Bodhi Citta

Lord Buddha says:

“You get everything you want,

If you help others, to get what they want.

Focus on what you have and

Not on what do not belongs to you.

Do not do what is evil, do what is good,

Keep your body, speech and mind pure.”

Bodhi Citta is the will at the causal position aiming for enlightenment at the consequence position.  It is the fruition of a spark of Buddha Nature. 

Bodhi Citta is the enlightened state of feeling.  The word Bodhi means enlightened intellect, and Citta means Manah, the heart, the feeling. 

One who practice and lives with Bodhi Citta is Bodhisattva.

In Buddha Dharma, the Panch Sila -the five principles of life is invoked at every auspicious occasion.  Invoking Panch Sila means invoking Bodhi Citta. 

One should develop Bodhi Citta before an action is executed. 

Bodhi Citta is the enlightened intent of goodness, the merit at the causal position aiming for enlightened awareness at the consequence position.  
 

Bodhi Citta is not only will, intent, or attitude but also behaviour and conduct.  

Bodhi Citta is the virtue possessed partially by Bodhisattvas and completely by the Buddhas.  

Bodhi Citta is not worldly love and not the same as compassion.  

One need to develop Bodhi Citta first before compassion is generated and followed by behaviour and conduct.  

Practicing Bodhi Citta with skilful means continuously with complete faith, love and devotion is wisdom. 

Santideva differentiates between compassion and wisdom as; “wishing to depart and setting out upon the road.”  

Those who are able to develop the mental impulse of Bodhi Citta have intuitive understanding of the fundamental nature of all existence.  

The understanding of the fundamental nature of all existence supports the generation of Bodhi Citta. 

As one advance with the understanding of the fundamental nature of existence, knows the Buddha Nature inherently present within is not separate from that inherently present in others.  

In every common being, the errors and aspirations bound by ignorance are same.  As the level of comprehension increases, the intellect begins to merge in the ultimate -the pure consciousness.  When the merger is exhaustive and complete, one begins to perform all our daily tasks in Samadhi –the perfect awareness and mindfulness.  

At Samadhi, there is only one luminous mind and that is Bodhi Citta.

Lord Buddha says; “For the sake of ultimately saving others one must continuously practice enlightened intent of goodness until Buddhahood is achieved.”  

At the causal position it is the Bodhi Citta -enlightened intent of goodness, and at the consequence position it is the Buddhahood.  

Bodhi Citta is the means to the end.  

Helping others means helping oneself and saving others means saving oneself.  

One should practice Bodhi Citta continuously, not intermittently, to save others for ultimately saving oneself and taking oneself across and out of Samsara, from impermanence to permanence, from suffering to Nirvana -emancipation, happiness and bliss. 

Bodhi Citta has two aspects: aspiration and action, intent and practice, compassion and wisdom, and cause and consequence.  

The aspiration or the compassionate feeling for Bodhi Citta is on the causal aspect while practicing Bodhi Citta continuously and selflessly for ultimately saving all sentient being with equanimity is the wisdom or the consequence aspect of the Bodhi Citta.  

The co-relational factors of Bodhi Citta at causal and consequence ends are the keystones of the Buddha Dharma.

Bodhi Citta awakens us at the causal position and guides us in making conscious decisions to generate will, based on altruism, and reinforce ethics and integrity in our action.

In metaphysical term, Bodhi Citta means the union of mind and heart.

In spiritual term, Bodhi Citta means the positive feeling on others at the highest state of mind that rests in the cavern of our heart.  

At the highest state of our mind, Bodhi Citta unfolds out from our heart.

The ordinary mind is the outer consciousness and it is clouded by Ahangkar -Ego.  It does thinking, reasoning and perceiving but with a conceptual frame of Ahankara -Ego. 

We live ordinary life with Ego.  But when the mind is detached from Ego, the enlightened mind shines that is simply pure and aware and spurs Buddhi Citta at heart.

The enlightened mind is the inner consciousness, which is pure and devoid of the traces of Ego.  It absorbs information, transforms into wisdom and leads us into right understanding and action.

