]] 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' (Tib. གཙོ་སེམས་, tso sem; Wyl. gtso sems) or a 'mental state' (Tib. སེམས་བྱུང་, sem jung; Wyl. sems byung). 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).
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Bodhi means our ‘enlightened essence’ and chitta (Skt. citta) means ‘heart’ or 'mind', hence the translation ‘the heart of enlightened mind’.
The most famous definition of bodhichitta appears in Maitreya's Abhisamayalankara:
:Arousing bodhichitta is: for the sake of others,<br>
:Longing to attain complete enlightenment.<ref>
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This has twin aspects or purposes: 1) focusing on sentient beings with compassion, and 2) focusing on complete enlightenment with wisdom.
Khenpo Pema Vajra defines bodhichitta as “the wish to attain enlightenment in order to free all other sentient beings from the sufferings of existence and lead them to the unsurpassable bliss of omniscience.”<ref>༈ གཞན་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྲིད་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས་བསྒྲལ་ཏེ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་བདེ་བ་བླ་ན་མེད་པ་ལ་འཇོག་པའི་དོན་གྱི་ཆེད་དུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་འདོད་པ།, gzhan sems can thams cad srid pa'i sdug bsngal las bsgral te thams cad mkhyen pa'i bde ba bla na med pa la 'jog pa'i don gyi ched du byang chub thob par 'dod pa from Notes on Bodhichitta to Illuminate the Path of the Victorious One's Heirs.</ref>
Khenpo Tsöndrü defines the generation of bodhichitta as “a special type of mental consciousness endowed with two aspects, inspired by the cause, longing to bring about the welfare of others, and accompanied by the support, longing to attain complete and perfect awakening.”<ref>
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, author of the Bodhicharyavatara]]
Bodhichitta is categorized into ‘relative’ or ‘conventional bodhichitta’, and ‘absolute bodhichitta’.
Within relative bodhichitta there is also the distinction between ‘bodhichitta in aspiration’ and ‘bodhichitta in action’, which is portrayed by Shantideva as the difference between deciding to go somewhere and actually making the journey:
:Understand that, briefly stated,
:Bodhicitta has two aspects:
:The mind aspiring to awaken,
:And actual application.
:
:Just as one understands the difference :Between wishing to go and going on a journey, :The wise should understand these two, :Recognizing their difference and their order.<ref> Bodhicharyavatara, I, 15 & 16</ref> |
::<big>༈ བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དེ་མདོར་བསྡུས་ན། །<br> ::རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་སུ་ཤེས་བྱ་སྟེ། །<br> ::བྱང་ཆུབ་སྨོན་པའི་སེམས་དང་ནི། །<br> ::བྱང་ཆུབ་འཇུག་པ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ནོ། །<br> ::<br> ::འགྲོ་བར་འདོད་དང་འགྲོ་བ་ཡི། །<br> ::བྱེ་བྲག་ཇི་ལྟར་ཤེས་པ་ལྟར། །<br> ::དེ་བཞིན་མཁས་པས་འདི་གཉིས་ཀྱི། །<br> ::བྱེ་བྲག་རིམ་བཞིན་ཤེས་པར་བྱ། །</big><br> |
Bodhichitta can also be divided according to the five paths and ten bhumis:
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.
courtesy of Shechen Monastery]]
Patrul Rinpoche says<ref>Translation on Lotsawahouse:
</ref> that the training in bodhichitta has three elements:
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.
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:
:Within the broad expanse, the ground of naturally arising wisdom, :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. | ::<big>༈ རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་གཞི་ཀློང་ཡངས་པ་ལ། །<br> ::ཡེ་ནས་དྲི་མེད་འཁོར་བས་མ་གོས་བྱང༌། །<br> ::ཡོན་ཏན་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་འདས་པར་ཆུབ། །<br> ::རང་རིག་སྙིང་པོ་འོད་གསལ་དག་པས་སེམས། །<br> ::བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་སུ་ཀུན་འདུས་རྣམ་པར་དག །</big><br> |
This is his commentary<ref>Longchen Rabjam: A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission (Skt. Dharmadhātu ratna koṣa nāma vṛtti; 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:
:“Within the essence of rigpa, there has never been any flaw and so, since there has never been any experience of samsara, it is pure (བྱང་, chang). :Within that very essence, enlightened qualities are spontaneously present, and so it is consummate (ཆུབ་, chub) and can arise as anything at all. :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.” | ::<big>༈ རིག་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ལ་དྲི་མ་ཡེ་ནས་མེད་པས་འཁོར་བ་ཡོད་མ་མྱོང་བའི་ཕྱིར་བྱང་བཞེས་བྱའོ། །<br> ::སྙིང་པོ་དེ་ཉིད་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པས་ཆུབ་པ་སྟེ། །གང་ཡང་འཆར་རུང་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །<br> ::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><br> |
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