Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: Chapter 5; Guarding Alertness

by Gelek Rimpoche

Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Chapter FiveOh you who wish to guard your mind,I beseech you with folded exert yourselves to guardMindfulness and alertness!The Bodhisattvacharyavatara is among the most beloved and inspiring works in the Mahayana tradition. Kyabje Gehlek Rinpoche’s oral explanations of each verse provide us with the key to unlock the hidden treasures of this practical manual of training and inspiration that reveals how Bodhisattvas deal with their lives, and how we can learn to do the same.In Chapter Five, Shantideva shows us the importance of mindfulness and alertness in restraining the wild elephant of our untamed mind and maintaining our commitment to Bodhimind and the activities of Bodhisattvas.

469 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2003

About the author

Kyabjé Gelek Rimpoche (Tibetan: དགེ་ལེགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: Skyabs-rje Dge-legs Rin-po-che) is tulku (incarnate lama) of Drepung Monastic University, where he received the scholastic degree of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree given within the Gelug tradition.

Gelek is a nephew of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He was tutored by many of the same masters as the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

In 1959, Gelek fled to India from Tibet and gave up monastic life. He is the founder and president of Jewel Heart, "a spiritual, cultural, and humanitarian organization that translates the ancient wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism into contemporary life." Beat-poet Allen Ginsberg was among the more prominent of Jewel Heart's members.