Vajrayana Part 10

Continue Tantric teachings: 3 Principals Aspects of the Path/3 Higher Trainings

B) BODHICITTA:  Mind of awakening for the sake of others (universal compassion)

1)  One who manage to cultivate the mind of renunciation but not supported by pure mind of awakening (bodhicitta) that persons practice of renunciation won't bring maximum benefit to him and the others.  

2) As long as a person is lacking bodhicitta there is no way he will achieve buddhahood.

3) As long as a person is away from buddhahood, that person has not accomplished the highest level of benefit to others and himself.

4) The smart one must generate the excellent awakening mind (bodhicitta) in order to achieve the state of buddhahood, which has the capacity to bring maximum benefit to self and others.

When an individual with the right motivation take refuge he desires to attain personal liberation from samsara and its causes.  Bodhicitta extends this desire to encompass all 'sentient beings'.  All beings in samsara share the same condition.  We aspire with enthusiasm to rescue them from this bondage and lead them to enlightenment.  At present they lack the necessary powers to complete our task but by attaining buddhahood we can acquire them for our personal happiness but for the benefit of all living beings.  Bodhicitta is the wish for supreme enlightenment for the sake of 'others'.  The SIGN OF TRUE BODHICITTA is the constant readiness to undergo any sacrifice for the happiness of all beings. The pure bodhicitta grows gradually & our present state of mind is transformed only after long acquaintance with it. When bodhicitta arises spontaneously like the thought of 'food in a starving man', a person becomes a real bodhisattva. Then, the smallest virtuous action is incomparable with any ordinary good deed, creating merit as vast as space.

All of our activities & thoughts are tinged by self-serving motivations & attitudes.  Even when they perform acts of kindness, they generally do so expecting praise or personal satisfaction and not because of pure altruism. Bodhisattvas are motivated by universal compassion, they seek the ultimate goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others.  

The Sign of true Boddhisattvas is the constant readiness to undergo any sacrifice for the happiness of all beings.  Unlike ordinary beings, who think of their own advantage, boddhisattvas consider how best to benefit others.  They become endowed with that kind of wise insight that enables them to see all beings as trap in samsara.  Great compassion takes hold of them.

METHOD TO CULTIVATE BODHICITTA

Birth, aging, sickness and death - 4 conditions that we go through in our life. Another version is our 'desire, karma, wrong view and ignorance' (4 negative emotions) that constantly disturb us.  We are bound very tightly by the chains of karma.  As long as we dwell in samsara, we are controlled by the power of karma.  As long as we live with self-grasping, this will never let us be free from samsaric cyclic existence.  As long as we live under the strong influence of ignorance, the darkness of ignorance stops us from seeing the TRUTH.  And if we don't understand the truth, there is no chance at all to achieve liberation and buddhahood.

11 Rounds of contemplation

1) Equanimity - calmness of mind or temper : to develop an awareness of our mental attitude, examine to ascertain whether they are right or wrong.

2) Recognition of all beings as our mother: At present other beings seem unrelated to us, we do in fact have a very close relationship with them and it is our responsibility to help them.  The nature of this bond is that of 'mother & child'.  Our present existence is not a self-originated phenomenon but it is a product of many former lives (rebirths).  In the past we  have been born many times  through birth process: from womb, from an egg, from moisture etc.

3) Remembering their kindness: Contemplate our own mother's kindness towards us; our fondness for her will grow.  Before our birth we were protected & preciously carried in her womb.  We were in a state of total helplessness and complete dependence.

4) Repaying their kindness: Having realized we owe a debt of gratitude, we must find out how it can be repaid.  Since all beings wish to be rid of suffering and to gain happiness, we must recognize and effect a total change of  our consciousness.

5) Equality of self & others: We should understand how the will to repay the kindness of motherly sentient beings leads to those new attitude of our mind.

6) The faults of self-cherishing: We persist in regarding ourselves as most precious while others seem less important. Whenever feeling like this arise we must immediately change our attitude.

7) The advantages of cherishing others: The cultivation of this attitude is right and wholesome. The supreme qualities of enlightened beings is happiness we enjoy result from our efforts for the well being of our fellow creatures.

8) The mental attitude of exchanging the self with others: When we have become fully aware of the disadvantages of cherishing ourselves at the expense of other.  We can change our attitude to effect a transformation so that when another being suffers we cannot bear his anguish and suffer also. ( eg a mother feels great happiness when she knows her child is contented because she holds her child more precious than herself. Her ability of exchange is limited to one being but our aim is to extend it to all beings.

9) Taking and giving: We begin this meditation by imaging the wrong self cherishing attitude in the form of a black spot at our heart.  Around us are the sentient beings of the 6-realms (negative realms: hell beings, hungry ghosts (pretas), animal. positive realms: human beings, gods (devas), asuras (demi gods)).  We can visualize them in their respective realms or all in human form. Then we begin to generate compassion, the strong wish to separate the greatly suffering beings from misery.  We generate loving kindness (metta) and the willingness to give away our happiness. We then visualize all the merits and seeds of our skillful deeds in the form of radiant white light embracing all sentient beings.  As it touches them, it gives mental and physical happiness to all.

10) The supreme wish: When we look to see if sentient beings really do have this happiness we find that we have done in our visualization has not affected them directly but has helped us to develop the supreme wish. This stimulus to increase our efforts by reflecting on the kindness of all beings and their poor conditions, we must decide with stronger love and compassion that we will accept the responsibility of delivering them from their suffering.

11) Generation of bodhicitta: After arising from the former meditation, we must examine ourselves to see if it is really in our capabilities to fulfill the commitment we have made?  We shall find that we aspire to rid ourselves and others of suffering, we are totally happy by it.  At present our consciousness is like the sun obscured by clouds.  As the clouds disperse the sunshine becomes brighter until finally the sun floods the whole land with its radiant light. In the same way each of the bodhisattva stages, certain obstacles are eliminated and the power of wisdom is fully developed one becomes an enlightened being, a Buddha.

These are the stations on the journey of bodhicitta.  When making a journey, it is not enough merely to know the names of the stations, they must be recognized &  means found to reach them through our practice but to live by it (be sincere). Remember the law of physics: it qualifies that you receive in "equal reaction" to what you give.  A tip to look out for: you should be able to tell that your practice is working by the way you feel - the 1st evidence of when you feel your emotions lift.  It has to be heartfelt, just mouthing the words is not enough. It's a feeling of peace, calm, happiness (positive emotions)

Reminder: Practice: need to Purify and accumulate Merits:

Purification of oneself, accumulation of merits, every practice that people do has an effect, has a purpose and helps.