The Luminary International Buddhist Society
SHAVING THE HEAD BEFORE ORDINATION, INDIA
12 | Bodhicitta
BODHICITTA—the aspiration to attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings—is the magnificent motivation that enabled Siddhārtha Gautama to become a bodhisattva and then a buddha and to turn the Dharma wheel. Both the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions speak of bodhicitta, bodhisattvas, and bodhisattva practices.
Deep and continuous meditation on the defects of saṃsāra gives rise to renunciation—the aspiration for liberation. This aspiration is self-compassion wanting ourselves to be free from suffering and its causes. Knowing all sentient beings also experience the defects of saṃsāra and wanting them to be free is compassion that is the basis for bodhicitta.
The benefits of bodhicitta are many. Bodhicitta makes the mind very joyful due to having great love and compassion for all beings. It is the distinguishing cause of a buddha’s full awakening. Bodhisattvas manage problems and difficulties with ease and act in ways that bring peace in the larger society. At the beginning of our Dharma practice, bodhicitta inspires us to practice diligently, in the middle it motivates us to eliminate all defilements, and at the end it enables us to do limitless work to benefit sentient beings and lead them to liberation and full awakening.
Bodhisattvas must engage in all practices of the Śrāvaka Vehicle, including the prātimokṣa ethics of restraining from harmful physical and verbal actions. In addition, they train in the bodhisattva ethical code to counter self-centeredness. Bodhisattvas seek to attain the dharmakāya—a buddha’s omniscient mind—to fulfill their own purpose of having a totally purified mind, and they want to attain a buddha’s form body (rūpakāya) to fulfill the purpose of others by manifesting in different forms to lead them on the path.
Bodhisattvas’ compassion is so strong that if it were more beneficial for sentient beings for bodhisattvas to stay in saṃsāra, they would do that. However, since they can benefit sentient beings more after eliminating their defilements, they practice diligently. Upon eliminating all afflictive obscurations, bodhisattvas do not abide in nirvāṇa but have a mental body and emanate various forms that benefit saṃsāric beings and accumulate merit. They continue practicing until they eradicate all obscurations and attain full awakening.
Śāntarakṣita in his Madhyamakālaṃkāra explains the sequence of meditation for two types of bodhisattva aspirants. Those with modest faculties initially generate renunciation, followed by compassion for all sentient beings. They admire bodhicitta due to having strong confidence in those who teach bodhicitta, and their aspiration to attain awakening derives from their ardent faith in the Three Jewels. They generate bodhicitta, practice the perfections, and then cultivate insight into emptiness.
Bodhisattva aspirants with sharp faculties are not content to believe that awakening is possible because the Three Jewels and their spiritual mentors say so. They investigate to determine if ignorance can be eliminated. Seeing that the wisdom realizing emptiness can overcome it, they strive to gain at least a correct inference of emptiness, thus generating certainty that awakening is possible. On this basis, they generate bodhicitta. With bodhicitta informed by the wisdom realizing emptiness, they then practice the perfections.
Cultivating compassion and wisdom in tandem is very beneficial. As our understanding of emptiness increases, so will our compassion for sentient beings, who are under the influence of ignorance. Meanwhile compassion temporarily counteracts many of the coarser afflictions, facilitating meditation on emptiness.
Two methods exist to train the mind in bodhicitta: (1) the sevenfold cause-and-effect instruction and (2) equalizing and exchanging self and others. In both of these, the principal cause of bodhicitta is great compassion. This in turn depends on seeing others as pleasing and loveable and feeling the depth of their duḥkha.
To have unbiased love and compassion for all beings, we must first free our minds from coarse attachment to friends and relatives, apathy toward strangers, and hostility toward enemies. As mentioned above, cultivating equanimity is the way to do this.
To develop equanimity we reflect that our categorization of people as friends, enemies, and strangers is unstable and highly subjective. If someone is nice to us today, we consider her a friend and become attached. But if tomorrow she criticizes us, our fondness evaporates, and she becomes an enemy. When we lose touch with a friend or an enemy, that person becomes a stranger. Meanwhile today’s strangers may become friends or enemies in the future, and if we meet an enemy in a different situation, he becomes a friend. There is nothing fixed in any of these relationships. We have been each other’s friends, enemies, and strangers countless times in beginningless saṃsāra. Given this, there is no reason to be partial for or against any sentient being.
Having equal, openhearted care for others does not mean we treat or trust everyone equally. Conventional roles and relationships still exist. We trust old friends more than strangers, even though we want both equally to be happy and free from suffering. While maintaining equanimity internally, we can still prevent someone from harming us.
