In fact, the cultivation of bodhicitta is filled with such paradoxes. The more wholeheartedly we dedicate ourselves to benefiting sentient beings, the greater the benefit we ourselves ultimate receive. . As the great master Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (often respectfully referred to as the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Dharma King) wrote in The Song of Victory: "If you wish to seizure your own long-term welfare, , the essential instruction is to place the welfare of others before your pin for the time being."
This is because there is, in reality, no truly existent self. Both "I" and "sentient beings" are mental fabrications. Having fabricated them, the mind begins to cling to and to extend its affection toward others selectively—loving those from whom it expects some benefit. Why do people fall in love? Fundamentally, because the other person brings them comfort and provides some form of benefit. Otherwise, what would be the basis for entering such a relationship?
Thus, we love those who benefit us and hate those who harm us. The mind naturally falls into this pattern,, even though both "self" and "others" are merely mental fabrications. The cultivation of bodhicitta is precisely the antidote to this habitual pattern.. It trains us to love these fabricated, illusory sentient beings while simultaneously relinquishing attachment to the equally fabricated, illusory self. When the self disappears, sentient beings also disappear.
One might ask, "If that is the case, then for an arhat, who has already eliminated self-grasping, have sentient beings also disappeared? An arhat has not yet attained Buddhahood. Mistaking the attainment of cessation(nirodha-samāpatti) for the realization of selflessness, , the arhat still perceives sentient beings.. Although the notion of “I” has ceased within the mental continuum, the continuum itself remains. The arhat still clings to a subtle notion of "selflessness"; a subtle grasping still persists.
In this way, "selflessness" itself becomes an objectified state, and this state is called nirvāṇa. Arhats use nirvāṇa as a means of departing from the world of sentient beings, and consequently they no longer engage in liberating them.
Practitioners of the Mahāyāna, however, do not enter such a nirvāṇa. They regard remaining among sentient beings and working for their liberation as nirvāṇa itself. They liberate sentient beings, yet in reality no sentient beings are liberated.
As the Diamond Sūtra states: "All classes of sentient beings... I shall lead them all to enter the nirvāṇa without remainder and thus liberate them. Yet although immeasurable, countless, boundless sentient beings are thus liberated, in truth not a single sentient being has been liberated."
Likewise, the Abhisamayālaṅkāra declares: "Through wisdom, one does not abide in saṃsāra; through compassion, one does not abide in nirvāṇa." In other words, afflictions themselves are bodhi, and emptiness is inseparable from luminous appearance.
Therefore, when these teachings are interpreted through the lens of wisdom, it becomes clear that the boatman-like and shepherd-like generating bodihicitta are in no way contradictory to the aspiration, "For the benefit of sentient beings, I aspire to attain Buddhahood." If, however, we cling only to the literal wording of these expressions, they will appear contradictory. Remaining entangled in such conceptual contradictions will never lead us to genuine understanding.
— Excerpted and compiled from Genuine Bodhicitta and Conceptual Bodhicitta
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
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