help me!

2.33
Death arrives like a bolt of lightning,
He doesn’t care what I have done or left undone.
Neither the healthy nor the ailing
Should ever trust such an enemy!

2.34
I have done terrible things,
Both for friends and to enemies.
And I have never even thought,
“When I die, I will leave them all behind.”

2.37
In my own lifetime, I have seen
friends and enemies pass away.
But the misdeeds I have done for their sake
Remain behind and continue to fester.

2.38
Still, I have not noticed
That I, too, am ephemeral.
Because of attraction, aversion, and confusion,
I have done many terrible things.

2.41
Of what use are friends and family
When I am in the arms of the minions of death?
Only my virtue can help me then,
And so far, I haven’t cultivated it!

2.58
So it makes no sense for me to relax and say,
“I won’t die today.”
It is certain that the time will come
When I will no longer exist.

2.61
I will say goodbye to kith and kin,
And to the land of the living.
Since I will depart alone,
What good are friends and foes to me even now?

2.62
The only thing that it makes sense to ask,
Day and night, is this:
How can I avoid the suffering
Caused by a vicious life?

♦

From How to Be Caring by Shantideva, selected, translated, and introduced by Jay L. Garfield (2025), published by Princeton University Press and reprinted here by permission.