u/theOmnipotentKiller

Homage to the liberating power of wisdom!

All arisen phenomena depend on causes

So I confess non-virtue that leads to sorrow

So I rejoice in virtue that leads to bliss

And since all virtue arises from bodhicitta

I rejoice most in bodhicitta wherever it has arisen!

May this verse of appreciation lead to liberating joy throughout space!

This is from Seongcheol, an enlightened Zen master back in the 1900s. He's one of the masters who introduced me to the right perspective of the Mahayana, and that perspective I feel is captured very well in this poem:

> The great achievements of the world are but snowflakes melting on fire,
Accomplishments that move oceans are but dew disappearing in the glare of the sun,
Why live a dream in this ethereal life of dreams,
I forsake all to walk towards the great eternal truth.

This world is the endless world of dreams, we dream day-in and day-out and accomplish great things in our dreams. But when we wake up, the dream melts into light like the dew once the sun rises in the morning.

And you see the non-duality here from the story by Layman Pang:

> Layman Pang was sitting in his thatched cottage one day, studying the sutras.
“Difficult, difficult, difficult,” he suddenly exclaimed, “like trying to store ten bushels of sesame seed in the top of a tree.”
“Easy, easy, easy,” his wife, Laywoman Pang, answered. “It’s like touching your feet to the floor when you get out of bed.”
“Neither difficult nor easy,” said their daughter Lingzhao. “It’s like the teachings of the ancestors shining on the hundred grass-tips."

Seongcheol had this to say about nirvana:

> Perfect enlightenment pervades all, serenity and destruction are not two
All that is visible is Avalokiteshvara, all that is audible is the mystical sound
No other truth than seeing and hearing
Do you understand?
Mountain is mountain, water is water.

This is easy to accept, you have Dudjom Rinpoche saying this, for example:

> All that appears is exalted Bodhisattva Great Compassion’s body;
Resonant sounds are the six-syllable mantra’s’ wisdom speech;
All recollection and thoughts are clear light,
the exalted Bodhisattva’s wisdom mind.
Yet, these are not newly fashioned:
Know that they exist self-manifest.
Sustain this knowledge within the natural state and you will be liberated.
I, Jnana, wrote this in response to a request.

But more important than enlightenment, nirvana, or clear mind is just perfect bodhicitta:

> So may the suffering of all the three realms ripen on me,
May my merits be taken by sentient beings,
And through the blessings of the merit of this,
May all beings attain buddhahood!

• Drakpa Gyaltsen

First, you should generate that dream-shattering view that Seongcheol puts into perspective well, where the great deeds of the world are just dewdrops on grass, like ephemeral dreams. This creates the foundation upon which bodhicitta can arise. Then, you generate the supreme bodhicitta.

> Geshe Tonpa was visited once by a monk who was a disciple of the Three Brothers and Khampa Lungpa.
"What is Potowa doing nowadays?" Tonpa asked the monk.
"He is teaching the Dharma to hundreds of members of the Sangha."
"Wonderful! And what about Geshe Puchungwa?"
"He spends all his time fashioning representations [statues] of the body, speech and mind of the Buddha from materials that he and other people have offered."
"Wonderful!" Geshe Tonpa repeated. "What about Gonpawa?"
"He does nothing but meditate."
"Wonderful! Tell me about Khampa Lhungpa."
"He stays in solitude, weeping continually, with his face hidden."
At this Tonpa took off his hat, joined his hands before his heart and, shedding many tears, exclaimed, "Oh, that is really marvellous! That is really practising the Dharma. I could tell you a lot about how good he is, but I know he wouldn't like it."

• Patrul Rinpoche, WMPT

Bodhicitta is not compassion, it is not love, it is not equanimity, it is not joy. You can have compassion and no bodhicitta, you can have love and no bodhicitta, and so on. Bodhicitta uses those four divine abodes to support itself, but most importantly by far is the preciousness of other sentient beings. Whatever causes this preciousness to arise is the cause of bodhicitta. That helpless feeling of taking off your hat when you hear about real bodhicitta, for example, is bodhicitta.

We very often forget, but bodhicitta is the entire Mahayana path. Even if you fail to generate the dream-breaking view, if you have bodhicitta it's ok, you will succeed. But with the view and without bodhicitta, there is no way. Theravada is possible without bodhicitta, but with bodhicitta even that path is a thousand times easier. It is really the entire meaning of why we practice, bodhicitta is like a sobering moment when you're drunk, it puts all of existence into the right perspective, beyond views, straight into clarity.

I almost forgot this poem, it seems fitting to end on this because Seongcheol passed away in the same place where he first ordained:

> There is a way. No one will reveal the secret. You must enter the door yourself. But there is no door. In the end, there is not even a way.

Homage to Buddha, the Protector of all beings

How does giving rise to bodhicitta evolve into Buddhahood?

Buddha Shakyamuni implicitly provided us his journey across many teachings. With the help of AI, I tried synthesizing this journey to inspire us to practice along the bodhisattva path.

This is where we enter genuinely vast territory — the full corpus of the bodhisattva’s lives between Dīpaṅkara and Tuṣita spans hundreds of texts and thousands of stories. Let me try to give you the most complete structural and narrative account I can, drawing from multiple sources.

