In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhicitta ("aspiration to enlightenment" or "the thought of awakening") is the mind (citta) that is aimed at awakening (bodhi) through wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.Dayal, Har (1970). The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, p. 59. Motilal Banarsidass Publ.Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 130. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013.
Bodhicitta is the defining quality of the Mahayana bodhisattva (a being striving towards Buddhahood) and the act of giving rise to bodhicitta (bodhicittotpāda) is what makes a bodhisattva a bodhisattva. Bodhicitta is the generative cause of a bodhisattva's eventual Buddhahood. The Daśabhūmika Sūtra explains that the arising of bodhicitta is the first step in the bodhisattva's career.Dayal, Har (1970). The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, p. 50. Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Etymology Etymologically, the word is a combination of the Sanskrit words bodhi and citta. Bodhi means "awakening" or "enlightenment". Citta derives from the Sanskrit root cit, and means "that which is conscious" (i.e., mind or consciousness). Bodhicitta may be translated as "awakening mind" or "mind of enlightenment". It is also sometimes translated as "the thought of enlightenment."
Definition
Indian sources The term bodhicitta is defined and explained in different ways by different Mahayana Buddhist sources. According to Paul Williams, the basic meaning of bodhicitta in Indian sources (such as Atisha's Bodhipathapradipa) is the lofty motivation to "strive to bring a complete end to all the sufferings of others along with their own suffering...This bodhicitta results from deep compassion (karuna) for the suffering of others."Williams, Paul (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, pp. 194-195. Routledge.
According to the Bodhisattvabhumi, the bodhisattva who gives rise to bodhicitta thinks thus:
O may I obtain supreme and perfect Enlightenment, promote the good of all beings, and establish them in the final and complete nirvana and in the Buddha-knowledge!
Thus, according to the Bodhisattvabhumi, bodhicitta has two objects of thought or themes (alambana): bodhi and the good of the living beings (sattv-ārtha).
Similarly, in the Ornament of Realization (Abhisamayālaṁkāra), bodhicitta is defined as follows:
The arising of the mind [of awakening] is a desire for perfect, complete Bodhi, for the sake of others (Skt. cittotpādaḥ parārthāya samyaksambodhikāmatā)
According to Indian sources, the bodhicitta aspiration provides incalculable merit (such as good rebirths, a weakening of the defilements, increased mindfulness and luck).Dayal, Har (1970). The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, p. 62. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. Bodhicitta is what makes someone a Mahayana bodhisattva, a child of the Buddha. Thus, the Indian Buddhist author Shantideva (8th century) writes in his Bodhicaryavatara:
Those who long to transcend the hundreds of miseries of existence, who long to relieve creatures of their sorrows, who long to enjoy many hundreds of joys, must never abandon bodhicitta. When bodhicitta has arisen in him, a wretch, captive in the prison of existence, he is straightway hailed son of the Sugatas [the Buddhas], to be revered in the worlds of gods and men.Williams, Paul (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, p. 195. Routledge.
According to Paul Williams, bodhicitta in early Mahāyāna works was less well defined and meant a "certain state of mind" characteristic of a bodhisattva.
The cultivation of bodhicitta plays a significant role in Mahāyāna liturgies, particularly in ceremonies where one takes the bodhisattva precepts. Within these texts, two distinct types of bodhicitta are identified. The first, known as "conventional bodhicitta" (samvrti), refers to the mental aspiration of a bodhisattva to attain enlightenment, as previously explained. The second, called "ultimate bodhicitta" (paramartha), denotes a mind that directly perceives either emptiness or the inherent enlightenment / buddha-nature within the mind itself.
Regarding the second aspect, some Mahayana sources discuss bodhicitta not as something that must be generated, but as something which is latent in all beings, something that is already there. This is linked to the idea of the inherently pure luminous mind (prakrtipariśuddhacitta). Thus, the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi-sūtra states: "Knowing one's own mind according to reality is BODHI, and bodhicitta is the innately pure mind that is originally existent."
Modern definitions According to the 14th Dalai Lama, bodhicitta is:
the aspiration to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake - is really the distilled essence, the squeeze juice, of all the Buddha's teachings, because ultimately, the Buddha's intention is to lead all sentient beings to perfect enlightenment.His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2011). Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, p. 108.Thubten Dhargye Ling
Some modern East Asian authors on Buddhism, such as D.T. Suzuki and M. Anesaki, define bodhicitta as an immanent inner awakening. For example, Anesaki writes that bodhicitta is "the primordial essence of our mind, which in itself consists in the supreme bodhi."
According to Zoketsu Norman Fischer, bodhicitta is a spontaneous wish to attain enlightenment motivated by great compassion for all sentient beings, accompanied by a falling away of the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existing self.