Founded on the practice of equanimity, the first three causes help us to cultivate love and compassion. These are (1) recognizing that all sentient beings have been our parents in previous lives, (2) contemplating their kindness when they were our parents, and (3) wishing to repay their kindness. These three bring forth (4) deep affection and heart-warming love for all beings, which leads to (5) compassion.
Compassion has two principal aspects: a sense of closeness to others and concern for their suffering. Seeing sentient beings as loveable through remembering their kindness creates a sense of intimacy, affection, and dearness in our hearts. Meditating on the fact that sentient beings undergo the three kinds of duḥkha—especially duḥkha of pervasive conditioning—stimulates heartfelt concern for their suffering. Bringing these two together arouses genuine compassion for all beings.
The torment others undergo due to the two obscurations becomes unbearable to us, and the compassion arising from that produces (6) great resolve, assuming the responsibility to work for the welfare of sentient beings. This primarily means liberating them from saṃsāra, although benefiting them temporarily in saṃsāra is also included. The great resolve is the wholehearted commitment to act to bring about others’ happiness and protect them from duḥkha.
These six causes lead to (7) the effect, bodhicitta. To transform great resolve into bodhicitta, we reflect that for sentient beings to be happy and free from suffering, they must create the appropriate causes for these. To teach them how to do this and guide them on the path, we must know through our own experience all the practices and paths to full awakening. We must also discern others’ spiritual dispositions and tendencies and know the practices suitable for them. To fully develop these abilities necessitates attaining buddhahood, the state in which all obscurations have been abandoned and all excellent qualities developed limitlessly. Bodhicitta is the motivation to do this. It is a primary mental consciousness informed by two aspirations: to benefit all sentient beings and to attain full awakening in order to do that.
While the method for developing bodhicitta is not difficult to understand, it requires patience and consistent effort to actualize. After generating bodhicitta, we need to make it firm through repeated meditation and then live this magnificent motivation through practicing the perfections. No matter how long it takes and no matter what hardships we experience along the way, becoming a buddha so that we may benefit sentient beings most effectively is worthwhile.
The second method to cultivate bodhicitta has several steps: equalizing self and others, contemplating the disadvantages of self-centeredness and the benefits of cherishing others, exchanging self and others, and taking and giving.
To equalize ourselves and others, we investigate our innate feeling of self-importance and realize there is no reason to justify it: others and ourselves are equal in wanting happiness and freedom from suffering. Both we and others deserve happiness and the cessation of suffering because we equally are sentient beings who have buddha nature. We are only one single individual, while other sentient beings are countless. It makes no sense to ignore their welfare, while counteracting others’ misery and bringing them happiness is beneficial.
The disadvantages of self-centeredness are many. Our self-centered attitude has brought all manner of undesirable consequences from beginningless saṃsāra up to the present. Although we want to be happy, our self-preoccupation has led us to engage in unimaginable destructive karma as well as create havoc in the lives of those around us. We have spent countless eons looking out for our own benefit at the expense of others but haven’t accomplished our own or others’ aims. Self-preoccupation fuels guilt, anxiety, and fear. Had we cherished others instead, we would certainly have become buddhas long ago.
When contemplating the faults of self-centeredness, it is important to remember that self-centeredness is not an inherent part of us and that we are not “bad” because we are plagued by selfishness. Furthermore, being happy does not mean we are self-centered or that, for our compassion to be genuine, we must suffer. Practicing the path involves joyful effort and leads to the supreme bliss of full awakening.
All good comes from cherishing others. The best way to achieve our own happiness is to benefit others. We live in a world where we depend on others simply to stay alive. If we consider only our own good and ignore others’ plight, we will soon find ourselves surrounded by unhappy people. Their unhappiness will surely affect us; they will complain, resent our success, and try to steal our possessions. However, if we work for the benefit of others, those around us will be content and kind, and this will certainly make our own life more pleasant!
Cherishing others brings happiness in this and future lives. With a mind that genuinely cares about all others, we create constructive karma. As a result, we will die without fear or regret and secure a good rebirth. Realizations of the path will come easily because our mind has been made fertile with merit created by cherishing others. We will generate bodhicitta, progress through the bodhisattva’s paths and grounds, and attain full awakening.
