title: Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta
author: Khunu Rinpoche
description: "...a classic, in the tradition of Shantideva's great masterpiece, The Way of the Bodhisattva." -- <i>Matthieu Ricard, author of The Monk and the Philosopher</i><br /><br />"To hold in your hands Khunu Rinpoche's own words on bodhicitta is to be given a priceless opportunity-of touching the heart of a master who had made it the guiding light of his entire life." -- <i>Sogyal Rinpoche</i><br /><br />"Whenever I think of [Khunu Rinpoche], I always say to myself, 'This is what St. Francis of Assisi must have been like.'" -- <i>Sogyal Rinpoche, from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying</i><br /><br />"[Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea] is extremely inspiring and very poetic, very sweet and pleasing to read, like drinking nectar or eating cream." -- <i>Lama Zopa Rinpoche</i>
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  Voyage to India  
    
  
  
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  # Voyage to India
  
  
  ### Athanasius Nikitin of Twer
  
  
  ##### translated by Count Wielhorski
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By the prayer of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
  
  
  have mercy upon me, Thy sinful servant, Athanasius, son of Nikita.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is, as I wrote it, my sinful wandering beyond the three seas: the
  
  
  first, the sea of Derbend--Doria Khvalitskaia; the second, the India
  
  
  Sea--Doria Hondustanskaia; the third, the Black Sea--Doria Stembolskaia. I
  started from the church of our holy Saviour of Zlatoverkh, with the
  
  
  kind permission of the Grand-Duke Michael Borissowich and the bishop
  
  
  Gennadius of Twer; went down the Volga, came to the convent of the holy
  
  
  life-giving Trinity, and the holy shrines of Boris and Gleb the martyrs; and
  
  
  received the blessi