History of Bodhicitta Teachings

History of Bodhicitta Teachings

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Abstract

Bodhicitta (the "awakening mind") is Mahāyāna Buddhism's most revolutionary concept. The following historical sketch traces how this altruistic aspiration to achieve buddhahood for all beings transformed Buddhist spirituality from a focus on individual liberation to universal salvation. The work explores bodhicitta's etymological foundations, historical emergence, and philosophical classifications through a sophisticated fivefold typology. It analyzes Indian cultivation lineages, Tibet's distinctive developments, and each Tibetan school's approach, demonstrating bodhicitta's centrality as the generative foundation of all Mahāyāna practice.

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Phuntsho, Karma. "History of Bodhicitta Teachings." Bodhicitta: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, Oct 1, 2025.

The Origins of Bodhicitta

Tradition would have it that bodhicitta existed since time immemorial, as all buddhas must start their journey by becoming a bodhisattva and one can only do so by cultivating bodhicitta—the desire to attain perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. However, from a historical perspective, the term bodhicitta and the idea of taking all sentient beings to the state of full enlightenment only emerges with the rise of the Mahāyāna teachings around 100 BCE. There is no explicit mention of the term bodhicitta in the Buddhist canon preserved in the Pāli language, which most scholars consider to be the earliest collection of Buddhist scriptures.

One can find in the Pāli canon, particularly in the section on past buddhas and the Jātaka tales, references to the historical Buddha generating the first thoughts to become a buddha in his former lifetimes. A good example is the ascetic Sumedha, one of the previous rebirths of the historical Buddha, taking the vow to seek the perfect enlightenment for the first time in the presence of Buddha Dīpaṃkara, who confirms his success in the future through a prediction. Similarly, we also find the story of the Buddha as the brahmin Jotipāla, who takes the vow once again in the presence of Buddha Kāśyapa and receives a prediction from him that he will one day become a buddha. These stories, along with many others about the Buddha as a bodhisattva and his aim to attain perfect enlightenment, are considered by later Buddhist thinkers to exemplify bodhicitta. No doubt, these accounts in the early canonical works contributed to the development of the concept and practice of bodhicitta in later times.

It is notable, however, that the early Buddhist scriptures portray the commitment to seek the state of perfect enlightenment, or buddhahood, as a privilege reserved for only a select few individuals of high capacity. They do not explicitly mention the wish to pursue enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, nor do they articulate the noble aim of leading all sentient beings to the state of perfect enlightenment. Rather, in these early teachings, the focus is on the pursuit of individual liberation. Although some exceptional beings become fully enlightened buddhas with great compassion for the world, the teachings do not highlight the altruistic aspect of bodhicitta. The compassionate intention to benefit the world becomes more explicit in later times.

The Mahāvastu (the "Great Event" or "Great Story"), a book from around the second century BCE belonging to the Lokottaravādin school, is perhaps one of the earliest texts to explicitly mention the term bodhicitta and to present both aspects of bodhicitta: the aim for perfect enlightenment and wish to do so out of compassion for sentient beings. The verses that mention bodhicitta in the Mahāvastu (MVU) read as follows:

na dhyānahānir bhavate kadācit / na bodhicittaṃ jahate kadācit // (MVU 2.382)

Never is there any falling off in meditation, and never does he abandon the thought of enlightenment.

na bodhicittaṃ vijahati so kadācit / na khaṇḍaśīlo bhavati asaṃvṛto vā // (MVU 2.392)

Never does he give up the thought of enlightenment. He never becomes corrupt of morals nor dissolute.