Seeing that self-preoccupation leads to misery and cherishing others brings joy, we now exchange self and others. This entails changing the focal point of the wish to avoid suffering and have happiness from ourselves to others. Initially we may think this is impossible because living beings are biologically programmed to look out for themselves first. We don’t feel the pain and pleasure in another person’s body, so of course we don’t care about it as much as we do our own bodies. However, considering this mass of organic matter “my body” is a matter of ignorant habit. Nothing about this body is ours: the sperm, egg, and genes belong to our parents. The rest is the result of the food we have eaten, which came from the earth and was given to us by others. It is simply by habit that we consider this body “mine.” Examining the body, feelings, mind, and mental factors with mindfulness, we see there is no I or mine in them. There are simply material elements and moments of mind and mental factors. Thinking there is a real person who either is the aggregates or who owns them is a fabrication.
Two main obstacles block our exchanging self and others. First, we think ourselves and others are inherently separate. In fact, self and others are posited in mutual dependence on each other, similar to one side of the valley being called “this side” in dependence on the other side being “that side.” Being “this side” and “that side” depends on where we stand. To others, what we call “I” they regard as “you.” Exchanging self and others means imputing “I” on other people so that “my happiness is most important” refers to other sentient beings’ happiness.
The second obstacle to exchanging self and others is thinking that dispelling others’ suffering is unnecessary because their suffering doesn’t harm us. This, too, is based on seeing self and others as entirely separate when in fact we depend on each other. It is similar to thinking, “There’s no need to save money for my old age because that old person is a different person and his suffering doesn’t harm me.” It is also similar to our hand refusing to pull a thorn out of our foot because the foot’s pain doesn’t hurt the hand.
Our actions affect the well-being of others, be that another individual or the old person we will become. Just as we create conditions for that old person’s happiness, we should create the conditions for others’ happiness. Just as the hand helps the foot without any expectation of appreciation because they are parts of the same body, we should help other living beings because we are all parts of the body of life. Śāntideva asks (BCA 8:115):
Through acquaintance has the thought of I arisen
toward this impersonal body;
So in a similar way, why should it not arise
toward other living beings?
Whereas previously we held ourselves as most important, now we hold others as supreme. The benefits of doing this are enormous. Śāntideva says (BCA 8:129–30):
Whatever joy there is in this world
all comes from desiring others to be happy,
and whatever suffering there is in this world
all comes from desiring myself to be happy.
What need is there to say much more?
The childish work for their own benefit,
while buddhas work for the benefit of others.
Just look at the difference between them!
Bodhisattvas’ joy in exchanging self and others is much greater than any happiness we self-centered beings could even dream of.
The meditation on taking and giving deepens our love, compassion, and ability to exchange self and others. Taking comes from the compassionate wish, “I will take all problems, sufferings, and defilements of other sentient beings on myself so that they may be free of them.” Giving is motivated by love: “I will give my body, possessions, and merit to others, so that all their wishes may be fulfilled.” Nāgārjuna aspires (RA 484):
May I bear the results of their negativity,
and may they have the results of all my virtue.
We imagine taking all others’ suffering upon ourselves, and we use this thought to destroy our self-centered attitude. Then we transform our body, wealth, and virtue into whatever others need and give these to others. Through this they receive all they need, and we are freed from our self-preoccupation.
Hearing about bodhisattvas’ ability to cherish others more than themselves, we may doubt, “If I abandon all self-interest and only cherish others, I will neglect myself and my suffering will increase.” Cherishing others does not mean ignoring our own needs and caring only for others. If we did that, we would fall into a deplorable state in which benefiting others and practicing the Dharma would be nearly impossible. In that case, instead of our helping others, they would need to take care of us!
While one form of self-interest is selfish, stingy, and irritable, another is wise self-interest that understands that benefiting ourselves and helping others need not be contradictory. As mentioned above, bodhisattvas’ self-interest leads them to fulfill their own purpose by attaining a buddha’s dharmakāya, which in turn enables them to benefit others through gaining a buddha’s form body.
Similarly, while one sense of self—self-grasping ignorance—is a troublemaker, stable and realistic self-confidence is necessary to accomplish the path. Bodhisattvas must have exceptionally strong self-confidence to be able to complete all the perfections. Free from arrogance, such self-confidence aspires for what is positive without clinging to it.
Self-confidence is essential to begin, continue, and complete the path to awakening, and our buddha nature is a valid basis on which to generate it. Reflecting on emptiness helps us to recognize our buddha nature, for we see that the defilements are adventitious and can be removed. Compassion for others also builds self-confidence, as does remembering our precious human life, its meaning, purpose, and rarity.
The self-centered attitude considers ourselves the most important, whereas self-grasping ignorance misapprehends how the self exists. Aside from the self-centered attitude’s grosser manifestations, which are obviously detrimental, its subtler aspect seeks liberation for ourselves alone. In general, this is not an object of abandonment; it is an unmistaken mind that motivates śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas to fulfill their spiritual aspirations, generate virtuous qualities, and attain liberation—all admirable activities. However, self-centeredness is an object of abandonment for those following the bodhisattva path to buddhahood.
