E-Learning Programs

Bodhicitta (Skt., translated as “awakening mind” or “thought of enlightenment”) is the commitment to embark on a path of awakening and be a bodhisattva, one dedicated to the liberation all beings. Bodhicitta is born of compassion, the desire to free all beings from suffering, even those who wish us harm or consider us enemies. One of the foundations of the Mahayana tradition, bodhicitta is woven into many of its teachings.

Bodhicitta is central to the bodhisattva vow, a commitment common to many Mahayana Buddhist traditions. If you visit different dharma centers, in the liturgy you will find many variations of the following four lines:

Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them.
The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to embody it.

Practitioners take this vow because they identify with all beings—recognizing that all are interconnected—and wish to attain enlightenment in order to free them. Bodhisattvas vow to defer their own enlightenment until all beings are freed from samsara (the cycle of life and death). The bodhisattva path is available not just to ordained monastics but to anyone willing to undertake its considerable challenges.

Bodhicitta can also be viewed in both relative and absolute terms. Relative bodhicitta refers to the intention to embark on the bodhisattva path for the sake of all beings. Absolute bodhicitta is the realization that all phenomena are essentially empty—without essence, or self-existence. Bodhicitta practices in contemporary Buddhism thus often weave together practices for cultivating compassion and generosity with those that deepen one’s understanding of emptiness.

The text that is perhaps most closely associated with bodhicitta is Shantideva’s 8th-century work The Way of the Bodhisattva [Skt., Bodhicaryavatara]. Bodhicitta is also described in such Mahayana texts as the Flower Ornament Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, and Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation.

All the bodhisattva-mahasattvas, who undertake
the practice of meditation, should cherish one thought only: “When I attain perfect wisdom,
I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe.”

—Diamond Sutra, trans. Mu Soeng

Therefore, the practice of Bodhicitta is very important in our daily cultivation as a practitioner ( Bodhisattva) on the road to Buddhahood.