The accounts of the previous lives of the historical Buddha and of Buddha Maitreya (the future Buddha) in the Mahāvastu chronicle how, for example, during the time of Buddha Suprabhāsa, the historical Buddha as the monk Abhiya and Maitreya as King Vairocana made the aspiration to reach the state of perfect enlightenment and did so out of compassion to benefit the world. Such an aspiration to attain perfect enlightenment for the sake of the world gradually evolved into the concept of bodhicitta with the emergence of Mahāyāna teachings around 100 BCE.

yasmiṃ samaye satvā bhavensuḥ alenā atrāṇā aśaraṇā aparāyaṇā utsadalolā utsadadoṣā utsadamohā akuśalān dharmā samādāya vartensuḥ yobhūyena ca apāyapratipūrakā bhavensu tasmiṃ kāle tasmiṃ samaye aham anuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim abhisaṃbudhyehaṃ // taṃ bhaveyaṃ bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukaṃpāya mahato janakāyasyārthāya hitāya sukhāya devānāṃ ca manuṣyāṇāṃ ca // (MVU 1.61)

When beings come to be without refuge, support, protection, shelter, and succour, when they become characterized by fickleness, malice, and folly, when they live in accordance with wrong standards of conduct and generally go to crowd the worlds of woe, then may I awake to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment. May I do so for the benefit and welfare of mankind, out of compassion for the world, for the sake of the multitude, for the good of devas and men.

The earliest Mahāyāna texts to discuss bodhicitta are said to be The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra) and The Verses that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitāratnaguṇasañcayagāthā). These texts date to around 100 BCE and both contain the term bodhicitta and promote the concept of seeking enlightenment out of compassion and love for sentient beings. The term bodhicitta appears at the beginning of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, when Subhūti, through the blessings of the Buddha, submits to the Buddha that a bodhisattva "should train to not have pride in having bodhicitta, for such mind is not mind, but mind is by nature luminous."

Similarly, in another passage from this same text, which Gareth Sparham calls the "Origin-Passage," Subhūti advises Śāriputra that a bodhisattva should not think of an action as hardship because one cannot serve the multitude of sentient beings with such a thought. Only with the feeling of joy and love toward sentient beings, as though they were one’s father, mother, brother, or sister, will one be able to work for countless sentient beings and cultivate the intention to take all of these beings out of suffering for all times, just as one wishes to take oneself out of suffering for all times.

What, then, could have led to the development of such a noble and high ideal as bodhicitta? Dorji Wangchuk, in his authoritative work on bodhicitta entitled The Resolve to Become a Buddha: A Study on the Bodhicitta Concept in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, speculates that the rise of the bodhicitta concept may have been "driven by a psychological need of the Buddhists to compensate for the loss of the historical Buddha." After the Buddha’s passing, some of his followers may have sought a substitute for the historical Buddha beyond the corpus of teachings and the Saṅgha community, who, as custodians of the Vinaya discipline that the Buddha designated as his representative, were entrusted with preserving his legacy after his departure. This may have been more common among those who chose to follow a hermetic and reclusive life outside the monastic institutions or sought a different understanding of the Buddha’s teachings and an alternative spiritual approach to what the mainstream monastic establishment offered. The Mahāyāna system is said to have emerged as a result of such a tendency, and it is likely that the need for a present buddha figure was strong among such people. In order to have a buddha, one must have a bodhisattva who aspires to become a buddha, and for that one needs to have the resolve or motivation to become a buddha. Thus, the concept of bodhicitta.

Gombrich and Wangchuk also argue that the Buddhist scriptures present the ultimate truth as being eternal and unchanging. Because this truth remains immanent and eternal, individuals who achieve such realization emerge periodically throughout history. This understanding opens the possibility for other persons to attain the same enlightenment that the historical Buddha achieved. Thus, we see the emergence of a plurality of buddhas in early Buddhist teachings, which present six and twenty-four past buddhas as well as future buddhas such as Maitreya. With the rise of Mahāyāna, the pantheon of buddhas increases, and not only are there numerous past and future buddhas, one sees the idea of numerous present buddhas dwelling in different buddha realms situated in the vast expanse of the new Mahāyāna cosmology. With numerous buddhas as examples, cultivating bodhicitta to achieve buddhahood becomes a central theme.

