Bodhichitta

Homage Verse and Verse 1 The Author, Atisha A Bodhisattva’s Garland of Gems (Skt. Bodhisattva-mani-avali) was written by the great Indian master Atisha (Atisha Dipamkarashrijnana, 982–1054). As a great Buddhist master at the Vikramashila Monastery, he was very concerned about...

Introductory Verses and Verse 1 Setting the Motivation First of all, we need to have very good motivation for studying about the behavior of bodhisattvas. When we have a strong motivation, it is interesting how our minds work. If I were to say, “Let’s all go to the Dalai...

(1) Respectfully, I prostrate to the Blissfully Gone (Buddhas) endowed with Dharmakaya, as well as to their (bodhisattva) offspring and to everyone worthy of prostration. Let me explain (how to) engage in the Blissfully Gone offsprings' code, which I’ve compiled and condensed...

This weekend, we are going to speak about the bodhisattva vows. And obviously in order to understand the bodhisattva vows we need to understand what a bodhisattva is, and what bodhichitta is, upon which it is based. And in terms of that, we have many, many different...

The Two Truths To develop a bodhichitta aim, the first thing that we need to know and be clear about is to have 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...

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...

We were discussing bodhichitta and what it means to be a bodhisattva, and we saw what place taking the bodhisattva vows has in the general progression of developing bodhichitta, and the stages of developing bodhichitta. And what’s really important is to understand the role...

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...

Equalizing and Exchanging Self with Others We’ve been discussing the Seven Point Mind Training by the Kadam Geshe Chekawa who lived in the twelfth century. So far, we’ve covered the first two points: the preliminaries and the actual training in deepest bodhichitta. Now, we’re...

We’ve been discussing the three principal pathways of mind. The first is renunciation, which is turning away from obsession with – as we added – immediate gratification, taking interest in what’s going to happen to us later in this lifetime and in future generations. This is...