Bodhicitta and the Spiritual Warrior

Last updated on: April 11, 2017 at 9:55 pm by Daniel Scharpenburg

Bodhicitta and the Spiritual Warrior 2017-02-18T21:58:36-05:00 Daniel Scharpenburg

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo by Dean Hocham, Flickr C.C.

The way of the Bodhisattva is the way of compassion and wisdom, of realizing your own boundless potential. It comes from realizing that Enlightenment is our true nature, that we have a basic goodness and wakefulness that is fundamental to our being.

Bodhicitta is what the diligence of the Bodhisattva is based on. Bodhicitta means mind of awakening. It’s what helps us overcome the delusions that keep us from seeing our true nature. These delusions are things that we can overcome. They are impermanent like everything else. They may obscure our minds, but we can overcome them. Bodhicitta is our tool for doing this.

Relative and Ultimate.

Relative Bodhicitta is engaging the world with compassion in a normal way. Being kind, giving to charity, helping others, teaching the dharma. It’s the manifestation of our basic goodness.

Ultimate Bodhicitta is based on engaging the world without a self. This is helping in a way that isn’t dependent on a giver or receiver. It’s foundation is Emptiness, based on dissolving the boundaries between self and other.

Bodhicitta combines emptiness, compassion, and wisdom. To engage wisdom we have to work out overcoming our attachment to ourselves. To engage compassion we have to work on overcoming our possessiveness and aggression. To engage emptiness we have to learn to relate to our basic goodness in a way that is direct and complete.

Bodhicitta is central to Mahayana Buddhist teachings. It is the basis of being awake and freeing our minds.

We don’t really cultivate the awakened state as something separate from ourselves or as something new. We are trying to realize that we already have this basic goodness as part of our being. It has always been there. Dwelling in Bodhicitta brings us greater vision and potential. It brings us to boundless compassion for ourselves and others.

When we engage Bodhicitta we stop being so afraid of and controlled by our suffering. We gain new levels of patience and diligence. We also develop a kind of bravery. We are like spiritual warriors, willing to see the suffering of the world and face it in order to save ourselves and others.

This is the way of the bodhisattva.

Previous Post

April 6, 2017

Mind Development

Next Post

April 13, 2017 Maitri and Karuna

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 37 Practices blog bodhisattva book review boundless heart buddha buddhism buddhism for beginners compass of zen compassion dhammapada dharma emptiness Faith in Mind fearless heart han shan impermanence inspiration interfaith koans life Lojong mahayana meditation mind training mirror of zen movie review nagarjuna news questions recording song of mind steps to the great perfection suffering sutras suttas Uncategorized vajrayana video videos zen

Select a Month July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 September 2021 August 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 August 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What holiday celebrates Jesus rising from the dead?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecost Christmas Easter Passover

Support this
Column