The self-centered attitude is neither an afflictive nor a cognitive obscuration; it is not a pollutant and is not the root of saṃsāra. Self-grasping, on the other hand, is the root of saṃsāra and an afflictive obscuration that must be eradicated to attain both liberation and full awakening.
The self-centered attitude and self-grasping have neither a causal relationship—one does not cause the other—or a same-nature relationship—if one exists in a person’s mindstream, the other doesn’t necessarily exist. Arhats have eliminated self-grasping but have self-centeredness. Bodhisattvas who freshly enter the bodhisattva path (that is, they are not arhats who later become bodhisattvas) and are below the eighth ground have self-grasping but do not necessarily have self-centeredness. The self-centered attitude and self-grasping ignorance also have different counterforces. Bodhicitta is the counterforce to the former and the wisdom realizing emptiness to the latter.
When we consider emulating the deeds of the great bodhisattvas, our minds may be overcome with anxiety. “What will happen to me if I altruistically help others?” Integrating either the Madhyamaka or Yogācāra view of emptiness helps us overcome this unnecessary and limiting fear. It aids our cultivation of bodhicitta by loosening the unrealistic grasping to self and others, to suffering and happiness, and to friend, enemy, and stranger. It also deepens our compassion for sentient beings, who are under the control of afflictions and karma.
According to the Yogācāra view, the seemingly external objects that appear to our sense consciousnesses have arisen due to karmic latencies on the consciousness. While these objects do not exist as entities separate from our mind, they appear that way due to ignorance. In fact, they are like things in a dream, for they do not exist as they appear.
Seeing both good and bad experiences as karmic appearances arising due to latencies on the mindstream loosens the solidity with which we view sentient beings and the environment. From this perspective, friends, enemies, and strangers are simply karmic appearances, and having attachment, anger, and apathy toward them is misguided. Similarly, attractive and unattractive objects, praise and blame, reputation and notoriety, and wealth and poverty simply appear to the mind due to the activation of latencies. They lack any external existence separate from the mind to which they appear. Therefore, there is no sense in clinging to some things and having aversion for others.
According to the Madhyamaka view, nothing exists from its own side; everything exists by being merely designated by mind. “Self” and “others” exist dependent on labels; there is no inherently existent I or others and no inherently existent suffering or happiness. Contemplating that all these exist in mutual dependence and thus are empty of their own inherent nature lessens our fear of suffering and our clinging to our own happiness. In this way, our minds become more courageous and joyful in practicing the bodhisattva deeds.
Nāgārjuna’s Daśabhūmikavibhāṣā speaks of seven factors that may cause people to generate bodhicitta, depending on their dispositions and tendencies: (1) being instructed by a buddha who understands their faculties, (2) observing that the Dharma is on the verge of destruction in our world and wanting to guard and protect it, (3) feeling compassion for suffering sentient beings, (4) receiving instructions from a bodhisattva who influences them to generate bodhicitta, (5) observing the conduct of a bodhisattva and wanting to emulate it, (6) having performed an action of generosity that makes them recall the virtues of bodhisattvas, (7) feeling delight upon seeing or hearing about the thirty-two signs and eighty marks of a buddha.
People may generate bodhicitta due to any of these seven causes and conditions. However, only those who have generated bodhicitta in the first three ways will certainly attain full awakening. This is because the roots of virtue created by generating bodhicitta in these three ways are very deep, while the roots of virtue created in the other four ways are not necessarily firmly established. However, by practicing well and stabilizing their roots of virtue, the latter group will also attain buddhahood.
Shixian (1685–1733), a meditation master and Pure Land patriarch, in his Quan fa pu ti xin wen (Exhortation to Resolve on Buddhahood), gives ten points for reflection to spur the generation of bodhicitta. But first, to ensure we cultivate bodhicitta purely and properly, he discusses four pairs of distinctions in practitioners’ bodhicitta.
Practitioners who do not examine their minds but instead seek wealth, fame, and sense pleasures practice perversely. Those unattached to personal profit, reputation, and pleasure either in this life or the next practice correctly.
Constantly directing the mind to the Buddha’s path, trying to benefit sentient beings with every thought, and being undeterred by having to practice bodhicitta for eons is genuine resolve. Neglecting to purify destructive karma, undertaking projects with enthusiasm but not completing them, and having virtuous thoughts mixed with attachment to wealth and reputation constitute false resolve.
