Bodhichitta

We’ve been talking about the loJong slogans for a while now and I’d like to talk today a bit more about Bodhichitta – the heart/mind of love. The whole purpose of this training is to awaken Bodhichitta. All the 59 slogans are designed to point us in the direction of living from our loving heart. Lama Surya Das says that Bodhichitta is the “very spirit-engine of enlightenment” and that “practicing Bodhichitta involves bringing our Buddha-nature out into the wold with our intention (the Bodhisattva Vow) and with each one of our thoughts, words, and deeds (the Bodhisattva Path).”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “The highest perfection of altruism, the ultimate altruism, is Bodhichitta complemented by wisdom. Bodhichitta – 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.” Which is a very direct definition of Absolute and Relative Bodhichitta, the realization of and openness to our connection to all sentient beings, our wish to relieve them of their suffering, and to attain enlightenment in order to be of the greatest benefit to them.

There is the story of the student who asks his teacher, “Master what can I do to help all the suffering beings in the world?” and the Master answers, “Indeed, what can you do?” Here we are, sentient beings ourselves, with all our suffering and confusion. How can we possibly help? The only thing we can do is to begin to cultivate some understanding, some insight, and the more we learn the more we can help. Therefore, to be of maximum benefit to others, the answer is to become enlightened ourselves… to become a Buddha.

Pema Chodron says, “Bodhichitta has three qualities: (1) it is soft and gentle, which is compassion; (2) at the same time, it is clear and sharp, which is called prajna (innate wisdom); and (3) it is open. This last quality of bodhichitta is called shunyata and is also known as emptiness. Emptiness sounds cold. However, Bodhichitta isn’t cold at all, because there’s a heart quality – the warmth of compassion – that pervades the space and the clarity. Compassion and openness and clarity are all one thing, and this one thing is called Bodhichitta.”

How does the loJong help us in this? Well, here we have all these “pithy” slogans – short easy to remember – that direct us always to the heart of the matter. The slogan “regard all dharmas as dreams” tells us to look at the world and see that all phenomena is just a dream or as Pema says “a passing memory.” The old saying “Here today, gone tomorrow,” could be rewritten from the Buddhist perspective as “Here now, gone in a ksana.” We seek permanence, solidity in our lives, and don’t realize that each ksana (1/64th of a finger snap) is the whole of life. There is nothing beyond that. The now is everything. When it passes it is just a memory. What comes next is just a dream. What is now is the whole of life.

Living in the now allows us to move along with equanimity, acceptance, openness. We develop wisdom when we begin to see that even when things are really painful and filled with confusion, we can use those experiences to develop our understanding by seeing that everything arises and passes away; that we are all connected and have the same feelings about what happens to us. That slogan says “When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi.”

The slogans lead us to kindness when they say things like “Don't malign others,” “Don't wait in ambush,” “Don't bring things to a painful point,” “Don't act with a twist,” and “Don't seek others' pain as the limbs of your own happiness.” They lead us to compassion with “Sending and taking should be practiced alternately. These two should ride the breath,” and “Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.” They teach us wisdom in “Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial always to do this pervasively and wholeheartedly.” The three qualities of Bodhichitta are found throughout the slogans. If we can incorporate them into our lives, they will lead us along the path of the bodhisattva.