August 20, 2026

Remain Until It Ends

For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world.

Shantideva was an eighth-century monk-scholar at Nalanda monastery in India, and this verse closes his long poem on the bodhisattva path, the Bodhicaryavatara. Having spent the whole text training the mind in patience, generosity, and wisdom, he ends by dedicating everything he has gained to beings who are still suffering. The line is a vow: not to escape into private peace, but to stay in the world as long as any being still hurts. In this tradition, lovingkindness is not a mood but a trained capacity, built by wishing beings well in stages — oneself first, then loved ones, then strangers, then the people hardest to bear. Shantideva's vow is the far edge of that practice: compassion stretched wide enough to include everyone, with no one left out.

A principle of Eastern Wisdom: Compassion and Lovingkindness →