Bodhicitta

Bodhicitta is the wish to reach complete awakening, not for your own sake but in order to free every living being from suffering. The Sanskrit word is usually translated as "mind of enlightenment"; in Tibetan it is changchub sem. Throughout the Mahayana, and so also in the Vajrayana of the Nyingma school, bodhicitta is the heart of the path. Without it, even the most refined practice slowly turns into a personal project.

Relative and absolute

The teachings describe bodhicitta on two levels.

Relative bodhicitta is the part most of us recognise. You are moved by what others are going through and you want to help. Not a little, but all the way. You also see that you cannot really free anyone while you are still caught yourself, so you turn your practice towards that. Relative bodhicitta has two stages of its own: first the aspiration, then actually setting out. Wanting to make a journey is one thing. Packing your bag is another.

Absolute bodhicitta is of a different order. It is not a feeling or a resolution but direct insight into the nature of mind, empty and luminous at once. There the line between the one who helps and the one being helped falls away. Few of us live there yet. Relative bodhicitta is how we get closer.

Bodhicitta in practice

In the Ngöndro, bodhicitta comes straight after refuge. Refuge sets the direction; bodhicitta decides who the journey is for. Practitioners recite a short verse to arouse the mind of enlightenment, traditionally a hundred thousand times, often together with a reflection on the four immeasurables: love, compassion, joy and equanimity.

It does not stay in that one section, though. Nyingma teachings give every practice a beginning, a middle and an end. You begin with the motivation of bodhicitta. You do the main practice without clinging to concepts. And you close by dedicating the merit to all beings. With that in place, even a short session is whole.

That is also what makes bodhicitta so ordinary. It shows in how you start your morning, in patience with the colleague who gets on your nerves, in the honest question of why you are sitting down to practise at all. Warm feelings are not the measure. What matters is whether your motivation slowly grows wider.

The weekly Düdjom Tersar Ngöndro class at Rigdzin Dzogchen Ling, every Saturday in Hoofddorp, goes through the bodhicitta practice properly: the text, the explanation, and time to do it together. It is also where you learn to open a session with motivation and close it with dedication.