Resolving to attain full awakening and keep the bodhicitta motivation and bodhisattva precepts until all sentient beings have become awakened is great resolve. Aspiring only for personal liberation without caring for others indicates small resolve.
Thinking that the Buddha’s path is outside our mind and remaining attached to our own merit, knowledge, and views is one-sided. Generating bodhicitta, taking the bodhisattva precepts, and practicing the perfections with a mind supported by wisdom realizing emptiness is perfect.
Understanding these eight distinctions, we must continuously examine our mind to ensure our bodhicitta is correct, genuine, great, and perfect. Done in this way, our practice will certainly be successful.
The first five of the ten points for reflection to inspire us to generate bodhicitta are mindfulness of the great kindness we have received from the Buddha and from our parents, teachers, benefactors, and all sentient beings. Recognizing this inspires us to repay their kindness by generating bodhicitta and practicing the bodhisattva path. The remaining five points support and direct our bodhicitta. We should (1) be mindful of the suffering of repeated birth and death in saṃsāra, (2) respect our buddha nature, (3) think of the disadvantages of nonvirtuous karma, repent, and purify; (4) aspire to be born in the pure land, and (5) pray that the Buddha’s pure teachings remain in our world forever. After we generate bodhicitta, Shixian then counsels us:
Do not, fearing difficulty, shrink back in timidity. Do not, regarding this matter as easy, take it but lightly. Do not, seeking a swift conclusion, fail to make a long-enduring commitment.… Do not claim that a single thought is insignificant.23
Bodhicitta is tremendously important for our own and others’ well-being, and we must never give it up. If we reflect on bodhicitta at times of suffering, our mental distress will decrease, and by generating compassion, our physical suffering will be transformed and become meaningful on the path to awakening.
Chinese Buddhism contains several meditations to cultivate love and compassion. One is meditation on the four immeasurables. Another is the “seven-round compassion meditation,” which has its source in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. This meditation consists of seven rounds, each round having seven steps in which we contemplate our relationship with seven groups of people.
(1) Recall the kindness of your elders in this life, remembering each person who has taken care of you, taught you, guided you, protected you, and served as a good role model. Think, “My elders have done so much for me. Since they have selflessly helped me, it would seem natural that I try to repay their kindness. However, instead of doing that, I argue with them and cause them worry. I don’t listen to their suggestions and don’t appreciate all they have done for me. I confess and regret this.” Feel this in your heart. Now dedicate all your merit to your elders for the cessation of their suffering and attainment of buddhahood. Then think about your elders in past lives and do the same.
(2) Recall your peers—siblings, friends, and colleagues—and consider that they have kept you company, befriended you, and assisted you when you needed help. Recall that instead of caring about them in return, you have criticized and blamed them, called them names, been inconsiderate or jealous of their successes. Confess this, purify, and dedicate your merit to them. Contemplate your peers in previous lives and think in the same way.
(3) Meditate in the same way regarding your juniors (children, students, employees), (4) enemies of your elders (people who have hurt, betrayed, or taken advantage of your elders), (5) your own enemies, (6) enemies of your juniors, and (7) neutral people who have neither helped nor harmed you. Contemplate their kindness. Then recall that instead of repaying their kindness, you sometimes had malice and harmed them. Confess and purify, and dedicate your merit to them so that they may be happy and free from duḥkha, take refuge in the Three Jewels, and become awakened. Do the same for all those with whom you have had that relationship in previous lives.
Contemplating the seven steps in this way constitutes one round. The second round is thinking in the same way toward these various groups, beginning with neutral people and going in the reverse order, ending with your elders. The third round is going through the seven steps again in forward order. The meditation is performed, back and forth, in this way for seven rounds.
At the conclusion, empty your mind of all thoughts, ideas, graspings, and keep pure awareness. Contemplate emptiness.
Those who practice this compassion contemplation for some months will definitely see a change in their lives and relationships with sentient beings.
Chan (Zen) practitioners generate bodhicitta by reflecting on the four great vows:
Sentient beings are countless; I vow to free them.
Defilements are endless; I vow to eradicate them.
Dharma doors are limitless; I vow to cultivate them.
The Buddha’s way (bodhi) is supreme; I vow to attain it.
The last of the four is the generation of bodhicitta. To actualize this vow, we need the support of the first three. Therefore the first great vow is to liberate each and every one of the countless sentient beings because we feel their suffering in saṃsāra as our own. This great compassion leads to the second great vow, to eradicate our own and all others’ numberless defilements by cultivating the wisdom that realizes the ultimate nature. This leads to the third great vow, to cultivate countless approaches, realizations, and skillful means.