The Framework: Twenty-Four Buddhas and Three Great Eons

The Buddhavaṃsa (Chronicle of Buddhas) provides the backbone. Between Dīpaṅkara and Śākyamuni, the bodhisattva practiced under twenty-four Buddhas, receiving a renewed prophecy from each one. Each encounter marked a deepening of his practice and a confirmation that his trajectory was on course. The twenty-four are:

Dīpaṅkara, Koṇḍañña, Maṅgala, Sumana, Revata, Sobhita, Anomadassī, Paduma, Nārada, Padumuttara, Sumedha, Sujāta, Piyadassī, Atthadassī, Dhammadassī, Siddhattha, Tissa, Phussa, Vipassī, Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, and Kassapa.

Under each one, the bodhisattva appeared in a different form — sometimes as a human ascetic, sometimes a king, sometimes a deva, sometimes an animal — and performed some act of extraordinary virtue in their presence that prompted the prophecy. The Buddhavaṃsa gives brief accounts of what he was doing in each case: under Maṅgala he was a brahmin named Suruci, under Padumuttara he was a wealthy householder named Nanda, under Kassapa he was a young brahmin named Jotipāla (this last one is expanded upon in the Ghaṭīkāra Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya, where Jotipāla is actually initially dismissive of the Buddha Kassapa and has to be dragged by his friend, the potter Ghaṭīkāra, to meet him — a striking detail showing that even a bodhisattva in his penultimate cycle could still have resistance and skepticism).

The Ten Perfections and Their Culminating Lives

The Pali tradition organizes the bodhisattva’s practice around ten perfections (pāramī), each practiced at three levels: the ordinary (pāramī), the higher (upapāramī), and the ultimate (paramatthapāramī). The Cariyāpiṭaka collects thirty-five stories explicitly mapped to the first seven perfections. But the most celebrated lives come from the Jātaka collection — 547 stories in total, with the final ten (the Mahānipāta, Jātakas 538–547) considered the crown of the collection, each representing the ultimate practice of one perfection.

1. Generosity (Dāna) — Vessantara Jātaka (#547)

This is the bodhisattva’s very last life before Tuṣita, and it’s the single most important Jātaka in the entire tradition. As King Vessantara, the bodhisattva practiced generosity to a degree that defies comprehension. He gave away a magical rain-bringing elephant to a neighboring kingdom suffering drought, which enraged his own people and got him exiled. In the forest, a brahmin named Jūjaka came and asked for his two children as servants. Vessantara gave them. Then Sakka (Indra), disguised as a brahmin, asked for his wife Maddī. He gave her too. Each act of giving was accompanied by earthquakes — the earth itself shuddering at the extremity of the sacrifice.

The point of the story — which can be deeply uncomfortable to modern readers — is not that abandoning one’s children is good. It’s that the bodhisattva had reached the point where even the most primal attachments could not override his commitment to the perfection of giving. Everything was returned in the end; the story resolves happily. But the moment of giving is the moment that completed the perfection of dāna at the ultimate level.

Other major generosity lives include the Śibi Jātaka (cutting flesh from his body to equal the weight of a dove to ransom it from a hawk — the scales kept tipping until he placed his entire body on them), the Sasa Jātaka (#316, as a rabbit who threw himself into a fire to feed a hungry brahmin — the brahmin was Sakka in disguise, who placed the rabbit’s image on the moon), and the Nigrodhamiga Jātaka (#12, as a deer king who offered his own life in place of a pregnant doe).

2. Morality (Sīla) — Bhūridatta Jātaka (#543)

As Bhūridatta, the bodhisattva was a nāga prince who took the moral precepts and lay on an anthill observing them with perfect discipline. A snake-charmer captured him and brutally tortured him, making him perform in villages. Throughout the entire ordeal, Bhūridatta had the power to destroy his captor with a single breath of his poisonous fire but refused to break his commitment to non-harm.

Also relevant: the Saṅkhapāla Jātaka (#524), another life as a nāga king who similarly endured terrible abuse from humans while keeping his vows.

3. Renunciation (Nekkhamma) — Temiya/Mūgapakkha Jātaka (#538)

As Prince Temiya, the bodhisattva remembered a past life in which he had been a king who ordered punishments, and the karmic suffering that followed. Horrified, he resolved as an infant to avoid kingship at all costs. He pretended to be deaf, mute, and crippled for sixteen years, enduring every kind of test — loud noises, flames near his body, being left in a charnel ground — without flinching from his pretense. When his father finally ordered him buried alive as defective, Temiya revealed himself, explained his reasons, renounced the kingdom, and became an ascetic. His entire family and court followed him into renunciation.

4. Wisdom (Paññā) — Mahosadha Jātaka (#546)

This is the longest single Jātaka — essentially a novella — about the bodhisattva as the sage Mahosadha, the wisest of the counselors to King Vedeha. The story is a sustained exercise in strategic intelligence: Mahosadha outwits rival sages, defeats invading kings through clever stratagems, builds an underground tunnel network to save his city, and ultimately brings about peace through sheer brilliance rather than violence. It represents wisdom not as abstract philosophical insight but as practical intelligence deployed for the welfare of beings.

Also important: the Ummagga Jātaka (often identified with or closely related to Mahosadha) and various lives as teachers and counselors.

5. Effort/Energy (Viriya) — Mahājanaka Jātaka (#539)

As Prince Mahājanaka, the bodhisattva was shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean. Everyone else gave up and drowned. Mahājanaka kept swimming — for seven days, with no land in sight, no hope of rescue, simply because giving up effort was not an option. The goddess Maṇimekhalā, astonished, appeared and asked why he kept going when there was clearly no hope. His answer was essentially: the outcome isn’t the point; right effort is the point. She carried him to safety.

