Generating Bodhicitta (Ling Rinpoche 2015)
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Description
The enlightened attitude, bodhicitta, which has love and compassion as its basis, is the essential seed producing the attainment of buddhahood. Therefore, it is a subject that should be approached with the pure thought, "May I gain enlightenment in order to be of greatest benefit to the world."
If we want to attain the state of the full enlightenment of buddhahood as opposed to the lesser enlightenment of an arhat—nirvana, or individual liberation—our innermost practice must be the cultivation of bodhicitta. If meditation on emptiness is our innermost practice, we run the risk of falling into nirvana instead of gaining buddhahood. This teaching is given in the saying, "When the father is bodhicitta and the mother is wisdom, the child joins the caste of the buddhas." In ancient India, children of inter-caste marriages would adopt the caste of the father, regardless of the caste of the mother. Therefore, bodhicitta is like the father: if we cultivate bodhicitta, we enter the caste of the buddhas.
The collection was made possible during a remarkable period when most of the great lamas who had fled Tibet were still alive and teaching, allowing fortunate students in India and Nepal to receive direct instruction from these masters. Many teachings were given at Tushita Mahāyāna Meditation Centre in New Delhi, which Ribush established at Lama Yeshe's request in 1977 and directed until 1983.
The book features an introductory overview of the path to enlightenment by the editor, followed by teachings from luminaries including Khunu Lama Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and numerous other renowned Geluk masters. The teachings cover fundamental Buddhist topics including refuge, bodhicitta, the graduated path, the four noble truths, renunciation, emptiness, concentration, tantra, and thought transformation.
This revised second edition (2015) includes editorial improvements and is distributed freely to benefit all sentient beings and support the preservation of Mahayana Buddhism.
The enlightened attitude, the bodhimind that has love and compassion as its basis, is the essential seed producing the attainment of buddhahood. Therefore it is a subject that should be approached with the pure thought, "May I thus gain enlightenment in order to be of greatest benefit to the world."
However, there are but very small spiritual effects in hearing teachings on the bodhimind if we lack a certain spiritual foundation. Consequently, most teachers insist that disciples cultivate various preliminary practices within themselves before approaching this higher precept. If we wish to go to university, we must first learn to read and write. While merely hearing about meditation on love, compassion and the bodhimind does leave a favorable imprint on our stream of consciousness, for the teaching to produce a definite inner transformation we trainees should first meditate extensively on the preliminaries (such as the preciousness of the human opportunity, death and its significance, the nature of karma and samsara, refuge, and the higher trainings in ethics, meditation and wisdom).
If we wish to attain the state of the full enlightenment of buddhahood as opposed to the lesser enlightenment of arhantship, our innermost practice must be cultivation of the bodhimind. Were we instead to make meditation on emptiness our innermost practice, there would be the possibility of falling into the arhant's nirvana instead of gaining buddhahood. This teaching is given in the saying, "When the father is the bodhimind and the mother is wisdom, the child joins the caste of buddhas." In intercaste marriages in ancient India, children would adopt the caste of the father, regardless of whether the mother were of higher or lower caste. Therefore the bodhimind is like the father: if one cultivates
the bodhimind, one enters the caste of buddhas.