The essence of the enlightened mind is awareness and that enlightened mind we should realise for which we need Bodhi Citta. 

When the veil of Ego is on the intellect, it acts as an ordinary mind attached to Samsara.

When the veil of Ego on the intellect is removed, it assumes its original form and acts as enlightened mind, which is universal. 

Once the Ego is completely and permanently removed, the transformation from ordinary mind to universal enlightened mind is irreversible. 

Citta is Manah, the inner consciousness.  When we sleep, our mind and body –the outer consciousness sleeps, but our Manah does not sleep.  It keeps roaming and dreaming while mind and body are asleep.  It affirms that our Citta -inner consciousness, is different from our mind –outer consciousness, and body.  It is our outer consciousness rules us and binds us to Samsara and Dukkha -suffering, follows us like a shadow.

At death, when the body dies.  The ordinary mind too physically dies but not Manah.  At death Manah is absorbed into the stream of consciousness which carries the merits earned, the Karma, that were accumulated while living in body and passes on to the next life.

At the time of death, if Manah is overrun by the outer consciousness, we continue to be in Samsara.  But if we are able to destroy Ahangkar -the Ego and let the universal mind prevail in our Manah, overflowing Bodhi Citta, we attain Nirvana –freedom from Samsara.

Having Ahangkar -the Ego means having wrong view and having Bodhi Citta means having right view towards our life. 

With Bodhi Citta we see Buddha Nature in all sentient beings. 

With Bodhi Citta we know harming others means harming ourselves, harming the Buddha Nature we have in us.

Thinking good for others means thinking good for us, and doing good to others means doing good to ourselves. 

By cultivating Bodhi Citta we progressively develop compassion and wisdom, which enables us to work with sentient beings for their good with devoid of selfish intent.  

To generate Bodhi Citta we must have complete faith that all sentient beings posses Buddha Nature and that all of them can, ultimately become Buddha. 

When one sees all sentient beings are future Buddha, one would naturally not do anything whatsoever to harm the future Buddhas. 

Neither the Manah -the subject, nor the Buddha -the object, are distinct and separate. 

All is Suchness and one with Buddha. 

Buddha is Manah, Manah is Buddha and there is no Buddha outside Manah because there is no Manah outside Buddha. 

When the distinction between subject and object ceases to exist, there emerge Bodhi Citta and nothing else. 

Merge both Manah and Buddhi –the mind, in Buddha Nature, the veil of Ahangkar -the Ego is removed automatically following the principle of co-arising.

Practicing Bodhi Citta means practicing four immeasurable: (i) Metta -Loving-kindness, (ii) Karuna -Compassion, (iii) Mudita -Sympathetic joy, and (iv) Upekkha -Equanimity. 

To have Bodhi Citta, the four immeasurable must be cultivated, developed and perfected. 

The four immeasurable are the process outcomes of perfecting six Paramitas: (i) Dana –Generosity, (ii) Sila -Morality, (iii) Khanti -Forgiveness, (iv) Virya -Vigour, (v) Dhyana -Concentration and (vi) Prajna -Wisdom. 

The three basic steps to realise Bodhi Citta are: (1) One should not have any intention in mind, (2) One should not be moved by emotion or hold any view whatsoever; and (3) One should not hold any thought that is tainted with desire. 

If one does a mistake of going South for going North, then more one goes forward, the further away one gets from his destination. This is not only an ancient saying, but also an immutable law that applies to Bodhi Citta for realising Buddha Nature. 

Lord Buddha says; “The chance of getting a human body in transmigration is as small as a mute of dust under your finger nail, but the chance of losing your human body is as great as the round earth. 

Remember, if one out breath does not return, then that is already the next life and even after thousands lifetimes and hundreds of Kalpa, one might not still be able to return to human form. 

Remember everything in this world is impermanent.” 

These serene and sublime words of Lord Buddha tell us the preciousness of human life.

Human life is precious because it is only in this life one can be enlightened and attain Nirvana. 

