Written in India in the early eighth century AD, Santideva's BODHICARYAVATARA became one of the most popular accounts of the Buddhist spiritual path.

The BODHICARYAVATARA takes as its subject the profound desire to become a Buddha and save all beings from suffering. The person who enacts such a desire is a Bodhisattva. Santideva not only sets out what the bodhisattva must do and become, he also invokes the intense feelings of aspiration which underlie such a commitment, using language which has inspired Buddhists from his time to the present.

Important as a manual of training among Mahayana Buddhists, especially in theTibetan Buddhist tradition, the BODHICARYAVATARA is still used by modern Buddhist teachers.