Bodhicitta, as some scholars have argued, was also an expansion and improvement on the concept of prathamacitta, or the initial resolve made by the Buddha to seek perfect enlightenment. This resolve is also presented as praṇidhāna (Pāli: paṇidhāna), or the earnest aspiration to attain enlightenment. It is also thought to be an enhanced elucidation of adhyāśaya (Pāli: ajjhāsaya), or the noble intention to earnestly seek enlightenment or benefit others. Some scholars considered adhyāśaya to be an abbreviation of anuttarayam samyaksambodhau cittam utpadayati, or the generation of the thought of the unsurpassed perfect buddhahood. Many early Mahāyāna sources also contain the term cittotpāda—the cultivation of the mind—which refers to the generation of the intention to seek perfect enlightenment. In later works, the terms bodhicitta, cittotpāda, and bodhicittotpāda came to be used synonymously, although they may have had different referents and connotations in the early period of Mahāyāna.

Whatever the main basis of the technical term bodhicitta, the topic of bodhicitta was repeated and further elaborated in other sūtras belonging to the perfection of wisdom class and numerous other Mahāyāna sūtras that emerged in the subsequent centuries. The main sūtras containing the full-blown teachings on bodhicitta include The Stem Array Sūtra (Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra) in the Avataṃsaka collection, The Dhāraṇī Spell of the Jewel Torch (Ratnolkādhāraṇī), The Questions of Sāgaramati (Sāgaramati­paripṛcchā), The Sūtra of Ākāśagarbha (Ākāśagarbhasūtra), The Questions of Ugraḥ Sūtra (Ugraparipṛcchāsūtra), The Questions of Vīradatta (Vīradatta­gṛhapati­paripṛcchā), The Jewel Heap Sūtra (Ratnakūṭasūtra), The Lotus Sūtra (Saddharma­puṇḍarīkasūtra), and The Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), to mention a few. In these sūtras, we see the development of the concept of bodhicitta along with the notions of compassion and wisdom. In many sources, such as The Questions of Sāgaramati and The Basket of the Bodhisattva (Bodhisatva­piṭaka), bodhicitta also refers to the ultimate nature of things or the luminous nature of the mind, which Wangchuk categorizes as ontological bodhicitta.

Besides the numerous canonical Mahāyāna sūtras that discuss and promote bodhicitta, we also see the rise of commentarial literature which deals with the theory and practice of bodhicitta. The foremost champion of the Mahāyāna teachings that included the concept of bodhicitta was Nāgārjuna, who lived roughly between 150 to 250 CE. In his Praise of the Diamond Mind (Cittavajrastava) and Praise of Dharmadhātu (Dharmadhātustava), Nāgārjuna uses the term bodhicitta to refer to the nature of mind and ultimate reality. However, in The Commentary on Bodhicitta (Bodhicittavivaraṇanāma), which is also attributed to Nāgārjuna, he presents bodhicitta as "the thought motivated by great compassion." This, in later times, came to be called relative bodhicitta. In his Compendium of Sūtras (Sūtrasamuccaya), Nāgārjuna presents numerous citations from sūtras to illustrate the rarity and importance of many aspects of Mahāyāna practice, including the supreme thought of awakening, or bodhicitta. Another text on how to take the vow of bodhicitta entitled The Ritual for Generating Bodhicitta (Bodhicittotpādavidhi), which contains some detail on the bodhisattva aspirations, is also attributed to Nāgārjuna. The Chinese tradition also ascribes to Nāgārjuna a text called The Treatise on Bodhicitta (Jingangding yuqie zhongfa anouduoluo sanmiao sanputi xin lun), a tantric text which contains the concept of bodhicitta both as the altruistic mind to take all beings to perfect enlightenment and as the ultimate nature of the mind, or buddha-nature. There is no Sanskrit or Tibetan version of this text.