Living this precious human life no one should do anything that ends up doing nothing or things that merits being in hell. 

In this precious human life we should be doing things with which we experience heaven here on earth in this life.

Bodhi Citta is the epitome of Buddhist ethics. 

Bodhi Citta is the ethical path to enlightenment and Nirvana. 

For having Bodhi Citta, we should be actualising the innate potential for enlightenment in every successive generation by nurturing and sustaining Buddha Nature. 

The Buddha Nature doctrine tells us that every being possesses intrinsic effulgent Buddha Nature, the innate potential for enlightenment, which is the fundamental true state of being. 

Buddha Nature is unconditioned and boundless but its true nature remains covered by ignorance caused by Ego due to which the mind is unable to comprehend beyond its sense objects. 

To realise Buddha Nature we need Bodhi Citta, the sense of purpose for better quality of life. 

We should look at the nature and working of our mind because our actions determine the quality of our life and the signals for the kind of actions we do, comes from our mind. 

Foremost of all thoughts, the primeval thought in the mind of every individual, is the thought ‘I’. 

The thought of 'I' emerges from Ego, the resultant of subject-object interaction in favour of subject.  It is after the emergence of ‘I-thought’ from the Ego, countless other thoughts arise. 

Our body is insentient and cannot say I.  The Buddha Nature being pure consciousness also does not say I.  But the Ego referred to as spurious I mysteriously arises between the pure consciousness and insentient body, and flourishes in our mind and body. 

The characteristic of Ego is that it identifies itself with an object and discriminate others.  It cannot be independent of its association with an object. 

Though void of form, Ego comes into being by grasping a form and by grasping a form it thrives.  Feeding upon forms which it grasps it waxes more.  Such is the nature of Ego.

The objectifying tendency of Ego results in one’s wrong identification with the perishable body, making the Samsara a reality and thereby obscures the self-luminous eternal consciousness inherently present within. 

The spiritual practice enables us in tracing the ‘I-thought’ to its source.  It is the dissolution of ‘I-thought’ in pure consciousness, marks the culmination of spiritual practice. 

With Sadhana –the spiritual practice, we experience oneness amongst and with the eternal self, the undifferentiated pure consciousness, devoid of illusion.  It is from there the fountain of Bodhi Citta emanates.

Bodhi Citta is all about positive intention, attitude and behaviour.  It is a feeling of being connected. 

When an action is undertaken with positive intent and attitude in mind, only positive karmic action will follow.  When we see us in all beings, the intention to harm or act impartially will not arise.

Practicing Bodhi Citta means being aware and mindful for our intention, attitude, behaviour, and action. 

Our ordinary mind creates conceptual framework based on the understanding of the circumstances we live, and we endeavour to realise that conceptual framework.  For this reason it is inevitable to have the Right Understanding and Right View -the first two of the Eightfold Noble Path, to live a better quality life.

Bodhi Citta is the positive attitude towards all beings which enables us to selflessly support them with loving kindness and compassion for their liberation from Samsara. 

Bodhi Citta is a supreme principle which we should develop through training and restraining our mind. 

Before we are able to help others to free them from Samsara we must have stability and clarity within our own mind.  We must establish a solid foundation of discipline and ethics in our life and we can establish it by practicing Samatha -tranquillity and Vipassana -insight, meditations. 

Bodhi Citta is an unoccupied state of mind, at which the mind is free of Ego -the natural instinct to pursue self interest-based activities. 

We should destroy the self-cherishing mind that motivates actions and puts our own welfare in front of others.  We should reverse this sequence by elevating ourselves above our Ego at which mind attains equanimity filled with Bodhi Citta. 

Bodhi Citta is the selfless eternal goodwill thought and feeling toward all sentient beings. 

Only when Bodhi Citta is realized, one’s action of body, speech and mind are motivated towards welfare of all sentient beings. 

When one has firmly established Bodhi Citta and sustained it eternally, one discovers Buddha Nature and realise Buddhahood.


May you be Well.  May you be Happy................