bodhichitta

Bodhichitta (Skt. bodhicitta; Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་, chang chub kyi sem, Wyl. byang chub kyi sems) is the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

Because I believe that I will be reborn again and again until my duality mind is exhausted . . . Because I believe that all sentient beings have been my parents since I have been reborn countless times . . . Because I believe your teaching that we must have compassion for all sentient beings . . . I would like to develop bodhichitta, the essence of all your teachings, which can be increased in three ways:

Like  a  king,  with  the  confidence  of  his  power,  who  caringly

benefits his subjects. In this way, before helping others, I could first attain enlightenment for myself and then, with absolute confidence, benefit all sentient beings to attain enlightenment after me.

Like  the  captain  of  a  ship  who,  with  more  caring  than  the

king, sails with his passengers and crew until they reach the other shore together. In this way, all sentient beings and myself could attain enlightenment at the same time.

Like  a  shepherd  who,  with  supreme  caring,  greater  than  the

king’s and the sea captain’s, encourages his flock to move ahead of him and guards the safety of each one until they all reach their destination. In this way, while I myself remain in samsara’s suffering, I could help all sentient beings attain enlightenment before me.

Please,  may  you  reveal  to  me  which  of  these  three  ways  is  most

suitable for my faculties.

— [[A Brief Fantasy History of a Himalayan - Autobiographical Reflections]] by [[Thinley Norbu]]

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Buddhist scholars have debated whether bodhichitta is to be categorized as the 'main mind' (tso sem) or a 'mental state' (sem jung). Asanga and Vasubandhu were among those claiming it is a mental state, while Arya Vimuktasena and Haribhadra believe that it is the main mind. In his Light on the 25,000 Verses (Tib. ཉི་ཁྲིད་སྣང་བ་, nyi khrid snang ba), Arya Vimuktasena specifies that it is the mental consciousness (Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, yid kyi rnam shes).

| thumb | [[Arya Vimuktisena]]

| thumb | [[Shantideva, author of the Bodhicharyavatara]]

(In The Words of My Perfect Teacher this is called Classification based on the three degrees of courage) (Three degrees of courage - Tib. བློ་སྟོབས་ཀྱི་ཁྱད་པར་གྱིས་དབྱེ་ན་གསུམ་ཡོད་དེ། Wyl. blo stobs kyi khyad par gyis dbye na gsum yod de)

the king's way of arousing bodhichitta, with the great wish, is the intention to first attain Buddhahood oneself and then lead others to it. It is the least courageous of the three. (Tib. དང་པོ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་འདོད་ཆེན་པོའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ་བློ་སྟོབས་ཐ་མ་ཡིན། Wyl. dang po rgyal pol ta bu ni ‘dod chen po’i sems bskyed ces bya ste blo stobs tha ma yin)

the boatman's way of arousing bodhichitta, with sacred wisdom, is the intention to achieve Buddhahood at the same time as all sentient beings. It is more courageous. (Tib. གཉིས་པ་མཉན་པ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི། ཡེ་ཤེས་དམ་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ། བློ་སྟོབས་འབྲིང་པོ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། Wyl. gnyis pa mnyan pa lta bu ni]] | ye shes dam pa’i sems bskyed ces bya ste | blo stobs ‘bring po yin zhing | the shepherd's way of arousing bodhichitta, beyond compare, is the intention to bring all beings to Buddhahood ahead of oneself. It is the most courageous of all ( Tib. རྫི་བོ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་དཔེ་མེད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ། ཤིན་ཏུ་བློ་སྟོབས་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ལྡན་པ། Wyl. ''rdzi bo lta bu’i dpe med pa’i sems bskyed ces bya ste | shin tub lo stobs chen po dang ldan pa'') ===Four Types of Bodhichitta According to the Paths and Levels=== Bodhichitta can also be divided according to the [[five paths and ten bhumis:
bodhichitta of aspiring conduct (Tib. མོས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. mos pas spyod pa'i sems bskyed ) (path of accumulation onwards)
bodhichitta of pure noble intention (Tib. ལྷག་བསམ་རྣམ་དག་གི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. lhag bsam rnam dag gi sems bskyed) (first bhumi onwards)
bodhichitta of full maturation (Tib. རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. rnam par smin pa'i sems bskyed ) (eighth bhumi onwards)
bodhichitta free from all obscurations (Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་སྤངས་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. sgrib pa spangs pa'i sems bskyed ) (at the level of buddhahood)

There is also a division into twenty-two similes of bodhichitta, and the Sagaramatiparipriccha Sutra (Tib. བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ་, Wyl. blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa'i mdo) mentions a classification according to eighty inexhaustibles which are discussed in Mipham Rinpoche's Khenjuk.

| thumb | left | [[Patrul Rinpoche courtesy of Shechen Monastery]]

Patrul Rinpoche says<ref>Translation on Lotsawahouse:

</ref> that the training in bodhichitta has three elements:

training in the cause by meditating on the four immeasurables,
the actual training, which is to practise taking the bodhisattva vow | vow of bodhichitta three times during the day and three times at night,
and the training in the precepts, the meditations on equalizing and exchanging yourself and others, and consider others as more important than yourself.

