Bodhichitta

Review Today is our second session of the seven-part cause and effect meditation for generating bodhichitta. Yesterday, as an introduction, we looked at some of the factors that are involved in generating the bodhichitta aim. We focused primarily on the conventional...

Review In our discussion of the seven-part cause and effect meditation for generating bodhichitta, we have gone through the sequence up until the final stage, the result of what we’ve been building up. We spoke of the basis, which is equanimity, free of attachment,...

Review This morning is the fourth session of our discussion of the seven-part cause and effect meditation method for developing the bodhichitta aim. We have discussed the ground floor level, or step number zero, of this process, which is to develop equanimity. This...

Review This morning, we discussed the ground floor level of, or basis for, the seven-part cause and effect meditation for generating a bodhichitta aim. We saw that this is equanimity, the type of equanimity with which we are free of attachment or attraction to some, aversion...

Aspiring and Engaged Bodhichitta Bodhisattvas are those with bodhichitta (byang-sems) – a heart totally dedicated to others and to achieving enlightenment in order to benefit them as fully as possible. There are two levels of bodhichitta: Aspiring (smon-sems)Engaged...

The Two TruthsTo develop a bodhichitta aim, the first thing that we need to know and be clear about is to some idea of what bodhichitta is. There are actually two aspects of bodhichitta and this is in accordance with the two truths. The two truths about anything are the...

Verses 10 through 17 Brief Review After beginning with the homage and the promise to compose, Togme Zangpo goes through the graded stages of motivation, the lam-rim, starting with the precious human life and the circumstances that are most conducive to taking advantage of...

Conventional and Deepest Bodhichittas Conventional bodhichitta (kun-rdzob byang-sems, relative bodhichitta) focuses on the superficial truth (kun-rdzob bden-pa, conventional truth, relative truth) of enlightenment, such as its qualities of omniscience. Deepest bodhichitta...

Conventional and Deepest Bodhichitta There are two facets of bodhichitta: conventional or relative and deepest bodhichittas. Both bodhichittas are aimed at our own individual, future enlightenment which has not happened yet; but on the basis of our Buddha-natures and a great...

Review Having an Accurate Idea of Bodhichitta and Enlightenment We have seen that there is a relative and deepest bodhichitta, and it is aimed at enlightenment, and specifically our own individual enlightenment that has not yet happened, but which can be imputed on our mental...