Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [68]
When this epiphany occurs, all the Buddhas rejoice. The scriptures say that as soon as you make this Bodhisattva Vow to realize enlightenment and relieve universal suffering, all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, devas, angels, and guardians of the Dharma clap their hands and rain down celestial flowers and divine nectar. It’s like you scored a touchdown or hit a home run. As poetic as that seems, I really feel that this is true in a spiritual sense. You can feel it yourself as you open a little more to the joy of spiritual awakening. It also says in the scriptures that when the Bodhisattva Vow has taken root in your heart, then everything you do is beneficial—even snoring, sleeping, and brushing your teeth. They say that when a Bodhisattva turns over in his or her sleep, beings are awakened. Even if this is mainly metaphorical, it still means that this awakening mind and aspiration for enlightenment is extraordinarily important.
BODHICITTA: THE ENLIGHTENED MIND OF THE BODHISATTVA
From among all the vast divisions of the Buddha’s teachings.
Bodhicitta is the very quintessence.
Bodhicitta is the supreme protection from evil and wrongdoing.
Bodhicitta repels the harm of the lower realms;
Bodhicitta opens the supreme path of liberation….
Don’t be distracted, don’t be distracted
Train in Bodhicitta.
Don’t be mistaken, don’t be mistaken—train in Bodhicitta.
Don’t err, don’t err—train in Bodhicitta.
—NYOSHUL KHENPO RINPOCHE,
FROM A SPONTANEOUS
ENLIGHTENMENT SONG
Bodhicitta means the purified and fully developed heart-mind. This is the heart, the very soul, of enlightenment. Practicing bodhicitta means cultivating all one’s innate enlightened qualities and following the path of awakening.
My living Dzogchen teacher Nyoshul Khenpo often points out that the primary distinction between the deluded mind and the enlightened mind is mainly a difference of narrowness and openness, being narrow-minded versus open-minded. The more constricted and narrow your attitude, the more ego-centered you are. The more open your attitude, the more conscious you are of everyone’s well-being. Thus the entire path from an ordinary sentient being to Buddhahood is the gradual opening of heart and mind.
The whole Dzogchen teaching, the entire Vajrayana teaching, the Great Vehicle known as Mahayana is based on trying to live bodhicitta by becoming more enlightened and helping others in everything we do. Realizing suffering, we intuitively wish to end it everywhere. Not just in our own living room, but everywhere. We want to end pain, not just the pain in our own lives, but in everyone’s life.
Obviously the Bodhisattva Vow is an enormous intentional undertaking. It might even seem beyond the scope of our minds to imagine—to never stop doing spiritual work until there is no more suffering left in the universe. It is a huge boundless intention. Fortunately we only have to take one step at a time. How does one start?
We start here and now by trying to purify our thoughts and our lives so that we help, not harm, others. We don’t have to use fancy words like bodhicitta or Bodhisattva for that. In our own Western languages, we too can find words that work. How about unselfish, compassionate, good heart, warm heart, empathetic, virtuous, kind? If bodhicitta doesn’t show up in our lives in ways and words we understand, what kind of spiritual practice are we involved in? If spiritual practice doesn’t work—if the Dharma doesn’t deliver as promised—what good is it?
We don’t have to believe in karma, rebirth, enlightenment, or anything explicitly religious or esoteric to start striving to practice bodhicitta as a way of life. As the Dalai Lama said:
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