This story is particularly beloved because it captures something essential about the bodhisattva path — three incalculable eons of practice with no guarantee, sustained by commitment rather than by visible progress.

6. Patience (Khanti) — Khantivādī Jātaka (#313)

As the ascetic Khantivādī (“the patience-teacher”), the bodhisattva sat in a royal park teaching about patience. The drunken King Kalabu, jealous of the attention his courtesans were paying the ascetic, demanded to know what he taught. “Patience.” The king had his hands cut off. “What do you teach?” “Patience.” His feet. His ears. His nose. Through the entire mutilation, the bodhisattva maintained not only composure but genuine non-anger — the text says not a trace of ill will arose in his mind. He even said, “The patience I practice is not of the skin or the flesh; it is in the heart.”

The Jātakamālā version by Āryaśūra (the Kṣāntivādin Avadāna) adds that blood flowed from his wounds as milk, a miraculous sign of his complete purity of mind.

7. Truthfulness (Sacca) — Vidhura Jātaka (#545)

As Vidhura, the bodhisattva was a sage of such wisdom and eloquence that a nāga queen became desperately determined to hear his teaching. A yakkha (demon) named Puṇṇaka was sent to bring Vidhura’s heart. Through a series of events including a rigged dice game, Vidhura ended up in Puṇṇaka’s power, carried to the edge of a cliff to be killed. But Vidhura remained completely calm and truthful throughout, never lying to escape, never flattering the yakkha, and ultimately winning him over through the sheer power of a dharma discourse. The “heart” the nāga queen wanted turned out to be the heart of his teaching, not his physical organ.

8. Determination (Adhiṭṭhāna) — Nimi Jātaka (#541)

As King Nimi (or Nemi), the bodhisattva was a righteous king so admired by the devas that Sakka sent a celestial chariot to bring him to heaven. En route, he was shown both the hells and the heavens. But instead of remaining in heavenly bliss, Nimi chose to return to the human realm to continue serving his people. He maintained his determination to fulfill his role as a dharma-king rather than be seduced by divine pleasures.

The Mahāyāna tradition sometimes connects this to the determination that characterizes the seventh bhūmi and beyond — the bodhisattva who could enter nirvāṇa but refuses.

9. Loving-kindness (Mettā) — Suvaṇṇasāma Jātaka (#540)

As Sāma (or Suvaṇṇasāma, “Golden Sāma”), the bodhisattva was a young hermit who devotedly cared for his blind parents in the forest. His loving-kindness was so powerful that wild animals would gather peacefully around him. A king, hunting in the forest, shot him with a poisoned arrow. Even while dying, Sāma harbored no resentment toward the king — his only concern was who would care for his parents. His mettā was so pure that it eventually healed him and restored his parents’ sight.

10. Equanimity (Upekkhā) — Mahānāradakassapa Jātaka (#544)

As the ascetic Nārada (or Mahānāradakassapa), the bodhisattva encountered a king named Aṅgati who had fallen into nihilistic views — denying karma, denying the afterlife, living in complete hedonistic abandon. The bodhisattva displayed miraculous powers (flying through the air, showing the king visions of the hells) but maintained perfect equanimity throughout — not triumphant when the king seemed persuaded, not despairing when he wavered, not wrathful at the king’s cruelty, simply presenting the truth with a balanced mind.

Beyond the Ten: Other Notable Lives

The 547 Jātakas contain an enormous range beyond these culminating stories. Some highlights:

As animals, the bodhisattva appeared as a monkey king (the Mahākapi Jātaka, #407 — he made his body a bridge for his troop to escape across a river, breaking his back in the process), as an elephant who let hunters take his tusks even as they sawed them off alive (Chaddanta Jātaka, #514), as a quail whose truthfulness extinguished a forest fire (Vaṭṭaka Jātaka), as a buffalo who endured the torments of a monkey with patience, as a fish who saved his school through the power of truth.

As kings and rulers, he appeared repeatedly — as King Mahāsudassana (described in the Mahāsudassana Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya), a universal monarch of incredible power and wealth who still renounced everything when he saw the impermanence of it all. As King Sivi (distinct from the flesh-giving Śibi story), who pulled out his own eyes to give to a blind brahmin. As the prince in the Kuṇāla Avadāna, whose eyes were torn out by a jealous queen, borne with equanimity.

As ascetics and teachers, he appeared constantly — as Sumedha under Dīpaṅkara (the beginning), as various ṛṣis and munis in forest hermitages, as wandering teachers. The Jātakamālā of Āryaśūra (a Mahāyāna Sanskrit collection of 34 stories) presents many of these with particular literary beauty — the story of the bodhisattva as a tiger’s mother who threw himself off a cliff to feed a starving tigress and her cubs (Vyāghrī Jātaka, the first story in the Jātakamālā) is one of the most famous images in all of Buddhist art.

As divine and semi-divine beings, he was born among devas, nāgas, and yakṣas at various points — the tradition holds that a bodhisattva takes birth in whatever realm is most useful for the practice of the perfections and the benefit of beings.

