We are excited to have Matthew Blake present on the role of the Bodhisattva. Matthew Blake is a graduate of Yale Divinity School, where his studies focused on comparative theology and Buddhist-Christian dialogue. He was also one of our students in our course on Asian Religions and Ecology. The title of his presentation, as you can see, is "Religious Ecology in Shantideva's Bodhicharyāvatāra." In his lecture, Matthew describes the rich ecological vision of the eighth-century Buddhist monk Shantideva, author of the Bodhicharyāvatāra, or The Way of the Bodhisattva. He describes Shantideva's, inclusive vision of a Bodhisattva, or an awakened being, who vows to liberate all sentient beings from suffering. For Shantideva, all beings have the capacity for supreme awakening, and the natural world is an ideal place for the cultivation of dharma, or the teachings of the Buddha. Matthew's lecture offers a remarkable glimpse into the religious ecology of one of the most influential figures of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. We hope you enjoy the talk. My name is Matthew Blake and I am a graduate student at Yale Divinity School. Today I would like to discuss religious ecology in Shantideva's Bodhicharyāvatāra. I'd like to begin by sharing this statement from the 17th Karmapa, a very important leader in the Tibetan Buddhist community. The quote goes, "If there were such a role as a Buddhist saint of ecology, I would nominate the great Indian scholar Shantideva." This presentation is really an exploration of this claim, and we're going to discuss why it is that Shantideva really is a Buddhist saint of ecology. Who was Shantideva? He lived from the late seventh to the mid-eighth century CE in India and he was a Buddhist monk, philosopher, and poet. When Shantideva was a student at Nalanda University in India, he was known to be a very lazy monk. A lot of his classmates believed that the only three things he could do were sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom. So one day they decided they wanted to expose Shantideva's laziness. They invited Shantideva into the lecture room and they invited him to sit on a very high platform, and he asked them, "Do you want me to recite something new or something old?" Those in the audience said, 'Well, we'll hear something new." Shantideva proceeded to recite the entire Bodhicharyāvatāra, which some would translate as "The Way of the Bodhisattva." It is a philosophical poem that explores the Six Perfections; generosity, moral discipline, patience, perseverance, meditative stability, and wisdom. These are all virtues one must cultivate on the path to becoming a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is an awakened being who has vowed to liberate all sentient beings from their suffering. One of my favorite Buddhist teachers, Pema Chodron, defines Bodhisattvahood as "having an open heart amidst adversity and suffering." To be a Bodhisattva means you're there for the people in your life and your heart is open to them, and by cultivating these Six Perfections, you're really opening your heart to the world. In this image here we see Shantideva is actually floating above his seat. Legend says, or the hagiography says, that at a certain point in the poem, Shantideva actually began to levitate. And I just want to quickly turn to this part of the poem. "When something and its nonexistence, both are absent from before the mind. No other option does the latter have. It comes to perfect rest from concepts free." This is the point at which Shantideva began to levitate. These lines are really an expression of the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness. That things neither have fixed essence, nor do they not exist. It's a middle way between eternalism and nihilism. It is said that after he recited this, he began to float and he continued to float until he was no longer visible. He ascended into the sky, and the rest of the poem was actually spoken by the sky. I think this part of the story has a religious ecological dimension because it's as if the world itself is reciting the poem, which is to say that this poem, the wisdom expressed in this poem, is in deep accord with the world as it is. I also think the fact that he is levitating suggests the spacious kind of being one can have in the world as one enters into the wisdom of Buddhism, that one has a certain lightness in the world. The three examples of religious ecology that we're going to examine in this text are the nature visualizations offered to Buddhas and Bodhisattva's. The natural world as the ideal place for Dharmic training, and the ethical imperative against harming all life, but specifically animal life. We'll start in Chapter 2, in which Shantideva offers his confession, and he begins by making an offering. He says, "To the Buddhas, those thus gone, and to the sacred Dharma, spotless and supremely rare, and to the Buddha's offspring, oceans of good qualities that I might gain this precious attitude, I make a perfect offering. I offer every fruit and flower, every kind of healing draft, and all the precious gems the world contains, with all pure waters of refreshment. Every mountain wrought of precious jewels, all sweet and lonely forest groves. The trees of paradise adorned with blossom, trees with branches bowed with perfect fruit. The perfumed fragrance of divine in other realms, all incense, wishing trees and trees of gems, all crops that grow without the tiller's care, and every sumptuous object worthy to be offered. Lakes and meres adorned with lotuses, delightful with the sweet-voiced cries of waterbirds, and everything unclaimed and free extending to the margins of the boundless sky. I hold them all before my mind, and to the mighty sage, the greatest of our kind and to his heirs, I make a perfect offering. Sublime recipients, compassionate lords, o think of me with love, accept these gifts of mine." So what Shantideva has just done is he's imagined all of these aspects of the natural world, and he's summoned them in his mind and he's offered them to these great beings in the Buddhist tradition. I think this is an example of religious ecology because this practice of visualizing aspects of the natural world and then offering them