Bodhichitta
Bodhichitta [Skt.] (Tib. chang chub kyi sem; byang chub kyi sems) - The compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
Definition
Bodhi means our ‘enlightened essence’ and chitta means ‘heart’ or 'mind', hence the translation ‘the heart of enlightened mind’.
The most famous definition of bodhichitta appears in Maitreya's Abhisamayalankara:
- Bodhichitta is: for the sake of others
- Longing to attain complete enlightenment.
- sems bskyed pa ni gzhan don phyir//
- yang dag rdzogs pa'i byang chub 'dod//
- སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ནི་གཞན་དོན་ཕྱིར༎
- ཡང་དག་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད༎
This has two aspects or points: 1) focusing on sentient beings with compassion, and 2) focusing on perfect enlightenment with wisdom.
Divisions
It is categorized into ‘relative’ or ‘conventional bodhichitta’, and ‘absolute bodhichitta’. Relative bodhichitta entails the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings and to train in the methods to achieve that aim. In relative bodhichitta there is also the distinction between ‘bodhichitta in aspiration’ and ‘bodhichitta in action’, which is portrayed by Shantideva as the difference between deciding to go somewhere and actually making the journey. Absolute bodhichitta is the direct insight into the absolute nature of things.
The Three Types of Commitment
- the king's way of arousing bodhichitta, with the great wish
- the boatman's way of arousing bodhichitta, with sacred wisdom
- the shepherd's way of arousing bodhichitta, beyond compare
Four Types of Bodhichitta According to the Paths and Levels
- bodhichitta of aspiring conduct (path of accumulation onwards)
- bodhichitta of pure noble intention (first bhumi onwards)
- bodhichitta of full maturation (eighth bhumi onwards)
- bodhichitta free from all obscurations (at the level of buddhahood)
There is also a division into twenty-two similes of bodhichitta.