Bodhisattvas maintain these four vows in their minds thought after thought, so there is no time in which they are not present. Bodhisattvas are not intimidated by the vastness of these four vows. Their minds are focused on the full awakening of all sentient beings, and they are willing to do everything necessary to bring it about.
Gāthas—short verses extracted from sūtras or written by great masters—guide us to train our minds, imbue ordinary actions with a bodhicitta motivation, and transform neutral actions into virtue. These are also found in the “mind training” practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Some gāthas from chapter 11 of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are:
When giving something:
May all sentient beings be able to relinquish everything with hearts free from clinging.
In danger and difficulty:
May all sentient beings be free and unhindered wherever they go.
When sitting up straight:
May all sentient beings sit on the seat of awakening, their minds without attachment.
When traveling on a road:
May all sentient beings tread the pure realm of reality, their minds without obstruction.
When using the toilet:
May all sentient beings discard their attachment, anger, and confusion and eliminate destructive conduct.
According to Chinese Buddhist scriptures, bodhicitta is cultivated and expanded in five stages: (1) making the vow to become a buddha and liberate all the countless sentient beings, (2) engaging in many practices to counteract afflictions and progress toward awakening, (3) directly realizing the ultimate nature, which is the actual awakening of bodhicitta, (4) continuing to cultivate the bodhisattva practice to become fully and perfectly awakened, and (5) attaining supreme, ultimate bodhicitta—buddhahood. These five stages are similar to the five paths of a bodhisattva as explained in the Tibetan tradition.
Cheong Thoong Leong
THERAVĀDA MONKS CUTTING KAṬHINA CLOTH, MALAYSIA
In Chan the third stage is considered one form of awakening. Here one realizes the pure mind, the buddha nature that is empty and is the actual bodhicitta. As in Theravāda Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism uses “awakening” to apply to any direct, nonconceptual realization of reality.24 Neither tradition considers this first experience to be final awakening; both say it needs to be cultivated over time to eradicate all obscurations forever and attain the final goal.
According to its nature, bodhicitta may be of two kinds: Aspiring bodhicitta is the wish to attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Engaging bodhicitta is the maturation of that wish so that it is accompanied by the bodhisattva ethical restraints and the commitment to practice the perfections and the four ways of gathering disciples, which are discussed in the next chapter.
Initially our bodhicitta is contrived. Continuing to reflect on the two methods to generate bodhicitta, we develop it so that it becomes uncontrived. Participating in the ceremony of generating aspiring bodhicitta in the presence of our spiritual mentor helps us to do this. This is “receiving aspiring bodhicitta in a ceremony,” and it helps stabilize our determination to cultivate bodhicitta.
Later, when we feel capable of training in the causes for keeping our bodhicitta from deteriorating, we can again generate bodhicitta in the presence of our teacher with the thought never to give it up. This is “receiving aspiring bodhicitta with commitment in a ceremony.” At this time we assume the precepts of aspiring bodhicitta to prevent our bodhicitta from deteriorating in this and future lives.
After training the mind in aspiring bodhicitta with commitment, we can assume the bodhisattva ethical restraints. Doing this is engaging bodhicitta. Most bodhisattva aspirants take the bodhisattva precepts before they are full-fledged bodhisattvas with uncontrived bodhicitta. The bodhisattva precepts at this point are a similitude, not actual bodhisattva precepts, but they help us develop bodhicitta and practice the bodhisattva conduct.
In the Tibetan tradition, the bodhisattva ethical restraints consist of eighteen root and forty-six auxiliary precepts. These were taught by the Buddha at different times and initially were scattered throughout the Sanskrit sūtras. Asaṅga, Śāntideva, and Candragomin collated them, and the present set was formed by combining their lists.
Two renditions of the bodhisattva ethical code exist in Chinese Buddhism. The Brahmajāla Sūtra contains ten root and forty-eight auxiliary precepts, and the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra has four root and forty-one auxiliary precepts. There is much overlap between the lists in these two scriptures, as well as with the bodhisattva precepts of Tibetan Buddhism.
In the Chinese and Tibetan traditions, both monastics and lay followers take the bodhisattva ethical restraints with the intention to keep them until full awakening. All transgressions, no matter how serious, can be purified through confession and repentance.
In the Chinese tradition, a voluntary ceremony in which people “offer their body to the Buddha” precedes the taking of the bodhisattva precepts. For monastics, this is done by making three small burn marks on the top of the head; for lay followers these are made on the arm. This symbolizes offering one’s body to the buddhas and bodhisattvas and being willing to endure suffering when working for the benefit of sentient beings and striving for full awakening. Additionally, in ancient China, monastics were exempt from punishment by civil law because they were governed by the vinaya precepts. To avoid arrest by the police and to gain offerings, some criminals would don monastic robes. To discriminate genuine monastics from imposters, the custom arose to burn three or more cones of incense on monastics’ heads.