Fischer adds that bodhicitta, along with the mind of great compassion (mahakaruna), motivates one to attain enlightenment Buddhahood, as quickly as possible and benefit infinite sentient beings through their emanations and other skillful means. Bodhicitta is a felt need to replace others' suffering with bliss. Since the ultimate end of suffering is nirvana, bodhicitta necessarily involves a motivation to help others to awaken (to find bodhi).
Types and stages of bodhicitta
Indian sources Indian Mahayana sources also developed different models which described different forms and levels of bodhicitta.
According to the Bodhisattvabhumi, there are two main stages of the development of bodhicitta:
a kind of bodhicitta which can be lost the permanent kind of bodhicitta which cannot be lost and leads directly to enlightenment.
Furthermore, according to Shantideva (and other sources), there are two types of bodhicitta from a practical perspective:
bodhicitta which is a wish or aspiration (Sanskrit: bodhipranidhicitta or pranidhicittotpada), this is when a bodhisattva makes an aspiration or "bodhisattva vow" (bodhisattva praṇidhāna) to become a Buddha for the sake of all beings. This is compared to making the decision to start on a journey. active bodhicitta (bodhiprasthanacitta or prasthanacittotpada) which consists of actually practicing the path in line with one's intent, which like actually undertaking a journey According to the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, there are also said to be three types of bodhicitta:
herder bodhicitta, in which a bodhisattva strives to deliver beings to awakening first (like a herder lets all their sheep in the pen first) ferryman bodhicitta, in which they travel to and enter enlightenment together with the beings they are ferrying king-like bodhicitta, in which the bodhisattva reaches awakening first, and then helps others to reach that goal
In Tibetan Buddhism A common Tibetan Buddhist distinction is that between relative and absolute (or ultimate) bodhicitta. Relative bodhicitta is a state of mind in which the practitioner works for the good of all beings as if it were their own. Absolute bodhicitta is the wisdom of shunyata (śunyatā, a Sanskrit term often translated as "emptiness", though the alternatives "vast expanse" or "openness" or "spaciousness" probably convey the idea better to Westerners).
In his book Words of My Perfect Teacher, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Patrul Rinpoche describes the three degrees of bodhicitta as taught in the Avatamsaka Sutra, claiming that shepherd-like is best.
Some bodhicitta practices emphasize the absolute (e.g. vipaśyanā), while others emphasize the relative (e.g. metta), but both aspects are seen in all Mahāyāna practice as essential to enlightenment, especially in the Tibetan practices of tonglen and lojong. Without the absolute, the relative can degenerate into pity and sentimentality, whereas the absolute without the relative can lead to nihilism and lack of desire to engage other sentient beings for their benefit.
Chan Buddhism Chan generally advocates for a direct approach which emphasizes sudden awakening. However, in the system of Guifeng Zongmi, in which sudden awakening is to be followed up by "gradual cultivation," sudden awakening entails a combination of both faith and bodhicitta. Jeffrey Broughton observes that Zongmi thus glosses the Chan idea of sudden awakening with traditional Mahāyāna terminology. As Zongmi states in relation to sudden awakening: "Produce compassion, wisdom, and the vow, resolving to seize awakening."Broughton, Jeffrey. Zongmi on Chan, pages 170-171. Columbia University Press, 2009.
John McRae observes that the sermons of Shenhui, the famous Southern School proponent of sudden awakening from whom Zongmi claimed lineal descent, were aimed to open the audience up to moments of inspiration wherein they might generate bodhicitta. However, according to McRae, as no consideration was given to any practice of meditation after the initial experience of bodhicitta, Shenhui understood bodhicitta "in a manner that is virtually tantamount to the final achievement of enlightenment."John R. McRae, Zen Evangelist: Shenhui, Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chan Buddhism, pages 32-33, University of Hawaii Press, 2023. Shenhui offers the following verses of adulation to bodhicitta, which he quotes from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: Although bodhicitta and the ultimate [realization] are no different,Of the two [states of] mind, it is the first which is [more] difficult.With oneself still unsaved, to first save others—Thus do we reverence the initial [achievement of] bodhicitta.By this initial bodhicitta one becomes a teacher of humans and gods,Superior to the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.With such a bodhicitta, one transcends the triple realm,Hence this is called the most insurpassable.John R. McRae, Zen Evangelist: Shenhui, Sudden Enlightenment, and the Southern School of Chan Buddhism, page 33, University of Hawaii Press, 2023.
Other Chan sources may adopt a more radical posture. In the Long Scroll, the earliest known records of Chan, it is explained that giving rise to the thought of enlightenment and practice is a slow path. This is contrasted with taking mind itself as the path, which is described as quick and for those with sharp abilities.Broughton, Jeffrey. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, page 20. University of California Press, 1999. This text further states that, "The spontaneously peaceful mind does not realize the understanding of the Mahayana or the Hinayana," and as such "does not produce the thought of enlightenment."Broughton, Jeffrey. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, page 23. University of California Press, 1999.