The Mahāyāna Structural Overlay

The Gelug tradition, following Asaṅga’s Abhisamayālaṅkāra and its commentaries (particularly Haribhadra’s), maps these lives onto a more systematic path:

First incalculable eon: From the initial generation of bodhicitta (Sumedha/Dīpaṅkara) through the paths of accumulation (saṃbhāramārga) and preparation (prayogamārga), culminating in the attainment of the first bhūmi (pramuditā, “joyful”). During this eon, the bodhisattva practices all perfections but with particular emphasis on generosity. The practice is still effortful and involves many setbacks — the bodhisattva can still take unfortunate rebirths, can still have moments of discouragement.

Second incalculable eon: From the first bhūmi through the seventh (dūraṅgamā, “far-reaching”). Each bhūmi has a primary perfection — generosity, morality, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom on the first six, then skillful means, aspiration, power, and primordial wisdom on bhūmis seven through ten. On the first bhūmi, the bodhisattva has their first direct realization of emptiness (śūnyatā) and from that point onward can no longer fall into lower realms involuntarily. The bodhisattva on the first bhūmi can manifest a hundred emanations, shake a hundred world systems, and so on — these powers increase exponentially at each level.

Third incalculable eon: Bhūmis eight through ten. At the eighth bhūmi (acalā, “immovable”), the bodhisattva’s practice becomes effortless — the afflictive obscurations (kleśāvaraṇa) are completely eliminated, and only the cognitive obscurations (jñeyāvaraṇa) remain. The bodhisattva at this level is sometimes said to be in danger of “falling into nirvāṇa” — the peace is so complete that all the Buddhas must rouse them and remind them of their vow. The ninth (sādhumatī) perfects discriminating wisdom. The tenth (dharmameghā, “cloud of dharma”) is the final stage before Buddhahood.

During the final hundred eons within the third great eon, the bodhisattva specifically accumulates the meritorious karma that shapes the rūpakāya — the thirty-two major marks (golden skin, wheel-marks on the palms and soles, the uṣṇīṣa, the ūrṇā, the long tongue, and so on) and eighty minor marks. Each mark has a specific causal story — the wheel-marks come from lifetimes of “turning the wheel” of dharma and generosity, the long tongue from lifetimes of truthful speech, and so forth.

The Avadāna and Mahāyāna Sūtra Lives

Beyond the Jātakas, the Mahāyāna sutras contain additional past-life accounts:

The Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra (Golden Light Sutra) contains the story of the bodhisattva as Prince Mahāsattva who fed his body to the starving tigress (a variant of the Vyāghrī story from the Jātakamālā).

The Gaṇḍavyūha section of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra describes Sudhana’s pilgrimage to fifty-three teachers — while technically set in the present, it’s understood as illustrative of the kind of seeking the bodhisattva undertook over countless lives: learning from monks, nuns, laypeople, children, gods, courtesans, and even from a woman in a brothel, each one teaching a different “gate of liberation.”

The Avadānaśataka (Hundred Avadānas) contains dozens more past-life stories of the Buddha, many involving acts of extreme generosity or self-sacrifice.

The Lalitavistara itself, while primarily about the final life, contains flashback references to past-life activities.

The Transition to Tuṣita

The Pali tradition is quite specific about the sequence: the Vessantara life was the bodhisattva’s final human birth before ascending to Tuṣita. After the Vessantara life, having completed all thirty perfections (ten at three levels each), the bodhisattva was reborn in Tuṣita heaven as the deva Śvetaketu/Setaketu.

The Mahāyāna tradition places this transition at the completion of the tenth bhūmi. The bodhisattva on the tenth bhūmi receives a great empowerment from all the Buddhas of the ten directions — sometimes called the “great light-ray empowerment” (mahābhiṣeka) — and takes his seat in Tuṣita, from which he surveys the world systems to choose the time and place of his final descent.

The honest caveat: what I’ve given you is the major structural account plus the most famous individual lives. The full 547 Jātakas contain hundreds more stories I haven’t mentioned — lives as tree spirits, as fish, as minor kings, as merchants — many of them small, quotidian acts of virtue rather than grand sacrificial gestures. The tradition’s point is precisely that it takes all of it — not just the dramatic moments but the endless steady accumulation of virtue, life after life, in every possible circumstance.

May we all meet each other in the Tushita heaven

I saw this as the fourth line in a four line prayer in which each of the four lines is said to correspond to one of the Four Immeasureables, the fourth being Equanimity

As I applied this line to various people in my life, I saw how secretly, unconsciously, I had been wishing the opposite. For example, an old friend, I had been secretly wishing they be attached to me. This was a secret desire proliferating within me, driving a lot of my actions. When I invited them in my mind to dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion to those near and far, it almost felt like releasing a hook that had been attached to my heart, and reaching towards them with string and another hook.

I did not realize before I wanted them to be attached to me.

Something happened as well when I did this with an ex girlfriend in mind. It felt like true care. To wish for her to not be attached nor averse, and to dwell and equanimity. That takes me out of the equation, and empowers her to be an island where she can dwell safe, and alone.

I enjoy this practice, and I’m sharing it now, perhaps out of a secret desire to have others be attached to me or my words, but perhaps that’s for another day to purify

The author of the original Tibetan text is the famed Mongolian master, Lobsang Tayang (1867-1937). He studied at Drepung Gomang Monastery in Tibet but wrote this particular text while in Mongolia when he was among the crowd listening to an oral transmission of the Tengyur canonical works of Tibetan Buddhism.

