Dear friends near and far,
As always, I hope this message finds you well, healthy and happy. On today’s Guru Rinpoche day, I would like to comment on a precious prayer that many of us recite every day:
May the precious mind of awakening
Be born in those who as yet lack it,
And once it is born, may it not decline,
But only grow forever more!
These words were taken from the great bodhisattva Shantideva’s foundational text, Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvacharyavatara). In it, Shantideva devoted three full chapters to just the first two lines of this verse: fostering the birth of bodhichitta in the mindstreams of those who do not yet have it.
Indeed, it is extremely important for all of us to cultivate bodhichitta. In his first chapter on its benefits, Shantideva explains that as soon as bodhichitta arises within our being, we take on a new name, becoming sons and daughters of the Buddha, or children of the noble lineage. Thus, when bodhichitta is born within us, we no longer belong only to our ancestral family lineage, but we have joined the exalted lineage of the buddhas.
The second important benefit of bodhichitta is that any merit (or auspicious condition) that we create with the motivation of bodhichitta will never come to exhaustion, but bear us all the way to full awakening. That is, any action suffused with the mindset of bodhichitta becomes a direct cause for enlightenment. And, in parallel, any misdeed or obscuration within our being can be purified by bodhichitta, which will consume them all.
Now, in order for bodhichitta to be born where it has not yet taken hold, we need two conditions: the right bodily support, and the right mental support. The bodily support is the precious human body, which we have all obtained. The right mental support is the desire and intention to practice the Dharma. This attitude comes from merit accumulated in previous lives, as well as from the compassionate blessings of the buddhas.
Based on these conditions, we first form bodhichitta in aspiration, which is like the intention to go somewhere, and then bodhichitta in application, which is like actually undertaking the journey. And within this journey, there is relative bodhichitta and ultimate bodhichitta—the realization of emptiness.
But in order for bodhichitta to first take hold within our being, it is not enough to only wish for it and think of its benefits. We also need to accumulate merit. Thus, we first and foremost need to practice the first four branches of practice, namely offering, homage, refuge, and confessing our misdeeds. Offerings can consist in actual physical gifts (such as candlelight), mentally emanated gifts, the gift of the power of aspirations, or the unsurpassable gift. Then, we pay homage through prostrations, take refuge in the Three Jewels, and confess all of our misdeeds by relying on the four strengths, as described by Shantideva in the second chapter, on the confession of misdeeds. All of these are methods to foster the birth of bodhichitta in our being.
Thus, on today’s Guru Rinpoche day, I wanted to share with you all these key points of the first two chapters of Shantideva’s Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva, the chapters on the benefits of bodhichitta and on the confession of misdeeds. These points are essential for anyone wishing to foster the birth of bodhichitta in their being. Whatever practice you engage in—whether it’s shamata, vipashyana, generation stage, completion stage, or the Great Perfection—you should constantly be striving in the cultivation of bodhichitta.
With all my love and prayers,
Sarva Mangalam.
Phakchok Rinpoche
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