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Aspiring and Engaging Bodhicitta:
There are two levels in the development of
bodhicitta - the mind (or heart) dedicated to attaining
enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. These are the
aspiring and engaging bodhicitta. Whereas a person with the aspiring
dedicated heart wants to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all
sentient beings, he/she is not yet prepared to engage in all of the
practices and activities necessary to do so. On the other hand, a
person who has generated the engaging dedicated heart joyfully
undertakes the bodhisattva's practices of the six far-reaching
attitudes (six perfections) by taking the bodhisattva vows. The
difference between aspiring and engaging bodhicitta is similar to
the difference between wanting to go to Dharamsala, and actually
getting onto the transport and travelling there.
The bodhisattva vows are taken on the basis of
having taken refuge in the Three Jewels and some or all of the five
lay precepts. Buddha prescribed the precepts and vows in order to
protect one from doing actions which bring unhappy results and to
help oneself attain enlightenment quickly and easily. Therefore,
precepts and vows are not burdens to bear but are ornaments to be
worn joyfully.
The Eight Precepts of Aspiring Bodhicitta
After generating aspiring bodhicitta before the
Guru and the Three Jewels, one should observe eight precepts in
order to protect one's dedicated heart from degenerating in this and
future lives.
How to protect one's dedicated heart from
degenerating in this life:
- Remember the advantages of bodhicitta again
and again.
- To strengthen one's bodhicitta, generate the
thought to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient
beings three times in the morning and three times in the evening.
Recitation and contemplation of the prayer for taking refuge and
generating the dedicated heart is a good way to fulfil
this.
- Do not give up working for sentient beings
even when they are harmful.
- To enhance one's bodhicitta, accumulate both
merit and wisdom continuously.
How to protect oneself from being separated from
bodhicitta in future lives:
The four remaining precepts are explained in two
complementary sets of four. These are:
Abandon the four black actions:
- Deceiving the Guru, abbot or other holy
beings with lies.
- Causing others to regret virtuous actions
that they have done.
- Abusing or criticizing bodhisattvas or the
Mahayana.
- Not acting with a pure selfless wish but with
pretention and deceit.
Practice the four white actions:
- Abandon deliberately deceiving and lying to
Gurus, abbots and so forth.
- Be straightforward, without pretension or
deceit.
- Generate the recognition of bodhisattvas as
one's teacher and praise them.
- Assume the responsibility oneself to lead all
sentient beings to enlightenment.
[Click here for teachings on the 8 precepts of
aspiring bodhicitta (also called the commitments of the aspiring
bodhisattva vows)]
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The Bodhisattva Vows
The eighteen root bodhisattva
vows
When a vow has more than one aspect, doing just
one aspect constitutes a transgression of the vow.
- a) Praising oneself or
b) belittling
others because of attachment to receiving material offerings,
praise and respect.
- a) Not giving material aid or
b) not
teaching the Dharma to those who are suffering and without a
protector, because of miserliness.
- a) Not listening although another declares
his/her offence or
b) with anger blaming him/her and
retaliating.
- a) Abandoning the Mahayana by saying that
Mahayana texts are not the words of Buddha or
b) teaching what
appears to be the Dharma but is not.
- Taking things belonging to a) Buddha, b)
Dharma or c) Sangha.
- Abandoning the holy Dharma by saying that
texts which teach the three vehicles are not the Buddha's
word.
- With anger
a) depriving ordained ones of
their robes, beating and imprisoning them, or
b) causing them
to lose their ordination even if they have impure morality, for
example, by saying that being ordained is useless.
- Committing any of the five extremely negative
actions:
a) killing one's mother,
b) killing one's father,
c) killing an arhat,
d) intentionally drawing blood from a
Buddha or
e) causing schism in the Sangha community by
supporting and spreading sectarian views.
- Holding distorted views (which are contrary
to the teachings of Buddha, such as denying the existence of the
Three Jewels or the law of cause and effect, etc.)
- Destroying a a) town, b) village, c) city or
d) large area by means such as fire, bombs, pollution or black
magic.
- Teaching emptiness to those whose minds are
unprepared.
- Causing those who have entered the Mahayana
to turn away from working for the full enlightenment of Buddhahood
and encouraging them to work merely for their own liberation from
suffering.
- Causing others to abandon completely their
vows of self-liberation and embrace the Mahayana.
- Holding and causing others to hold the view
that the learners' vehicle (Theravada) does not abandon attachment
and other delusions.
- Falsely saying that oneself has realized
profound emptiness and that if others meditate as one has, they
will realize emptiness and become as great and as highly realized
as oneself.
- Taking gifts from others who were encouraged
to give you things originally intended as offerings to the Three
Jewels. Not giving things to the Three Jewels that others have
given you to give to them, or accepting property stolen from the
Three Jewels.
- a) Causing those engaged in calm abiding
meditation to give it up by giving their belongings to those who
are merely reciting texts or
b) making bad disciplinary rules
which cause a spiritual community not to be harmonious.
- Abandoning the two bodhicittas (aspiring and
engaging).