The first English translation of the text below was done by Prof. Jose Cabezon, which is posted here. This present version, undertaken by Geshe Dadul Namgyal and Dr. Monica Halka with editorial assistance from Venerable Thubten Chodron, is a revision of that translation, finalized in December 2022.

Homage to the One of Great Compassion.

1. Door to the path of the Great Beings, Great seal of the Mahayana, Seed of Great Awakening, I prostrate with devotion to Great Compassion.
2. Mother who gives birth to all Victorious Ones, Essential wealth of the boddhisattvas, Anonymous benefactor of all beings, May I be protected by Great Compassion.
3. Prostrating to that alone Encompasses making prostrations and offerings To all the Victorious Ones and their boddhisattvas. I praise Great Compassion.
4. I praise you, Great Compassion, The ultimate and unrivaled Root cause and the condition from which Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas are born.
5. I praise you, Great Compassion, Who are important at the beginning, like a seed, In the interim, like water, and at the end like the ripened fruit In producing the excellent harvest of the Victorious Ones.
6.   I praise you, Great Compassion, Whose defining characteristic is the desire to protect All aged mother sentient beings From the great and subtle fears of samsara and nirvana.
7. I praise the compassion that attends to sentient beings, That sees them all in their suffering nature Under the power of their ignorance in cyclic existence, Like buckets on a water wheel.
8. You see all beings to be like ripples on [the surface of] a river— They do not last even a moment. I praise the compassion that focuses on phenomena And sees them in their impermanent aspect.
9. I praise the compassion that focuses on the objectless, That sees all beings, however they appear, To be empty of inherent existence Like the reflection of the moon in water.
10. When the potential for meditating on great compassion Reaches full bloom, One becomes perfectly awakened. Therefore, you are the quality that makes a Buddha a Buddha.
11. All the Buddha’s teachings, Which have the nature of nonviolence, Are informed by compassion. Thus, you are the quality that makes the Dharma the Dharma.
12. The disciples of our Teacher, the Conqueror, Are distinguished by their execution of the four duties of a sramana, The discipline that ensures the conduct of compassion. Hence, you are the quality that makes the Sangha the Sangha.
13. There is a great deal of difference Between those who do and do not possess you in the mindstream. For example, the Supreme Teacher restored the life breath of a swan, While Shariputra could not.
14. Hence it is you, Great Compassion, Who liberates one from all fears, Who is the sole and definitive source of refuge For the world with its gods and other beings.
15. The determination that the Conqueror, the Lord Buddha, Is a reliable spiritual guide Comes down to logically establishing You, Great Compassion, as the [foremost] reason [among many].
16. Therefore, even the conviction that only the Buddha’s teachings Serve as the holy gateway For those desiring liberation Depends upon skill in your ways.
17. Although there are numerous reasons why The Buddha Jewel is a fitting object of refuge, Great impartial compassion Is the chief reason.
18. That same reason means that the Dharma and the Sangha Are also fitting objects of refuge. Hence, you are the chief arbiter Distinguishing what is an object of refuge and what is not.
19. Although Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas can remain alive For hundreds of eons through the power of concentration, They have not paid you enough attention. Hence, they remain long inactive in a sea of peacefulness.
20. But the perfect Buddhas and bodhisattvas Have already offered into your hands Whatever authority they have, and so They continue benefiting others until the end of samsara.
21. When inferior minds like my own speculate, They worry that adopting you, Compassion, Means that all the sufferings of others Will become their own to remedy.
22. If a single pleasure arises without compassion, Later it grows into a great deal of suffering. If a single suffering arises along with compassion, Later it disperses all suffering.
23. If adopting a certain method Causes eradication of much suffering, Then, whatever kind of suffering is in question, Are you not the one who alleviates it?
24. Moreover, in order to prevent the onslaught Of harm that could strike beings, You, oh protector, absorb suffering into yourself, As did the Bodhisattva Supuúpachandra.
25. To protect the lives of many beings And so that wrongdoers will not fall into a hellish abyss, You might even [physically] harm another, As did the compassionate Merchant Trader.
26. Though one may enter the Avici hell for the sake of others, An expert in the ways of compassion will nevertheless Have body and mind pervaded by happiness and bliss, Like a swan in a sea of lotuses.
27. In liberating sentient beings, You impart happiness vast as an ocean. In comparison [the joy of] obtaining personal liberation Is like the water in a hoof-print. What is that next to you?
28. For those heroes who have as their permanent partner The one they admire—Great Compassion, It doesn’t matter where they are born among the six types of beings. By the force of their karma or prayers,
29. Their bodies are happy due to the power of their merit, And their minds are happy due to the dexterity of their wisdom. So, even though they abide for the sake of others until the end of samsara, How could they experience weariness?
30. O mind of Compassion, how astounding That you are wholeheartedly devoted to the welfare of others. But how much more astounding that you do this Without conceit or hope of reward.
31. There is no better example of how You wish to protect all beings from suffering Than the concern that a wise mother feels For her beloved child.
32. Though she has many children, A mother feels special concern for the one who is sick. Likewise, you show the greatest kindness To beings who are tormented.
33. As for an ordinary person like me, I cherish and value nothing more than myself. Even [all] my self-cherishing is no match for How much you cherish and value all beings.
34. Even though I greatly fear suffering I have no fear of wrongdoing—that is how I am. But your nature is to fear wrongdoing Millions of times more than you fear suffering.
35. For as long as the fetters of afflictions Bind sentient beings to Samsara, You bind the Buddhas To this Samsaric world.
36. Therefore, it was the custom of the bearded Indian masters To bow first to you and then to the Buddhas. For you are what causes them To remain in the three realms of existence.
