Editing Shantideva (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Shantideva.jpg|thumb|Shantideva]]
There are two sources of Shantideva's life composed by the Tibetan historians; [[Buton Rinchen Drub]] and [[Taranatha]]. Recent scholarship has also brought to light a short Sanskrit life of Shantideva in a 14th-century Nepalese manuscript.<ref>{{citation |last=Pezzali |first=Amalia |title=Śāntideva Mystjique buddhiste des VII et VIIIe siècles |location=Florence |publisher=Vallechi Edtore |year=1968}}</ref> 

According to one source, Shantideva was born in the [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurastra]] region (in modern-day [[Gujarat]]), son of a King Kalyanavarman, and went by the name Śantivarman.<ref>{{citation| author=Kunzang Pelden |title=The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech. A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva |page=17 |publisher=Shambala Publications |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59030-439-6}}</ref> But Vibhūticandra's ''Bodhicaryāvatāratātparyapañjikā Viśeṣadyotanī'', the earliest extant biography of Shantideva, details that he was born in [[South India|Southern India]], in the city of Sringara, and his father was a King Mañjuśrīvarman.<ref name=Brill>{{cite journal |last1=Akira |first1=Saito |title=Śāntideva |journal=Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online |date=2015 |doi=10.1163/2467-9666_enbo_COM_2057 |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/ENBO/COM-2057.xml}}</ref> As per Vibhūticandra, Shantideva ran away from home on the advice of his mother and travelled to [[Bengal]] and then [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]]. He served in the court of a Magadhan king and after leaving, arrived in [[Nalanda]]. During his stay in Nalanda, he was given the nickname, Bhūsuku due to his practice of [[Samadhi]].<ref name= Brill />

According to [[Pema Chödrön]], "Shantideva was not well-liked at Nalanda" due to his idleness.<ref name="chodron">{{cite web|title=Cutting Ties: The Fruits of Solitude|url=http://tricycle.org/magazine/cutting-ties-fruits-solitude |publisher=[[Tricycle: The Buddhist Review]]|access-date=28 October 2015}}</ref>

{{quote|Apparently he was one of those people who didn't show up for anything, never studying or coming to practice sessions. His fellow monks said that his three "realizations" were eating, sleeping, and shitting.<ref name="chodron"/>}}

According to legend, Shantideva was goaded by his fellow monks into giving a talk to the entire university body while sitting on a large lion throne with the hope that on being exposed as unable to recite any scriptures, he would leave the monastery on his own accord. Shantideva easily climbed the throne and recited stanza 9.35 of ''[[Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra|The Way of the Bodhisattva]]''.<ref name="chodron"/> The legend continues that at this point, the [[bodhisattva]] [[Manjushri]] appeared and then suddenly disappeared together with Shantideva. Following this event, when the monks investigated his cells, they discovered his three works, the Sūtrasamuccaya, the Śikṣāsamuccaya, and the completed Bodhicaryāvatāra.<ref name= Brill />

===Conversionary activities in Magadha===
[[Buton Rinchen Drub|Bu Ston]] details several tales from Shantideva's life which detail how he converted 500 Magadhans to Buddhism. It is said that Shantideva lived alongside the non-Buddhists while they were experiencing a natural disaster which led to them suffering from [[starvation]]. As he was appointed the head of these people, Shantideva demonstrated his supernatural abilities as he managed to make a single bowl of [[rice]] suffice for all of the 500. Similar stories are found in other sources detailing how Santideva would feed hundreds of beggars.<ref name= Brill />