The actual training in bodhichitta is to take the vow of bodhichitta by means of any formal practice—whether elaborate, medium or short—at the six times of the day and night, i.e., at dawn, mid-morning, midday, afternoon, dusk and midnight.

'Equalizing self and others’ means recognizing the equality of yourself and others in wishing to find happiness and wishing to avoid suffering.
‘Exchanging self and others’ means giving your own happiness to other sentient beings, and taking their suffering upon yourself.
‘Considering others as more important than yourself’ means setting aside your own benefit and accomplishing the benefit of others.

If you apply yourself to these practices, Patrul Rinpoche says, then you will never forget the mind of bodhichitta in all your future lives, and all the qualities of the bhumis and paths will develop and increase like the waxing moon.

In a Dzogchen context, especially in the teachings of the category of mind, bodhichitta is used to refer to the awakened mind, or rigpa. In Chapter 12 of the Treasury of the Dharmadhatu<ref>see the Seven Treasuries</ref>, Longchenpa explains the literal meaning of bodhichitta in Dzogchen:

{]] | f7f7e7;" cellspacing="5" border="0" text-align:left,top" | + | valign="top" | There has never been any flaw, and so, untainted by [[samsara, it is pure (Tib. བྱང་, chang). :Enlightened qualities are present spontaneously, and therefore, beyond cause and effect, it is consummate (Tib. ཆུབ་, chub). :In essence it is self-aware pure luminosity, and therefore it is mind (Tib. སེམས་, sem)— :Within this bodhichitta, the awakened mind, utterly pure, all is contained. ]] | valign="top" | བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་སུ་ཀུན་འདུས་རྣམ་པར་དག །</big> | Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་འགྲེལ་པ།, [[Wyl. chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod ces bya ba'i 'grel pa), see the entry for Treasury of Dharmadhatu.</ref> on the verse:

{]] | f7f7e7;" cellspacing="5" border="0" text-align:left,top" | + | valign="top" | It is mind (སེམས་, ''sem'') because its compassionate responsiveness is all-pervasive and extends throughout all samsara and nirvana, and it is [[clear light; and because it arises as our own individual self-knowing rigpa.“ ]] | valign="top" | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཏུ་གནས་པས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཅིང་འོད་གསལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དང་སོ་སོ་རང་རིག་པར་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་སེམས་ཞེས་བྱའོ། །</big> | } ==Benefits of Bodhichitta== The Sutra [[The Questions of the Householder Viradatta praises Bodhichitta: :If the merits of the resolve for awakening :Were to assume physical form, :They would fill the whole expanse of space :And exceed even that.

:If someone were to fill with jewels :As many buddha fields as there are grains of sand :In the Ganges River, :As an offering to the Protector of the World,

:This offering would be surpassed :When someone with joined palms :Directs their resolve toward awakening, :Because that does not have a limit.<ref>https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-043-009.html#UT22084-043-009-128</ref>

The Sutra of the Arborescent Array sums up: :In brief, the qualities and benefits of bodhichitta are as numerous as all the Buddha’s teachings and the qualities of buddhahood. Why is that? Because all the maṇḍalas of bodhisattvas arise from this, and all the tathagatas who have appeared in the past, those who will appear in the future, and those who are appearing at present, are born from this.<ref>Shechen Gyaltsap, A chariot to freedom: guidance from the great masters on the Vajrayana preliminary practices, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, Ch. 10 (Boulder: Shambhala, 2021)</ref>

In the Bodhisattva’s Scriptural Collection it is said: :Shāriputra, if bodhisattva mahāsattvas possess one teaching, they will completely hold these teachings of the Buddha and infinite others. What is that one teaching? It is this: the perfect attitude that is the mind set on enlightenment. Shāriputra, if bodhisattva mahāsattvas possess this one teaching, they will completely hold these teachings of the Buddha and infinite others.<ref>Ibid.</ref>

Shantideva praises Bodhichitta in the Bodhicharyavatara as follows: :It is the supreme elixir :That overcomes the sovereignty of death. :It is the inexhaustible treasure :That eliminates poverty in the world.