37. Who has power of insight like yours, Which can even prompt the Tathagata Lord of Nagas To leave the peaceful lake’s swirling expanse And appear in the parched land of disciples?
38. Even while deeply immersed in the state of peace The Able One knows all phenomena that can be known, And subdues the haughty ones. This is your charm and skillfulness, Compassion.
39. By rubbing it on the Kashi rock of Great Compassion One tests the gold of the victor’s noble qualities Of power and fearlessness, [And] infers their quality.
40. The chief object of others’ attachment Is centered on their own being. That your own being is not the object of your attachment, This is [truly] amazing.
41. Nevertheless, as you also acknowledge, If they did not consider their own lives to be of secondary importance, How could the stable [boddhisattvas] engage in the myriad offerings and gifts They make of their own bodies?
42. There are many who when being helped by others Think themselves being harmed instead. But you consider even those who inflict harm As being of great benefit to you.
43. Beings may treat you as anything From friend to foe to stranger. Yet how wondrous that you constantly manage To think of each of them as you would your only child.
44. If one’s aged mother went insane under the influence of spirits, Who in their right mind would see her as an enemy? How amazing that your caring mind Perceives all beings as your kind mother.
45. That the Buddhas teach beings The path to liberation while watching over them Both day and night during the six times— That is your kindness: the wide eye of compassion.
46. And when the same Buddhas pronounce with a lion’s roar, “I am the refuge of all beings who lack protectors!” That is your magic: the noble voice of compassion.
47. The spirits have spells That can harm beings in all sorts of ways. It is your blessing of great kindheartedness, That transforms these [spells] into beneficial effects.
48. Even when the hordes of Mara’s army Rained their frightening weapons upon the [Blessed] One, The power of the mighty armor of compassion Made them crumble into a shower of flowers.
49. An arm that firmly embraces All beings without exception, Such that it cannot part from them— That is you: the long arm of compassion.
50. What is the tool With which the Supreme Guide lifts all beings Out of the intense, frightening chasm of samsara? It is only the hook of compassion.
51. Hence, where is there In either the realm of samsara or nirvana A misfortune out of which you don’t lead embodied beings Or an excellence to which you don’t introduce them?
52. I tend to pour my misery on others And share with them all my suffering and loss. I covet whatever excellence they may have, Praying, “May it be mine.”
53. But you share and give to others All your happiness and good fortune. And towards their sufferings, cultivate the attitude: “May they be my own.”
54. All the suffering in the world is the fault of self-centeredness All its happiness is the result of cherishing others. Only you, Protector, Enable us to trust that this is so.
55. While some others revere the Victorious Ones, They revile sentient beings. But you respectfully serve even unruly ones, Just as if serving a Buddha.
56. To attain the state of a Victorious One, One must rely on Buddhas and sentient beings alike. That this is so can be understood Only through the wonder of your skillful means.
57. “The Sages do not cleanse living beings’ wrongdoing with water. Nor do they sweep away suffering with their hands.” This is stated in the Buddha’s own words [Kangyur] And in [later] commentaries [Tengyur].
58. How is it then that the Yogis who meditated on compassion Could actually take away Swelling from a dog And lice infestations from a person?
59. The power of the mind of a Yogi Who meditates on giving others his own happiness And accepting their suffering is inconceivable [to us]. Only the Omniscient One can understand it.
60. In a previous life, our Supreme Teacher Pulled a chariot in hell. At that time, he was in the same position as we are now, [Caught] in the depths of Samsara.
61. Yet today that strong man is a Buddha, While we are left behind. When we contemplate this, we realize the difference Clearly depends on whether or not great compassion arose in the mindstream.
62. Does this mean that you, Great Compassion, Are involved in partiality? No, it does not. Rather, fault or merit ensues from striving Only for one’s own welfare or for the welfare of others.
63. It is said that even when a person had the karma to remain in hell for many eons, The moment you, Compassion, were generated [in their mind], That same karma was exhausted right then and there, And they were reborn in [the realm of] Thirty-Three Gods.
64. Therefore, in quenching the massive fires of suffering You are like a great rain. And in burning the heaps of wrongdoing You are equal to the fire at the end of an eon.
65. If, as soon as he generated the compassion That wished to relieve limited sentient beings of headaches, Priyaputra was liberated From the hell of the revolving wheel,
66. How immeasurable must be the merit Amassed through meditating on supreme compassion That wishes to eliminate the hundred and ten forms of suffering From all sentient beings throughout space?
67. When other bodhisattvas of the Fortunate Eon Looked upon sentient beings in the frightful time Of the five rampant degenerations with their 100-year lifespan They gave up on these beings, seeing them as difficult to subdue.
68. But at that same time, with the courage of his great compassion the Brahmin Samudraraja perfectly made five hundred aspirational prayers And adopted the supreme gesture Of assuming personal responsibility to tame them.
69. The Buddhas and boddhisattvas of the ten directions, Such as the Sugata Ratnagarbha, Abundantly showered the Brahmin with flowers of praise, Calling him “The Precious White Lotus.”
70. All these accounts serve as a celebratory tribute To the excellence of Great Compassion And determine that you are the original great tutor For the Buddhas of the three times.
71. Even though Shakyamuni generated bodhicitta Forty-two great eons after the Protector Maitreya, He attained the state of Buddhahood Long before Maitreya did.
72. This, too, is your kindness, O mind of compassion, Who assumed the responsibility of an inner tutor, And strongly urged him to strive mightily toward the triple [goals] Of perfecting, ripening, and purifying.
73. The activity of the boddhisattvas, Who possess the pure mind of the compassion That takes on the burden of others’ welfare, Is difficult for the minds of ordinary beings to fathom.
