Compassion Practices

This week we will begin by practicing loving-kindness for ourselves in order to fill our hearts for our Tonglen practice.

Jack Kornfield: "Kindness is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary (1994) as: 1) of a generous or warm-hearted nature, 2) showing sympathy or understanding, 3) humane. Self kindness is applying a generous and warm heart toward yourself to create sympathy and understanding from yourself, for yourself."

Our tonglen practice will begin for self and expand to include others. In order to do this we need to understand Bodhicitta and the altruistic wish that is generated by its realization within us.

Sogyal Rinpoche: "This compassionate wish is called Bodhicitta in Sanskrit; bodhi means our enlightened essence, and citta means heart. So we could translate it as "the heart of our enlightened mind." To awaken and develop the heart of the enlightened mind is to ripen steadily the seed of our buddha nature, that seed that in the end, when our practice of compassion has become perfect and all-embracing, will flower majestically into buddhahood. Bodhicitta, then, is the spring and source and root of the entire spiritual path." (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, page 201)

Dalai Lama: "The highest perfectin of altruism, the ultimate ulatruism, is Bodhicitta complemented by wisdom. Bodhicitta -- the aspiration to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings and to attain Buddhahood for their sake -- is really the distilled essence, the squeezed juice of all the buddha's teachings."

Lama Surya Das: " Bodhicitta is the very spirit-engine of enlightenment and our prime mover along the Bodhisattva way. If the Bodhisattva is a vessel or vehicle to carry others to nirvana, Bodhicitta is the engine of the great vehicle. Buddhist teachers often describe it as limitless lovingkindness, and active orientation toward seeking the betterment of everyone instead of one's own selfish benefit alone."