:It is the supreme medicine :That quells the world’s disease. :It is the tree that shelters all beings :Wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence.

:It is the universal bridge :That leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth. :It is the dawning moon of the mind :That dispels the torment of disturbing conceptions.

:It is the great sun that finally removes :The misty ignorance of the world.<ref>Chapter 3, verses 29-32 (translation by Stephen Batchelor)</ref>

Sogyal Rinpoche wrote: :When you meditate deeply on compassion, a realization dawns in you that the only way for you to be of complete help to other beings is for you to gain enlightenment. From that a strong sense of determination and universal responsibility is born, and the compassionate wish arises in you at that moment to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all others. :This compassionate wish is called Bodhichitta in Sanskrit; bodhi means our enlightened essence, and chitta means heart. So we could translate it as “the heart of our enlightened mind.” To awaken and develop the heart of the enlightened mind is to ripen steadily the seed of our buddha nature, that seed that in the end, when our practice of compassion has become perfect and all-embracing, will flower majestically into buddhahood. Bodhichitta, then, is the spring and source and root of the entire spiritual path.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche wrote: :The purity of the wish to obtain enlightenment depends on two things: to what degree we have gotten rid of self-centeredness, and to what degree we are able to generate loving-kindness and compassion for others. :The wish to be enlightened for the benefit of all mother sentient beings changes over time. It is not the wish itself that changes, but the quality of the wish changes tremendously. In the beginning the wish is not that authentic. It’s feeble and relatively easily destroyed by unfavorable circumstances. (..) By continuously practicing that wish over time, selfishness is brought to the surface and exhausted through the power of the training. The wish becomes more authentic and genuine, as loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy become very real and instinctive.<ref>Uncommon Happiness, The Path of the Compassionate Warrior, Ch. 8 Aspiration and Engagement, (Boudhanath, Hong Kong & Esby: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2009)</ref>

Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen | Khunu Rinpoche, Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta (Wisdom Publications, 1999)
The Light of Wisdom, Volume 1. Root text by Padmasambhava and commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül the Great (Shambhala Publications), Chapters 12, 13 & 14, pages 115-155.
Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Chapter 2 (Yale University Press, Revised edition, 2010)
Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher Part 2, Chapter 2, translated by Padmakara Translation Group (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2004)

<!–

Category of Buddhist Key Terms Category of Bodhichitta | bodhichitta Category of Sanskrit Terms

| thumb | [[Avalokiteshvara]]

Bodhichitta (Skt. bodhicitta; Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་, chang chub kyi sem, Wyl. byang chub kyi sems) is the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

Buddhist scholars have debated whether bodhichitta is to be categorized as the 'main mind' (tso sem) or a 'mental state' (sem jung). Asanga and Vasubandhu were among those claiming it is a mental state, while Arya Vimuktasena and Haribhadra believe that it is the main mind. In his Light on the 25,000 Verses (Tib. ཉི་ཁྲིད་སྣང་བ་, nyi khrid snang ba), Arya Vimuktasena specifies that it is the mental consciousness (Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, yid kyi rnam shes).

| thumb | [[Arya Vimuktisena]]

| thumb | [[Shantideva, author of the Bodhicharyavatara]]

(In The Words of My Perfect Teacher this is called Classification based on the three degrees of courage) (Three degrees of courage - Tib. བློ་སྟོབས་ཀྱི་ཁྱད་པར་གྱིས་དབྱེ་ན་གསུམ་ཡོད་དེ། Wyl. blo stobs kyi khyad par gyis dbye na gsum yod de)

the king's way of arousing bodhichitta, with the great wish, is the intention to first attain Buddhahood oneself and then lead others to it. It is the least courageous of the three. (Tib. དང་པོ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་འདོད་ཆེན་པོའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ་བློ་སྟོབས་ཐ་མ་ཡིན། Wyl. dang po rgyal pol ta bu ni ‘dod chen po’i sems bskyed ces bya ste blo stobs tha ma yin)