74. Even to hear about, let alone see Someone under a tree Giving up his [own] head a thousand times Rouses dreadful fear in the hearts of many.
75. The supreme children born into the family Of the King of Dharma, the Sugata, Are raised by you, Compassion, as their nurturing mother, Like lotuses nourished by the water.
76. The sages have said that the only difference between The pure determination to be free And you, Great Compassion, Is that one faces inward, the other outward.
77. All the stages—birth, enduring, and growth— Of the wish-fulfilling tree of Bodhicitta Depend upon the firm root of compassion Within the context of the dual directives of seven causes and effects.
78. When the great ocean of emptiness is repeatedly churned Through the powerful Mandara of skillful methods, You, the nectar of compassion, Erupt as its essence.
79. There are many who either truthfully or deceitfully claim to have attained The five extrasensory powers and the four results, But it is rare to encounter one who even deceitfully Claims to have attained Great Compassion.
80. Those who show signs of having attained other qualities Are [bountiful] as stars in the night sky, But those who show signs of having attained Great Compassion Are even rarer than those stars [seen] in broad daylight.
81. That is why sources such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras attest That the existence in the billion world-systems Of one who has achieved the precious supreme mind of Compassion Is just barely possible.
82. Everyone—sage or fool—must suspect That you reside in the mindstream of someone Who would cut his own flesh and give it away And yet experience more joy than the one who would devour it.
83. The joy that comes to one [a bodhisattva] When his ears register a cry for charity Cannot be rivaled even by the bliss of Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas. It is amazing that humans who possess you excel in this way.
84. It doesn’t matter how much of the poison of sensual delights The hosts of peacocks—the heroic boddhisattvas—may ingest. It only enhances the beauty of their feathers, Which is your splendor, [Great Compassion].
85. Other precious jewels Can fulfill only their individual purposes. But the powerful wish-fulfilling king of jewels Is the one that can satisfy all needs and desires effortlessly
86. [Likewise] each of the six perfections, such as generosity, Brings about its own particular [result]—such as wealth. But Great Compassion fulfills the dual aim of benefitting self and others With all its manifold excellences.
87. Hence, if one has the supreme jewel of compassion In the palm of one’s hand, All the Buddha’s qualities will come into one’s grasp Without even being sought.
88. What does it mean to say that someone is “The Fully Perfected Buddha?” How could it possibly mean one Who demonstrates incongruous works of magic From some abode wreathed in rainbow light?
89. Instead, a Buddha is defined as one who, In fulfilling your wish, Great Compassion, Always keeps watch over the world And protects it from suffering.
90. Moreover, in giving up a fifth of his lifespan The superior teacher, the Compassionate one, Ensured that the teachings would be long-lasting. Thus, allowing himself to pass early into peace,
91. He expressed the extent Of the extreme mercy that he had for us. Such kindness as this, Great Compassion, Is beyond the scope of verbal description.
92. The protector Avalokiteshvara Even blessed his own name So that whoever might hear it would lose all fear. This, too, is the magic of boundless compassion.
93. Although the Venerable Asanga meditated on the Protector Maitreya For twelve years in a forest, Still nothing happened. But on one occasion, when he encountered a dog in agony
94. A powerful compassion overwhelmed him, And in that instant, he had a vision of [Maitreya]. Therefore, those who meditate on you as their single deity Will effortlessly behold the faces of a hundred deities.
95. The incomparable Master Atisha, Unconcerned that his lifespan Would be shortened by nineteen years, Journeyed to the Land of Snows:
96. That is definitely the power of Great Compassion. Due to his having sustained the embers of the Doctrine, Even to this day they have not gone out. That is the enlightened activity of his compassion.
97. There are many amazing stories Of cats and even wolves who ceased hunting Near the place where the great bodhisattva, the glorious Bhadra, Was engaged in the practice of compassion,
98. During the age of the final five hundred years of extreme degeneration, The Protector Mañjushri, Lama Tsongkhapa, Beautified the world with his pure discipline And stainless preaching and practice.
99. This is said to be the later ripening into a good result Of a prayer that he previously made in the presence of Indraketu: To uphold the holy Dharma. Here again, his mind was moved by great compassion informed by emptiness
100. In short, whatever vast or narrow rivers of benefit and happiness Cascade and fall into the great seas of samsara and nirvana, Their source can only be found In the great snowy [peaks] of compassion.
101. What immense reaches of the vast and noble qualities Of the sky-like supreme mind of compassion Could an unresourceful pauper like me fathom That an Omniscient One doesn’t see?
102. Yet just as a sparrow in the rain is satisfied By a few drops of the nectar of the clouds, My spirit is uplifted when I articulate Even a few of the noble qualities of Great Compassion.
103. Since infancy this tongue and palate of mine Have been accustomed to the four non-virtues of speech. Only now, today for the first time, Are they imbued with purpose.
104. I take refuge in Great Compassion, which, when it arises in the mindstream, Differentiates the thinking capacity of humans from [that of] animals. It is what makes one a great human, both in name and action.
105. If you yearn from the heart to obtain Buddhahood, Then, in the presence of a kind-hearted master, Abide with less worry in your heart And meditate on the supreme heart of compassion.
106. By the accumulated virtue of praising in this way, May the mind of compassion quickly arise in my heart, And may it never degenerate, But always spread and increase.
107. May I become a great captain Skilled in navigating the ship of Great Compassion, Carrying the hosts of guests, my aged mothers, innumerable as space, To the sea of Great Awakening.
108. May all beings of this degenerate age who lack compassion And who are themselves objects of compassion Be blessed by the deity of compassion. May their minds be saturated with the nectar of compassion.