However, the text attributed to Nāgārjuna which explicitly discusses bodhicitta and attributed Nāgārjuna is his discourse to his royal disciple, claimed to be a king of Sātavāhana dynasty who ruled in the Deccan plateau in the second century. In fact Nāgārjuna wrote two homilies but his Epistle to a Friend (suhṛllekhaḥ), does not discuss bodhicitta as does his other work, The Precious Garland (Rājaparikathāratnavāli). This work discusses bodhicitta, the bodhisattva practices, the stages on the bodhisattva path, and the bodhisattva goal.

In addition to these texts, the Tibetan Tengyur also contains several aspirational prayers for bodhisattva practice that are attributed to Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna’s teachings on bodhicitta, which tradition claims he received from Mañjuśrī, the buddha of wisdom, was passed down mainly through the adherents of the Middle Way school that he initiated. This tradition came to be known as the Profound View tradition and was espoused and propagated by many Buddhist masters from famous universities such as Nālandā and Vikramaśīla.

Another famous lineage of bodhicitta teachings known as the Vast Conduct tradition was passed down from Asaṅga (fourth century), who is said to have received the teachings from Maitreya, the future Buddha. According to this tradition, Asaṅga propitiated Maitreya for twelve long years without receiving a vision of Maitreya, even in a dream. Disappointed, Asaṅga gives up the practice of bodhicitta and leaves his hermitage when he encounters a wretched bitch in agony as her rotting hind is being consumed by maggots. Out of intense compassion, Asaṅga feeds a bit of his own flesh to the dog and uses his tongue to take out the maggots. Disgusted, he does so with closed eyes, but his tongue touches the ground instead of the dog, and Lo, as he opens his eyes, he sees before him Maitreya with his sublime aura. "You have no compassion," Asaṅga complains to Maitreya for not even showing up in his dream, although he worshiped Maitreya for a dozen years. Maitreya tells Asaṅga that he has been near Asaṅga all along but Asaṅga could not see him. Having removed some karmic obscurations after a long retreat, Asaṅga could see Maitreya as a wretched dog. Then, as compassion for the dog stirred within him, Asaṅga removed the obscurations in his mind, making him able to see the divine figure of Maitreya. Maitreya asked Asaṅga to carry him on his shoulder and ask people what they could see. Most people in the town saw nothing, but an old woman saw him carrying a miserable bitch. Subsequently, Maitreya is said to have taken Asaṅga miraculously to Tuṣita Heaven and to have given him the teachings on Maitreya's five works. The three longer treatises of these five works—namely, The Ornament of Direct Realization (Abhisamayālaṃkāra), The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā), and The Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna (Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra)—varyingly discuss the concept of bodhicitta as an altruistic thought of enlightenment or the nature of one's mind.

In The Ornament of Direct Realization, bodhicitta is discussed as the first of the seventy topics related to the Buddhist ground, path, and fruition. We find in this book a very clear definition of bodhicitta, although it uses the term cittotpāda.

Cittotpāda is the wish to attain the perfect full enlightenment for the sake of others.

This verse remains the most concise and popular definition of bodhicitta. The text also breaks down bodhicitta into twenty-two types using similes and aligns them to the progression of the bodhisattva path. This same concept is further elaborated in The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā), in which a whole chapter is dedicated to discussing bodhicitta. These two texts by Maitreya and the commentaries on them contain the most detailed theoretical discussions on bodhicitta. In The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, we find not only discussions on relative bodhicitta (i.e., the altruistic thought of enlightenment) but also on ultimate bodhicitta, which is the pristine wisdom discerning the ultimate nature of things.

Asaṅga elaborated the theory and practice of bodhicitta through his own Stages of the Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvabhūmi), which is a part of his larger work entitled The Stages of Yoga Practice (Yogācārabhūmi). In this work, he points out that bodhicitta has two specific objects.

Therefore, the cultivation of the mind [of enlightenment] aims at enlightenment and also at the welfare of sentient beings.