In general, Japanese priests and committed lay followers take sixteen bodhisattva precepts. The first five correspond to the five lay precepts, and the last three are taking refuge in the Three Jewels. The others are to abandon speaking of the misdeeds of others, praising oneself and disparaging others, withholding spiritual or material aid, indulging in anger, and reviling the Three Jewels. The remaining three are to abandon evil, do good, and liberate all sentient beings.
In short, while differences exist in the delineation of the bodhisattva precepts in various traditions, their essence and purpose remain the same.
For followers of the Pāli tradition, which vehicle to follow is an individual choice, and seeking the full awakening of a buddha is one option.25 Although most practitioners seek arhatship, the bodhisatta path is set forth for exceptional individuals. The Buddhavaṃsa, Cariyāpiṭaka, Jātakas, Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14), and Apadāna are canonical scriptures that speak about previous buddhas fulfilling the bodhisatta practices. The twelfth-century Pāli treatise Upāsakajanālaṅkāra by Thera Ānanda from the Mahāvihāra tradition speaks of the awakening of sāvakas, paccekabuddhas, and bodhisattas in detail.
Some Pāli suttas emphasize compassion as the motivating force for the Buddha’s attainment of awakening. He was the “one individual who arose and came to be for the welfare of the multitude, for happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans” (AN 1:170). The Buddha told his disciples to cultivate the Dhamma with that same compassionate motivation so the holy life will last for a long time (DN 16:3.50). He sent the monastics to spread the Dhamma for that same reason (SN 4:5).
Monastics are to engage in the path to liberation not only for their own benefit but also to preserve the Dhamma for future generations and to become exemplars inspiring others to practice the path and attain liberation. Out of concern and compassion for others, the Buddha instructs his followers to abide harmoniously. He praises Mahākassapa for teaching the Dhamma with compassion, and Mahākassapa himself says that he became a monastic and cultivated contentment with simple food, clothing, and shelter to benefit others. His hope was that others would see value in this lifestyle, adopt it for themselves, and attain liberation.
Monastics show compassion by being receptive, accepting offerings, and counseling those from all socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and educational classes. Their duty is to receive their livelihood in a nonharmful manner, show people how to live ethically, encourage them to practice mindfulness, teach them the Dhamma, and be grateful recipients of their gifts so that the laity will accumulate merit from making offerings.
The oldest Pāli scriptures speak of bodhisattas who, in their last lives as sentient beings, become fully awakened buddhas without the aid of a teacher. They begin a dispensation (sāsana, śāsana), turning the Dhamma wheel so the enlightening teachings will exist in the world. This is the awakening attained by buddhas, and it is extolled as superior to the awakenings of sāvakas and paccekabuddhas. While some ancient Pāli sages said that the bodhisatta path is only for those who are destined to become wheel-turning buddhas, the South Indian commentator Dhammapāla did not concur and instead described a bodhisatta path open to others who aspire to follow it.
In a post-canonical Pāli composition, Dasabodhisattupattikathā, the Buddha says, “There have been…and will be limitless and countless ariyas who…with courage and determination having successively fulfilled the pāramīs, will attain buddhahood and pass away having completed a buddha’s duty.”26 It then tells the stories of ten bodhisattas who will do this in the future.
The bodhisatta ideal is not foreign to Theravāda countries. Historically there was interest in the bodhisatta path in Sri Lanka, and statues of the bodhisatta Avalokiteśvara have been unearthed in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and other Theravāda countries. In the past and present, kings and the populace in Theravāda areas found the bodhisatta ideal exemplary. Beginning around the eighth century, some kings in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand either were referred to as bodhisattas by others or declared themselves to be bodhisattas or practitioners of the bodhisatta path.27 Some Theravāda scholars and textual scribes, in the colophon of their writings, declared their bodhicitta motivation, saying “Buddho bhaveyyam” or “May I become a buddha.” Buddhaghosa was regarded as the incarnation of Metteyya Buddha (Maitreya) by the monks of Mahāvihāra Monastery.
Some Theravāda practitioners find the bodhisatta path appealing and practice it.28 Nowadays there are both monastic and lay Buddhists in Theravādin countries who make the resolve to become buddhas for the benefit of all sentient beings.29 In Thailand two Thai masters are regarded as incarnations of the bodhisatta Metteyya.
