Shantideva

8th Century Indian Buddhist monk

Shantideva was an eighth-century Indian Buddhist monk and is among the most renowned and esteemed figures in the entire history of Mahayana Buddhism. His Holiness the Dalai Lama comments that the Bodhicaryavatara (Bodhisattva Way of Life) his classic treatise, is the primary source of most of the Tibetan Buddhist literature on the cultivation of altruism and the Spirit of Awakening.