Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara (The Bodhisattva's Way of Life)
We're looking at aspects of love in Buddhism, and we've come to one of the core texts in the Mahayana tradition.
Written at the beginning of the 8th century in the great Buddhist university of Nalanda in the Indian state of Bihar. A tremendous centre of scholarship and learning, along with other Universities like Vikramashila, Odantipura, Valabhi and Taxila, Nalanda had 10,000 students and a teaching staff of 1,500 at its height.
Shantideva's inspired text was written as the Pala dynasty ruled in India, the Tang dynasty thrived in China and sponsored Buddhism there. It was the time of the Umayyad Caliphate conquering Spain, the Carolingian kings establishing themselves in Europe and the Mayan empire flourishing in America.
I'm working with this version by the Padmakara Translation Group:
https://www.shambhala.com/the-way-of-the-bodhisattva-1660.html
If all that reading is too dry for you, you might like these settings of the most famous chapters of the work by Philip Glass in his 5th Symphony:
I've ordered the book, and am truly enjoying the Philip Glass selections. Thank you, Alistair!