The pure intention of a bodhisatta is illustrated in the story of the Buddha’s previous life as King Sivi, who desired to give his eyes to someone in need. To test him, Sakka (Śakra), lord of the devas, appeared as a decrepit, blind old man who asked the king for his eyes. With great joy King Sivi immediately had the doctor remove his eyes to give to the old man. After doing this, he said:
While I was desiring to give, while I was giving, and after the gift had been given by me, there was no contradictory state of mind; it was for the sake of awakening itself.… Omniscience was dear to me; therefore I gave the eyes.30
The Buddhavaṃsa relates the inspiring story when Gotama Buddha generated bodhicitta in his previous life. Born into a wealthy family, the brahman Sumedha lived a life of luxury. When his parents died, however, he realized the impermanence of mundane happiness, resolved to seek liberation, and became a matted-hair ascetic. One day he learned that Buddha Dīpaṃkara and his disciples were to visit the city near his hermitage. Descending from his hermitage, he began to clear the path for them but was unable to finish before they arrived. As the Buddha Dīpaṃkara approached, Sumedha, elated to see him, prostrated and lay down in the mud. Sumedha relates this moving event (Bv 52–54):
Loosening my hair, spreading my bark-garments and piece of hide there in the mire, I lay down prone. “Let the Buddha tread on me with his disciples. Do not let him tread in the mire—it will be for my welfare.”
When he initially invited the Buddha and his disciples to use him as a bridge across the mud, Sumedha was focused on his own welfare. He knew that if he wished, he could eradicate defilements and become an arahant that very day by listening to a discourse by Buddha Dīpaṃkara. Questioning his self-centered intention, he made an unshakable resolve to become a buddha and lead all other beings out of saṃsāra (Bv 55–58):
What is the use while I remain ignorant of realizing Dhamma here? Having reached omniscience, I will become a buddha in this world with its devas. What is the use of my crossing over alone, being a person aware of my strength? Having reached omniscience, I will cause the world together with its devas to cross over.
By my merit toward the supreme among humans, I will reach omniscience; I will cause many beings to cross over. Cutting through the stream of saṃsāra, shattering the three renewed existences, embarking in the ship of Dhamma, I will cause the world with its devas to cross over.
Dīpaṃkara Buddha then predicted Sumedha’s full awakening: he would actualize his vow to attain full awakening, becoming a buddha with the name Gotama after four countless ages and a hundred thousand eons. Going into seclusion, Sumedha contemplated how to fulfill his aim of full awakening and saw that the main virtuous qualities to develop were the ten pāramīs. Here a full-fledged bodhisatta path is set out in Pāli scriptures.
All twenty-four buddhas, whose life stories are found in the Buddhavaṃsa, went through a similar process. First, they make an unshakable resolve (paṇidhāna, praṇidhāna) to become a bodhisatta and then a buddha by practicing the path with great diligence for a long time. This mental determination is made once. Then, in the presence of a series of buddhas, they make an aspiration (abhinīhāra) to attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Bodhisattas then perform an act of merit (adhikāra) to demonstrate to each buddha their sincerity and dedication to fulfill that aspiration, and that buddha predicts (vyākaraṇa) their success in doing this.
For the bodhicitta aspiration to be fulfilled in buddhahood, it must be supported by eight conditions: the person is a human being, is male,31 has the necessary supportive conditions (firm Dhamma practice), has generated the bodhicitta aspiration in the presence of a buddha, is a renunciant, has achieved noble qualities such as the superknowledges and the higher states of meditative absorption, has such deep dedication and devotion for the Buddha that he is willing to give up his life to perform great acts of merit for the Three Jewels, and has strong virtuous desire and determination to cultivate the qualities leading to buddhahood (Bv 59). A bodhisatta’s desire for full awakening should be so intense that “if he were to hear ‘Buddhahood can only be attained after experiencing torture in hell for four countless ages and a hundred thousand eons,’ he would not deem that difficult to do but would be filled with desire for the task and would not shrink away” (TP sec. 6). The bodhisattva then investigates the pāramīs, trains in them, and fulfills them.
In addition to generating the aspiration for full awakening, great compassion and skillful means are needed to practice the pāramīs. Skillful means (upāyakosalla, upāyakauśalya) is the wisdom that transforms the pāramīs into the collections necessary to attain full awakening. Uniting the practices of wisdom and compassion, he fulfills the ten pāramīs, practices zeal, competence, stability, and beneficent conduct, and cultivates six inclinations—renunciation, solitude, nonattachment, nonhatred, nonconfusion, and release (from saṃsāra).