Śāntideva
A figure from the books
#Shantideva
Śāntideva · c. 685–763 CE
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy and poetry — a monk of Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka school, author of the Bodhicaryāvatāra and the Śikṣāsamuccaya.
“The monk his classmates wrote off as good for nothing but eating and sleeping stood up, on a dare meant to humiliate him, and recited the most beloved poem Buddhism has ever produced — including an argument for caring about strangers' suffering that Europe would not match for a thousand years.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“Pain is bad no matter whose it is. Look closely and suffering has no owner at all — so the only honest response is to fight all of it, anyone's, as if it were your own.”
From the book
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