Bodhicaryāra Sparknotes

The Bodhicaryāvatāra is one of the most useful guides available on Buddhist ethics being that Śāntideva explains the teachings that a member of the Buddhist faith must know to become a bodhisattva. Among all the teachings included in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Santideva’s teachings on the self are very noteworthy. When Santideva states, “I” he means the soul, he pairs the concept of the soul and mindfulness to deduce “consciousness” Being that the soul paired with mindfulness is what is “conscious”, it is logical for what is “unconscious” to be a soul separated from mindfulness. A reader of the Bodhicaryāvatāra can assume that by “I” Santideva means soul, based on what he says about the body. Santideva believes that the body is not “I” which only leaves the soul as the logical assumption because the body is the shell of the soul. In chapter nine of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Santideva states, “The teeth, hair, or nails are not I, nor is the bone, nor am I the blood, neither the mucus nor the phlegm, not the pus nor the synovial fluid. I am neither the marrow nor the sweat. I am neither the lymph …show more content…
Being conscious requires a person to be aware. In order to be aware, one must be mindful. Considering that “I” is the soul, if “I” is conscious, then this would translate to the soul being mindful. In addition, if we apply this logic to “unconsciousness” it translates to the soul that is not mindful. In confirmation of this claim, Santideva states, “If not being conscious of anything is consciousness, it follows that a block of wood is consciousness. This proves that there is no consciousness in the absence of something to be cognized.” (BCA 9. 61) What must be used in order for something to be cognized is the soul, because it is what makes us animated. Accordingly, in order to access consciousness, the soul must be used to perceive and be