the boatman's way of arousing bodhichitta, with sacred wisdom, is the intention to achieve Buddhahood at the same time as all sentient beings. It is more courageous. (Tib. གཉིས་པ་མཉན་པ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི། ཡེ་ཤེས་དམ་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ། བློ་སྟོབས་འབྲིང་པོ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། Wyl. gnyis pa mnyan pa lta bu ni]] | ye shes dam pa’i sems bskyed ces bya ste | blo stobs ‘bring po yin zhing | the shepherd's way of arousing bodhichitta, beyond compare, is the intention to bring all beings to Buddhahood ahead of oneself. It is the most courageous of all ( Tib. རྫི་བོ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་དཔེ་མེད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་སྟེ། ཤིན་ཏུ་བློ་སྟོབས་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ལྡན་པ། Wyl. ''rdzi bo lta bu’i dpe med pa’i sems bskyed ces bya ste | shin tub lo stobs chen po dang ldan pa'') ===Four Types of Bodhichitta According to the Paths and Levels=== Bodhichitta can also be divided according to the [[five paths and ten bhumis:
bodhichitta of aspiring conduct (Tib. མོས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. mos pas spyod pa'i sems bskyed ) (path of accumulation onwards)
bodhichitta of pure noble intention (Tib. ལྷག་བསམ་རྣམ་དག་གི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. lhag bsam rnam dag gi sems bskyed) (first bhumi onwards)
bodhichitta of full maturation (Tib. རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. rnam par smin pa'i sems bskyed ) (eighth bhumi onwards)
bodhichitta free from all obscurations (Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་སྤངས་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, Wyl. sgrib pa spangs pa'i sems bskyed ) (at the level of buddhahood)

There is also a division into twenty-two similes of bodhichitta, and the Sagaramatiparipriccha Sutra (Tib. བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ་, Wyl. blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa'i mdo) mentions a classification according to eighty inexhaustibles which are discussed in Mipham Rinpoche's Khenjuk.

| thumb | left | [[Patrul Rinpoche courtesy of Shechen Monastery]]

Patrul Rinpoche says<ref>Translation on Lotsawahouse:

</ref> that the training in bodhichitta has three elements:

training in the cause by meditating on the four immeasurables,
the actual training, which is to practise taking the bodhisattva vow | vow of bodhichitta three times during the day and three times at night,
and the training in the precepts, the meditations on equalizing and exchanging yourself and others, and consider others as more important than yourself.

The actual training in bodhichitta is to take the vow of bodhichitta by means of any formal practice—whether elaborate, medium or short—at the six times of the day and night, i.e., at dawn, mid-morning, midday, afternoon, dusk and midnight.

'Equalizing self and others’ means recognizing the equality of yourself and others in wishing to find happiness and wishing to avoid suffering.
‘Exchanging self and others’ means giving your own happiness to other sentient beings, and taking their suffering upon yourself.
‘Considering others as more important than yourself’ means setting aside your own benefit and accomplishing the benefit of others.

If you apply yourself to these practices, Patrul Rinpoche says, then you will never forget the mind of bodhichitta in all your future lives, and all the qualities of the bhumis and paths will develop and increase like the waxing moon.

In a Dzogchen context, especially in the teachings of the category of mind, bodhichitta is used to refer to the awakened mind, or rigpa. In Chapter 12 of the Treasury of the Dharmadhatu<ref>see the Seven Treasuries</ref>, Longchenpa explains the literal meaning of bodhichitta in Dzogchen:

{]] | f7f7e7;" cellspacing="5" border="0" text-align:left,top" | + | valign="top" | There has never been any flaw, and so, untainted by [[samsara, it is pure (Tib. བྱང་, chang). :Enlightened qualities are present spontaneously, and therefore, beyond cause and effect, it is consummate (Tib. ཆུབ་, chub). :In essence it is self-aware pure luminosity, and therefore it is mind (Tib. སེམས་, sem)— :Within this bodhichitta, the awakened mind, utterly pure, all is contained. ]] | valign="top" | བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་སུ་ཀུན་འདུས་རྣམ་པར་དག །</big> | Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་འགྲེལ་པ།, [[Wyl. chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod ces bya ba'i 'grel pa), see the entry for Treasury of Dharmadhatu.</ref> on the verse:

{]] | f7f7e7;" cellspacing="5" border="0" text-align:left,top" | + | valign="top" | It is mind (སེམས་, ''sem'') because its compassionate responsiveness is all-pervasive and extends throughout all samsara and nirvana, and it is [[clear light; and because it arises as our own individual self-knowing rigpa.” ]] | valign="top" | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཏུ་གནས་པས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཅིང་འོད་གསལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དང་སོ་སོ་རང་རིག་པར་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་སེམས་ཞེས་བྱའོ། །</big> | } ==Benefits of Bodhichitta== The Sutra [[The Questions of the Householder Viradatta praises Bodhichitta: :If the merits of the resolve for awakening :Were to assume physical form, :They would fill the whole expanse of space :And exceed even that.