There are four binding factors which must all be present to transgress completely
sixteen of the root vows. The transgression of two vows, numbers 9
and 18, requires only the act itself. These four are:
- Not regarding one's action as negative, or
not caring that it is even though one recognizes that the action
is transgressing a vow.
- Not abandoning the thought to do the action
again.
- Being happy and rejoicing in the
action.
- Not having shame or consideration about what
one has done.
To prevent oneself from experiencing the results
of transgressing the vows, one can purify by means of the four
opponent powers. Prostration to the thirty-five Buddhas and the
Vajrasattva meditation and recitation are excellent methods to
purify transgressions. As one's bodhisattva ordination has been
damaged by completely breaking a root vow, one should purify and
then retake the vows before a Spiritual Master or before the objects
of refuge - the Buddhas and bodhisattvas - that one has
visualized.
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The forty-six auxiliary bodhisattva vows
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of generosity and obstacles to the moral discipline of
gathering virtuous actions, abandon:
- Not making offerings to the Three Jewels
everyday with one's body, speech and mind.
- Acting out selfish thoughts of desire to gain
material possessions or reputation.
- Not respecting one's elders (those who have
taken the bodhisattva vows before oneself or who have more
experience than oneself).
- Not answering sincerely asked questions that
one is capable of answering.
- Not accepting invitations from others out of
anger, pride or other negative thoughts.
- Not accepting gifts of money, gold or other
precious substances that others offer to oneself.
- Not giving the Dharma to those who desire it.
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of moral discipline, abandon:
- Forsaking those who have broken their moral
discipline: not giving them advice or not relieving their
guilt.
- Not acting according to one's vowed trainings
as it would generate or sustain faith in others.
- Doing only limited actions to benefit
sentient beings, such as strictly keeping the Vinaya rules in
situations when not doing so would be of greater benefit to
others.
- Not doing non-virtuous actions of body and
speech with loving-compassion when circumstances deem it necessary
in order to benefit others.
- Willingly accepting things that either
oneself or others have obtained by any of the wrong livelihoods of
hypocrisy, hinting, flattery, coercion or bribery.
- Being distracted by and having a strong
attachment to amusement, or without any beneficial purpose leading
others to join in distracting activities.
- Believing and saying that followers of the
Mahayana should remain in cyclic existence and not try to attain
liberation from delusions.
- Not abandoning negative actions which cause
one to have a bad reputation.
- Not correcting one's own deluded actions or
not helping others to correct theirs.
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of patience, abandon:
- Returning insults, anger, beating or
criticism with insults and the like.
- Neglecting those who are angry with oneself
by not trying to pacify their anger.
- Refusing to accept the apologies of
others.
- Acting out thoughts of anger.
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of joyous effort, abandon:
- Gathering a circle of friends or disciples
because of one's desire for respect or profit.
- Not dispelling the three types of laziness
(sloth, attraction to negative actions, and self-pity and
discouragement).
- With attachment, spending time idly talking
and joking.
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of meditative stabilization, abandon:
- Not seeking the means to develop
concentration, such as proper instructions and the right
conditions necessary to do so. Not practicing the instructions
once one has received them.
- Not abandoning the five obscurations which
hinder meditative stabilization: excitement and regret, harmful
thought, sleep and dullness, desire, and doubt.
- Seeing the good qualities of the taste of
meditative stabilization and becoming attached to it.
To eliminate obstacles to the far-reaching
attitude of wisdom, abandon:
- Abandoning the scriptures or paths of the
Theravada as unnecessary for one following the Mahayana.
- Exerting effort principally in another system
of practice while neglecting the one one already has, the
Mahayana.
- Without a good reason, exerting effort to
learn or practice the treatises of non-Buddhists which are not
proper objects of one's endeavor.
- Beginning to favor and take delight in the
treatises of non-Buddhists although studying them for a good
reason.
- Abandoning any part of the Mahayana by
thinking it is uninteresting or unpleasant.
- Praising oneself or belittling others because
of pride, anger and so on.
- Not going to Dharma gatherings or
teachings.
- Despising the spiritual master or the meaning
of the teachings and relying instead on their mere words; that is,
if a teacher does not express him/herself well, not trying to
understand the meaning of what he/she says, but criticizing.
To eliminate obstacles to the morality of
benefiting others, abandon:
- Not helping those who are in need.
- Avoiding taking care of the sick.
- Not alleviating the sufferings of
others.
- Not explaining what is proper conduct to
those who are reckless.
- Not benefiting in return those who have
benefited oneself.
- Not relieving the sorrow of others.
- Not giving material possessions to those in
need.
- Not working for the welfare of one's circle
of friends, disciples, servants, etc.
- Not acting in accordance with the wishes of
others if doing so does not bring harm to oneself or
others.
- Not praising those with good
qualities.
- Not acting with whatever means are necessary
according to the circumstances to stop someone who is doing
harmful actions.
- Not using miraculous powers if one possesses
this ability, in order to stop others from doing unwholesome
actions.
[Click here for teachings on the bodhisattva
vows] |
