The Basic Principle of Bodhicitta

Relative bodhicitta is how we learn to love each other and ourselves, according to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The basic principle of ultimate bodhicitta is to rest in the fundamental state of consciousness, before it is divided into ‘I and ‘other.’

Generosity is self-existing openness, complete\r\nopenness. The ultimate principle of the awakened heart is based on developing\r\ntranscendent generosity. You are no longer subject to cultivating your own\r\nscheme or project. And the best way to open yourself up is to make friends with\r\nyourself and others.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

Traditionally, there are three types of generosity.\r\nThe first one is ordinary generosity, giving material goods or providing comfortable\r\nsituations for others.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

The second one is the gift of fearlessness. You\r\nreassure others and teach them that they don’t have to feel completely\r\ntormented and freaked out about their existence. You help them to see that\r\nthere is basic goodness and spiritual practice. There is a way for them to\r\nsustain their lives.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

The third type of generosity is the gift of the\r\ndharma. You show others that there is a path that consists of discipline,\r\nmeditation, and intellect or knowledge. Through all three types of generosity,\r\nyou can open up other people’s minds. In that way, their closedness,\r\nwretchedness, and small thinking can be turned into a larger vision.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

That is the basic vision of Mahayana Buddhism: to\r\nlet people think bigger, think greater. We can afford to open ourselves and\r\njoin the rest of the world with a sense of tremendous generosity, goodness, and\r\nrichness. The more we give, the more we gain—although what we might gain should\r\nnot particularly be our reason for giving. Rather, the more we give, the more\r\nwe are inspired to give constantly. And the gaining process happens naturally,\r\nautomatically, always.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

The opposite of generosity is stinginess, holding\r\nback—having a poverty mentality. The basic principle of the ultimate bodhicitta\r\nslogans is to rest in the eighth consciousness, or alaya, and not follow our\r\ndiscursive thoughts. Alaya is a Sanskrit word meaning “basis,” or sometimes\r\n“abode” or “home,” as in Himalaya, or “abode of snow.”

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

So alaya has that idea of a vast range. It is the\r\nfundamental state of consciousness, before it is divided into “I” and “other”\r\nor into the various emotions. It is the basic ground where things are\r\nprocessed, where things exist.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

In order to rest in the nature of alaya, you need to\r\ngo beyond your poverty attitude and realize that your alaya is as good as\r\nanybody else’s alaya. You have a sense of richness and self-sufficiency. You\r\ncan do it, and you can afford to give out as well.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

Compassion comes from the simple and basic\r\nexperience of realizing that you can have a tender heart in any situation. From\r\nour basic training in meditation, we begin to realize our basic goodness and to\r\nlet go with that. We begin to rest in the nature of alaya—not caring and being\r\nvery naive and ordinary, even casual.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

When we let ourselves go, we begin to have a feeling\r\nof good existence in ourselves. That could be regarded as the very ordinary and\r\ntrivial concept of having a good time. Nonetheless, when we have good\r\nintentions toward ourselves, it is not because we are trying to achieve\r\nanything—we are just trying to be ourselves.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

As they say, we could come as we are. At that point\r\nwe have a natural sense that we can afford to give ourselves freedom. We can\r\nafford to relax. We can afford to treat ourselves better, trust ourselves more,\r\nand let ourselves feel good. The basic goodness of alaya is always there. It is\r\nthat sense of healthiness and cheerfulness and naivete that brings us to the\r\nrealization of relative bodhicitta.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

Relative bodhicitta is related with how we start to\r\nlearn to love each other and ourselves. That seems to be the basic point. It’s\r\nvery difficult for us to learn to love. When we decide to love somebody, we\r\nusually expect that person to fulfill our desires and conform to our hero\r\nworship. If our expectations can be fulfilled, we can fall in love, ideally.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

So in most of our love affairs, what usually happens\r\nis that our love is absolutely conditional. It is more of a business deal than\r\nactual love. We have no idea how to communicate a sense of warmth. When we do\r\nbegin to communicate a sense of warmth to somebody, it makes us very uptight.\r\nAnd when our object of love tries to cheer us up, it becomes an insult.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

That is a very aggression-oriented approach. In the\r\nMahayana, particularly in the contemplative tradition, love and affection are\r\nlargely based on free, open love which does not ask for anything in return. It

\r\n\r\n

is a mutual dance. Even if during the dance you step\r\non each other’s toes, it is not regarded as problematic or an insult. We do not\r\nhave to get on our high horse or be touchy about that.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

To learn to love, to learn to open, is one of the\r\nhardest things of all for us. Yet we are conditioned by passion all the time.\r\nSince we are in the human realm, our main focus or characteristic is passion\r\nand lust. So what the Mahayana teachings are based on is the idea of\r\ncommunication, openness, and being without expectations.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

When we begin to realize that the nature of\r\nphenomena is free from concept, empty by itself, that the chairs and tables and\r\nrugs and curtains and walls are no longer in the way, then we can expand our\r\nnotion of love infinitely. We could fill the whole of space with a sense of\r\naffection—love without expectation, without demand, without possession. That is\r\none of the most powerful things that Mahayana Buddhism has to contribute.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

The relationship between mother and child is the\r\nforemost analogy used in developing compassion. According to the medieval\r\nIndian and Tibetan traditions, the traditional way of cultivating relative\r\nbodhicitta is to choose your mother as the first example of someone you feel\r\nsoft toward.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

Traditionally, you feel warm and kindly toward your\r\nmother. In modern society, there might be a problem with that. However, you\r\ncould go back to the medieval idea of the mother principle. You could appreciate\r\nher way of sacrificing her own comfort for you. You could remember how she used\r\nto wake up in the middle of the night if you cried, how she used to feed you\r\nand change your diapers, and all the rest of it.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

So in order to develop relative bodhicitta, relative\r\nwakeful gentleness, we use our mother as an example and as our pilot light. We\r\nthink about her and realize how much she sacrificed for us. Her kindness is the\r\nperfect example of making others more important than yourself. You might be a\r\ncompletely frustrated person, but you could still reflect back on your\r\nchildhood and think of how nice your mother was towards you. You could think of\r\nthat, in spite of your aggression and your resentment. You could remember that\r\nthere was a time when somebody sacrificed her life for your life, and brought\r\nyou up to be the person you are now.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

That kind of compassion is very literal and very\r\nstraightforward. With that understanding, we can begin to extend our sense of\r\nnon-aggression and nonfrustration and non-anger and nonresentment.\r\nTraditionally, we use our mother as an example, and then we extend beyond that\r\nto our friends and to other people generally. Finally, we even try to feel\r\nbetter toward our enemies, toward people we don’t like. So we try to extend\r\nthat sense of gentleness, softness, and gratitude.

\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n

The starting point is realizing that others could\r\nactually be more important than ourselves. Other people might provide us with\r\nconstant problems, but we could still be kind to them. According to the logic\r\nof relative bodhicitta, we should feel that we are less important and others\r\nare more important—any others are more important! Doing so, we begin to feel as\r\nthough a tremendous burden has been taken off our shoulders. Finally, we\r\nrealize that there is room to give love and affection elsewhere, to more than\r\njust this thing called “me.” “I am this, I am that, I am hungry, I am tired, I\r\nam blah-blah- blah.” We could consider others to develop relative bodhicitta.

\r\n\r\n

Chögyam\r\nTrungpa Rinpoche -Lion’s Roar