Why Do We Always Assume We Have Bodhicitta?
Generating bodhicitta is never a bad thing. As the saying goes: "If you wish to benefit yourself in the long run, the key is to benefit others for the time being." Whether your bodhicitta is genuine or not, at the very least, at the moment you arouse it, your intention is directed toward benefiting others. Ultimately, however, the Mahāyāna path is about benefiting others forever.
What Truly Obstructs Our Spiritual Practice Is Insufficient Bodhicitta
Someone who has genuinely generated Mahāyāna bodhicitta is no longer preoccupied with theirown feelings. What truly matters are your well-being, the well-being of everyone present, and ultimately the well-being of all sentient beings.
Why Years of Bodhicitta Practice Haven't Worked？
Every one of us must learn to exam ourselves. Whether we are cultivating renunciation or generating bodhicitta, one essential principle is paramount : observe your own mind. Only through continual self-examination can we discover whether our aspiration are genuine.
Does Buddhism Permit Seeking Human and Heavenly Blessings?
Does Buddhism permit the seeking of human and heavenly blessings? The answer is yes. However, Buddhism also points out that this orientation is neither complete nor ultimate. Why? Because no matter how perfect such blessings may seem, from the perspective of impermanence, their final outcome is still suffering.
How Can One Obtain Human and Heavenly Blessings Through Buddhism?
Seeking human and heavenly blessings is not especially difficult. One needs only a certain degree of devotion, the keeping of basic ethical precepts, the arising of sincere faith, and the making of offerings within one’s capacity—for example, supporting temples, monastics, and accomplished teachers; making offerings above and giving charity below; releasing animals, practicing generosity, or serving as a volunteer.
Is Enlightenment Meaningful?
Enlightenment is an extraordinarily remarkable attainment. Particularly within Tibetan Buddhism, it signifies the possibility of attaining Buddhahood during the intermediate state (bardo) and becoming forever liberated from saṃsāra. Today, people tend to regard billionaires or presidents as extraordinarily successful, yet from a Buddhist perspective, such achievements are not especially significant.
Most of the Bodhicitta We Generate Is Merely Conceptual Bodhicitta
The greatest characteristic of those who fail to make progress in practice is that they do not observe themselves. One must learn to examine one's own motivation in everything one does. This is extremely difficult, yet at the same time remarkably simple.
Is There an Alternative to Arousing Bodhicitta?
Conversely, without genuine and qualified bodhicitta, it is almost impossible to realize absolute great emptiness. This is because, once realization is attained, it is called ultimate bodhicitta, which must be founded upon fabricated, relative bodhicitta.
Three Supreme Methods: Sincerely Moving Toward Liberation
In essence, the three supreme methods can be summarized as sincerely moving toward liberation. If the pursuit of personal liberation is the aim of the Theravada, then we Mahāyāna practitioners should strive toward Buddhahood with unwavering determination. The attainment of Buddhahood naturally includes personal liberation within it.
Why Great Emptiness Requires Mahāyāna Bodhicitta (Part two)
For someone who has genuinely aroused bodhicitta, the effectiveness of practices such as the accumulation of merit and purification of obscurations, as well as Guru Yoga, is beyond the power of words to describe. By contrast, one who has not generated Mahāyāna bodhicitta has not even entered the Mahāyāna path. How, then, could such a person possibly realize the Mahāyāna view of emptiness?
Why Great Emptiness Requires Mahāyāna Bodhicitta (Part one)
Only when one has aroused Mahāyāna bodhicitta and directly realized the emptiness of both subject and object can one truly be said to awaken to the great emptiness, in which all phenomena without exception are empty. Without generating Mahāyāna bodhicitta, it is impossible either to realize emptiness completely, or to avoid a one-sided or partial realization of emptiness.
What is the “ostrich practice” in spiritual cultivation?
How should this be practiced? It is very simple. When someone attacks or troubles you in daily life, just ignore it—like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. But this “sand” is the “sand of bodhicitta” . Let your entire body and mind be immersed in bodhicitta; then external attacks will be like wind passing over sand dunes, leaving no trace.
Three Ways of Generating Bodhicitta（Part Two）
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.
The Reasons Why Genuine Renunciation Fails to Arise (Part Two)
When the true nature is seen, liberation is attained. But before you can see through appearances to their essence, you must relinquish the obstacles that prevent such insight. Ultimately, these obstacles are nothing other than attachment to saṃsāra.
The Reasons Why Genuine Renunciation Fails to Arise (Part three)
The consequence of lacking genuine renunciation is that, in daily life, you will be unable to relinquish many forms of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. Even after studying Buddhism for a long time, your purpose for doing so may remain vague. Conceptually, you say, “I want to leave saṃsāra.” But if you examine yourself to the core —you will find that this is not truly the case.
Why Is Bodhicitta the Defining Boundary Between the Mahāyāna and the Theravāda?
This is a profound question. Mipham Rinpoche once critiqued Tsongkhapa's position on precisely this issue. According to the Gelug tradition, arhats have realized the great emptiness; they enter nirvāṇa simply because they lack the vast bodhicitta of the Mahāyāna. Mipham Rinpoche, however, maintained that arhats realize only the emptiness of the self of the person, but have not realized the emptiness of phenomena.
Characteristics of Bodhicitta (Part Two)
To take Buddhahood as one's object means that bodhicitta cannot merely be a kind or compassionate intention. In generating bodhicitta, one must also orient the mind toward wisdom . Whether we seek our own Buddhahood or the Buddhahood of all sentient beings, wisdom is indispensable. This is an extremely important point.
Characteristics of Bodhicitta（part one）
Bodhicitta is the aspiration for all sentient beings to attain the greatest benefit— liberation and Buddhahood. It is the wholehearted resolve to strive toward this goal, making the vow to attain Buddhahood oneself for the sake of others. In essence, it is what we often express as: “For the benefit of all sentient beings, I vow to attain Buddhahood.”
Why Are Study and Contemplation So Important in Buddhist Practice?
Why is this so? Because through study and contemplation, you come to realize, “Ah, so this is the true nature of the world.” Once the mind truly be convinced of this, renunciation naturally arises. And to put this into practice,, one must cultivate bodhicitta; then a strong aspiration to benefit others naturally arise.
The Four Stages of Madhyamaka Practice (Part Four)
What is meant by equality ? Equality means that the essence of mind and the appearances of mind share the same nature—emptiness and luminosity. The essence of mind is emptiness and luminosity; likewise, the phenomena perceived through seeing, hearing, and all forms of experience are also emptiness and luminosity. This is called equality. It is the genuine state of Dzogchen.