Homage to Arya Tara

Excerpt from Ven Chodron’s teaching on how to keep a pure motivation (https://thubtenchodron.org/2011/02/transforming-our-mind/):

The Problem with People-Pleasing

That’s the problem with people pleasing, and people who take care of everybody else; they haven’t transformed their mind. They’re helping others, but the motivation isn’t crystal clear. It isn’t pure. It’s done, often, in a very self-abnegating way just to get people to like you, to not criticize you. The actions are good but the motivation isn’t completely clear.

We really have to work to transform our minds so that when we are helping others, it’s done with a very pure motivation of cherishing them. We’re not trying to put across our own agenda. We’re not trying to control them because we know the best way for them to live their lives. We’re not trying to please them so that they like us. We’re not trying to run away from looking at ourselves by keeping ourselves so busy taking care of everybody else. But we’re really doing it with a very sincere motivation to be of benefit.

For that reason, we have to really work on transforming our own mind. That really takes a lot of effort and a lot of energy. I think people really are kind and compassionate, but often our motivation is very obscure, and not even readily apparent to ourselves.

Measuring Progress

To really get a very clear motivation on this takes a lot of work. I was thinking about it this morning, how we can tell how far we’ve progressed in terms of having a pure motivation for helping others. One sign is to see how we react when others don’t do as we want them to do, or others don’t accept our help, or others tell us to get lost and mind our own business. Then, we can really see, “Oh, to what extent was I doing this to fulfill my own personal psychological needs? What was really going on? Or, was I acting really from a pure motivation?” When our motivation isn’t completely pure—and I’m not saying that what we did is bad, I’m just saying the motivation wasn’t completely clear—then we feel hurt, we feel depressed, we feel angry. When that happens, instead of beating ourselves up, “Oh look, I had an impure motivation,” that whole rubbish that we always do. Look and say, “Oh, this was a little test here, and I did a lot of kind things to help. But now I can see that I’m feeling kind of rejected, and so I have some work here to do to really let go of my own expectations. So I’m glad this is happening because it gives me a chance to really evaluate and assess how I’m doing.”

Then we continue our bodhicitta motivations so that we can continue to really set aside the self-centered mind and enhance the mind that cherishes others purely because they exist, and because they all equally, across the board, have been kind to us. So to really come back to those points again to make sure our motivations are clear.

—

May renunciation take root in our hearts so our motivation becomes more pure!

Homage to Vajradhara

Following excerpt is an analytical meditation from Chapter 8 of The Guide to Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva to give rise to Bodhicitta in meditation:

82. Sensual gratification is definitely transient and it casts one down to hell and so forth, and for no great end, one is constantly weary.

83. With even a billionth part of that diligence, there can be Buddhahood. Sensualists have suffering greater than the suffering of the Path, but they have no Awakening.

84. If one considers the suffering of the hells and so on, weapons, poison, fire, precipices, and enemies do not compare to sensual desires.

85. Becoming disillusioned with sensual desires in that way, generate delight in solitude in the peaceful forest, devoid of strive and annoyances.

86. The fortunate, pondering on how to benefit others, roam about, caressed by silent, gentle forest breezes, and cooled by the sandalwood rays of the moon on the lovely mansions of vast boulders.

87. In an empty hut, at the foot of a tree, or in a cave, one remains as long as one desires, and casting off the suffering of guarding ones possessions, one lives light heartedly, without a care.

88. Living freely, without attachment, and not tied by anyone, one savors the joy of contentment that is difficult even for a king to find.

89. After meditating on the advantages of solitude in this and other ways, having one’s discursive thoughts calmed, one should cultivate the spirit of awakening.

90. One should first earnestly meditate on the equality of oneself and others in this way: “All equally experience suffering and happiness, and I must protect them as I do myself.”

91. Although it has many divisions, such as arms and so one, the body is protected as a whole. Likewise, different beings, with their joys and sorrows, are all equal, like my self, in their yearning for happiness.

92. Even though my agony does not hurt anyone else’s body, that suffering of mine is unbearable because I cling to it as mine.

93. Likewise, although others’ suffering does not descend upon me, that suffering of theirs is difficult to bear because they cling to it as ‘theirs.’

94. I should eliminate the suffering of others because it is suffering, just like my own suffering. I should take care of others, just as I am a sentient being.

95. When happiness is equally dear to others and myself, then what is so special about me that I strive after happiness for myself alone?

96. When fear and suffering are equally abhorrent to others and myself, then what is so special about me that I protect myself but not others

May we realize relative and ultimate Bodhicitta