Bodhichitta Practice

Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word which roughly translated means, “the awakened heart–mind.” The use of the translation of the Chinese charater ‘hsin’ as ‘heart–mind’ is more important than may first be realized. Both the Vedic and Chinese traditions use a term for our psychic essence that has no current English language equivalent; consequently, using the word ‘heart’ is too emotional and using the word ‘mind’ is too cortical to accurately define what was meant by these teachers about our human essence. So, this leads us to using Bodhichitta as a word which must find its own place now in the English vernacular for its meaning is the aspiration to transcend our emotional afflictions and delusions and to realize our full potential by bringing all sentient beings to an enlightened state free which is from dukkha or dis-ease.

Nagarjuna, who lived in what is now eastern India, was a first century apostolic disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha, and his philosophical treatises eventually became the foundation of what we know as Mahayana Buddhism today. The philosophic practice of bodhichitta born from Nagarjuna philosophy later came to be known as Tonglen in Vajrayana Buddhism and as “loving kindness meditation” by the Theravadan (the Teachings of the Elders) practitioners. However, this practice is not the exclusive domain of Tibetan or even its Theravadan proponents, it is simply the manifestation of the Bodhisattva archetype and has now come to be known as Bodhichitta practice. It is a practice that is truly non-sectarian: as it is, any person, from any tradition, culture, gender – even atheists – can do it!

Through my own growth within this rich and fulfilling practice I have come to view it as one of the many doors leading into the same room of personal insight or enlightenment. It may also be considered one of the many antidotes or medicines the Buddha offered for us to take, in alleviating our suffering springing from the three poisons of anger, greed or ignorance. I have personally discovered that this practice is complimentary as well as being in complete alliance with all forms of Zen practice which are popular in the West today.

The purpose of bodhichitta practice is to assist us in accessing, cultivating, and developing our inherent compassion and courage to be of benefit to all other sentient beings. Furthermore, I have found bodhichitta meditation to have dramatically helped me in healing emotional pain, clarifying and pacifying the mind, and upon several occasions resulted in the recovery from physical illness and/or injury. These seeming metaphysical events have been collaborated by friends and relatives as well as impartial observers throughout my long experimentation with these practice techniques.

The practice of bodhichitta is simply using all existing phenomena whether it is painful or pleasurable instead of it using us. We look at all of what we are experiencing with gentleness and without judgment. We are not trying to throw any part of ourselves away, or become a new, improved version of our self; what Pema Chodron refers to as “a subtle aggression against what is”. We are not separate from our qualities such as fear, joy, jealously greed, etc. We ARE our qualities. We don’t want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

We all have this baby Buddha/Bodhisattva within us. It deserves a chance to grow up. So to begin in helping this baby grow up you only have to have to have experienced some suffering and pleasure, and have the aspiration to want to help yourself and be of benefit to others.

In bodhichitta practice we are cultivating fearlessness. We all experience fear; even animals and insects experience it. Fear is about wanting to protect our heart and not wanting to feel any pain or discomfort. We try to avoid it at all costs and the shields and defenses start going up. But as the late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, “It’s because we are tenderhearted to begin with that we try to protect our hearts.”

By doing do this practice over time, I have experienced my heart opening up more and more and fear controlling me less and less. Just observing it objectively – (like a scientist looking with his full attention through a microscope) is exactly what begins to neutralize it! This has been proven in science by the way: that the mere observation begins to mutate what is being observed.

All beings want the same thing: Happiness. But we go hunting for it in the wrong direction: out there: We may get our “good thing” but ultimately it turns out to be a temporary happiness because everything is always changing and we cannot keep the transient, static or the infinite finite. So when our “good thing” changes, and eventually it inevitably will, we find ourselves once again very unhappy.

But the true treasure, the source of our real joy, never goes away or leaves us forsaken. Pema Chodron has put it beautifully: “We don’t have to feel like poverty-stricken paupers, because right in our heart is everything anyone could ever wish for in terms of open, courageous warmth and clarity. Everybody has it, but not everybody has the courage to let it ripen”.

Bodhichitta is referred to as the practice of sending and taking or giving and receiving. Some practices instruct you to breathe in the “good” and breathe out the “bad”. There is nothing wrong with this and it may work up to a certain point but it is somewhat limited because it is only for your benefit alone.

With bodhichitta you do the opposite: breathe in the “bad” and breathe out the “good”. You invite in your suffering and that of others and breathe out a wish or prayer that “May my suffering help to alleviate that of others”. Already you might start feeling a bit better because you know you are not alone. There are countless others who have suffered before you, with you right now, and will suffer after you are gone. And there are many more whose suffering is so much worse than yours.

If you are feeling happiness during this practice then breathe that in and give it away to others on the out-breath.

Bodhichitta is a “cleaning tool” for me. It helps sweep away the dust and dirt so I don’t forget I and others have this treasure and so it doesn’t become obscured from me. Also I do this practice in conjunction with Zen to keep reminding me of my own and others’ basic goodness and stay open – to keep cultivating fearlessness. And because it helps bring to life the Four Great Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless I vow to help them all.
Delusions are endless I vow to cut through them all.
The teachings are infinite I vow to learn them all.
And the Buddha Way is inconceivable and I vow to attain it.

We can do this practice for our loved ones, friends, enemies, animals, the planet, even for the ones we don’t know and have no feeling for one way or the other. We can use any situation of pain and pleasure and we can do it anywhere, any time. And the price is right: We only have to pay for our happiness by surrendering what is making us suffer to begin with.

In a world gone mad with such strife and horrors like never before in history, we who have such fortunate circumstances and the luxury and opportunity to practice, have a responsibility to try to discover our heart of hearts and find the guts we possess to be of benefit to our self and our world.

You might wonder will doing this practice of breathing in the “dark” and breathing out the “light” harm me. Absolutely not! When you exchange yourself for another, how can it?

Once a Korean woman, Dr. Choi Dae Poep Sa who was in Paris said; after trying to teach some of Seung Sahn Zen Master’s’ students, told him with some derision, “Your students are all junk!” to which he replied, “Yeah, but Zen means take junk and turn into a treasure.”

So I hope that you have faith in your sympathetic, courageous heart, be willing to help it ripen, turning your junk into your treasure and know your life can develop into a living prayer.
What’s better than that?