allows one to cultivate a deep sense of intimacy with the world. One begins to see aspects of the natural world, lakes, mountains, flowers, not merely as objects for human use, but as gifts. This practice allows one to cultivate that sense that these aspects of the natural world are precious things to be offered, not merely things for human beings to use and abuse. The next example of religious ecology in this text relates to Shantideva's emphasis on environments with a smaller human footprint as being ideal places for Dharmic training. In Chapter 8, he says, "In woodlands, haunt of stag and bird, among the trees where no dissension jars, it's there, I would keep pleasant company. When might I be off to make my dwelling there?" He's suggesting to us that environments with a smaller human footprint are less marked by things like dissension and that stags and birds, these are all pleasant company. He's really inviting us to consider the natural world as an ideal place to achieve a certain peace of mind that is so important on the Buddhist path. He continues, "When might I abide in such a place, a place unclaimed and ownerless, that's wide and unconfined, a place where I might stay at liberty, without attachment?" Again, he's suggesting that in the natural world, it's easier to live without attachment. There are less things to grasp and cling to, and grasping and clinging are energies within us that the Buddhist tries to overcome and work through in order to open more space in the heart for love and joy to be shared with other sentient beings. He continues, "When might I be free of fear without the need to hide from anyone, with just a begging bowl and few belongings dressed in garments coveted by none?" In an environment with a smaller human footprint, Shantideva doesn't have to be anyone. He doesn't feel the burden of needing to conform or needing to please. He can be free of fear, and again, those are all important skills if one is to proceed along the path. In Chapter 10, he says, "From birdsong and the sighing of the trees, from shafts of light and from the sky itself. May living beings, each and every one perceive the constant sound of Dharma." In the preceding slides, we've seen that Shantideva is arguing that environments with smaller human footprints are ideal for dharmic training. For cultivating the key skills and techniques in the Buddhist tradition. Here he's upping the ante by suggesting that these specific aspects of the natural environment, the singing of the birds, the sighing of trees, light, the sky itself. In all of these aspects of the natural world, one can actually hear the Dharma. It's an interesting question to consider. How exactly does birdsong reflect the essential Buddhist truth? How does the sky, how do the trees, have delight? Well, all of these aspects of the natural world are very fleeting, but they're also very beautiful. That's the basic Buddhist intuition, is that everything is subject to impermanence. But that's actually what makes things meaningful and that's what makes things beautiful. The basic Buddhist project is trying to come to terms with the fact that things change and to accept that's all right and that joy and happiness can still be found in the world. The third example of religious ecology in this text relates to Shantideva's imperatives against harming life, specifically animal life. In Chapter 5, he says, "Where could beings, fishes and the rest be placed to keep them safe from being killed? Deciding to refrain from every harmful act is said to be transcendent discipline." Then in Chapter 8, "Wishing to relieve our bodies' ills, our hungry mouths, the dryness of our throats. We steal the lives of fishes, birds, and deer, and lie in wait along the road." An important part of being a Bodhisattva is refraining from every harmful act. Shantideva isn't just thinking of harmful acts between human beings. He's also thinking of the ways in which human beings inflict harm on animal life. Here he's really calling us to question, what is our relationship with animal life? What does it mean to steal the lives of birds, deers, and fishes for our consumption? He's really asking us to consider how we eat and how we engage with animal life. In Chapter 5 he says, "Eat only what is needful." Now, the question of food consumption is very complicated. There are complicated questions about access and who has the ability to eat well or to eat a plant-based diet. From Shantideva's perspective, we should really consider: what does needful eating mean? What does it mean to eat within limits? From his perspective, it means refraining from consuming animals. But it's important for us to consider in our particular context, what do we need to eat? What does benevolent eating mean? What does benevolent food consumption mean in our particular community? He says in Chapter 7, "Oh, but how could I become enlightened? Don't excuse yourself with such despondency. The Buddha who declares the truth has truly spoken and proclaimed that even if they bring forth strength of perseverance, even bees and flies and gnats and grubs will gain supreme enlightenment, so hard to find." In the preceding slides, Shantideva has really asked us to consider, what is our relationship to animal life and to food and to eating? Here, again, he's upping the ante by suggesting that bees, flies, gnats, grubs, these very small examples of animal life. How these beings have the capacity for supreme enlightenment. Now, in other parts of the Buddhist tradition, we see a more critical perspective on the capacity of animals to achieve awakening. But here, Shantideva is setting the Buddha who has made this really grand claim about the capacity of animal life, to achieve supreme enlightenment. This perspective leads us to consider: if these types of beings truly can achieve this level of spiritual awakening, how then should I engage with them? How then should I interact with them in my daily life? In this presentation, we've looked at three examples of religious ecology. We've looked at the nature visualizations offered to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the natural world as the ideal place for dharmic training, and Shantideva's ethical imperative against harming animal life.
