Text and Translation of the Bhadra-cari-praṇidhānam

I am currently preparing a large book that will include photographs of all 450+ of the Gaṇḍavyūha reliefs from Borobudur, and related materials. This is a very large project that will eventually be published in Bahasa Indonesian and English in Jakarta.

The whole of the inner wall of level 4 on the monument illustrate the text which closes the Gaṇḍavyūha, and which also circulates as a separate text: The Bhadra-cari-praṇidhānam, or The Aspiration for the Good Life, also known as the Bhadra-caryā-praṇidhāna and Samantabhadra-caryā-praṇidhāna.

The Bhadra-cari-praṇidhāna is one of the most important of the Mahāyāna texts, which is recited on a daily basis in many temples and homes throughout East Asia. The text summarises the Bodhicitta and interpenetration (Huayan) teachings in the Mahāyāna.

“The good life” of the title refers not to a comfortable life, as in common English usage, but to a life spent for the benefit of others, as in Buddhist usage.

The text, which consists of 62 verses in the Rucirā metre, is written in a kind of Sanskritised Prakrit, which also occurs in other verses of the Gaṇḍavyūha. I have written a short introduction to some of its features in the Preface to the work.

Besides the Text and Translation, there is also an English Only edition of the translation. Both versions are available in html, pdf, epub and mobi formats.