The Great Hum

Dive into an ocean of Buddhist wisdom with this masterful immersion in Shantideva’s well-known guide to the boundless spirit of the bodhisattva. Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryavatara) is without a doubt one of the greatest masterpieces of Indian Buddhism and the single most influential text on Mahayana ethical theory. Since it was composed in the eighth century, it has continuously animated the living tradition—especially in Tibet, but now in the West as well—as more translations have become available. Its poetic evocations of the spirit of awakening allow readers to enter the mind of the bodhisattva. Nineteenth-century master Minyak Kunzang Sonam composed what came to be the most extensive commentary in any language on Shantideva's masterpiece. This commentary came to be known as the Great Hum because it fills the entirety of the third or hum volume of the author’s collected works. Citing