It is clear from this statement that Asaṅga is commenting on the definition of bodhicitta provided by Maitreya in The Ornament of Direct Realization and also in The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras. Both Maitreya's Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras and Asaṅga's Stages of the Bodhisattva also present the causes and conditions for cultivating bodhicitta. The latter became the main source for the liturgy for taking the bodhisattva vow in the Vast Conduct tradition. Passed down through Asaṅga, this line of transmission for taking the bodhisattva vow became frequently, though not exclusively, associated with the Mind Only/Yoga Practice school of Mahāyāna. The tradition later became known as the Vast Conduct tradition and was propagated by some of the eminent teachers of bodhicitta.

Besides Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga, the Tibetan tradition also includes Aśvaghoṣa among the early proponents of bodhicitta. Aśvaghoṣa, who is generally believed to have lived sometime within the first two centuries of the common era, was an acclaimed Buddhist poet, dramatist, and the author of poetic works such as The Acts of the Buddha (Buddhacarita), Beautiful Nanda (Saundarananda), and The Story of Śāriputra (Śāriputraprakaraṇa). The Chinese tradition ascribes The Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith (Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra, Dasheng qixin lun) to Aśvaghoṣa, although modern scholars contest this attribution. The Tibetan Tengyur canon contains two works on relative and ultimate bodhicitta that are considered to be by Aśvaghoṣa, but there is no known record of the transmission of teachings on bodhicitta from Aśvaghoṣa.

The Spread of Bodhicitta Teachings in India and Beyond

It is not clear when the names given to the two traditions of Mahāyāna teachings—the Vast Conduct tradition and the Profound View tradition—were introduced, and the names appear to have undergone different phases. However, written records clearly point to the actual teachings on bodhicitta being passed down through generations of Nāgārjuna's and Asaṅga's followers. For the Profound View school, after Nāgārjuna, his disciple Āryadeva promoted bodhicitta in his writings, particularly in The Four Hundred Verses on Yogic Practices of the Bodhisattva (Catuḥśatakaśāstranāmakārikā). "The cultivation of the initial thought of enlightenment," he claimed, "outshines even the merit which can make all beings on earth universal monarchs." Similarly, Bhāvaviveka (ca. 500–570 CE) composed his Verses on the Heart of the Middle Way (Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā), devoting the opening chapter to the topic of bodhicitta. In it he writes:

Bodhicitta is the seed of buddhas Adorned with loving-kindness, Compassion and knowledge. The wise shall not abandon it.

Candrakīrti, the author of Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra), elaborated the theory and practice of bodhicitta in the context of the Mahāyāna path, particularly as understood in the Middle Way school of Nāgārjuna. Although Candrakīrti had issues with Bhāvaviveka on the interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s logical procedures to establish the ultimate truth, they shared the same zest for underscoring the importance of bodhicitta on the bodhisattva path to perfect enlightenment. Candrakīrti organized his famous work using the ten stages of the bodhisattva path and the different levels of bodhicitta. Right at the outset of the work, he declares that bodhicitta, compassion, and the understanding of nonduality are the causes of bodhisattvas.

The most influential champion of bodhicitta teachings in India, however, was undoubtedly Śāntideva, the author of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra) and The Compendium of Training (Śikṣāsamuccaya). Śāntideva probably lived around the beginning of the eighth century CE and was likely born in North India, although we have no evidence or records from his time. Most of what we know about him comes from accounts of his life written long after his time by faithful followers. Like the Buddha, he is said to have been born as a prince in North India but to have renounced his kingdom to pursue a spiritual career through the guidance of his tutelary deity Mañjuśrī, the buddha of wisdom. Śāntideva is said to have reached a high level of erudition and spiritual enlightenment through Mañjuśrī’s blessings, although, outwardly, he appeared as a lazy monk, indulging in eating, sleeping, and relieving himself, thus earning him the nickname Busuku.

As the story goes, it was to mock his indolence and to shame him that his peers persuaded Śāntideva to give a public sermon. Śāntideva agreed and is said to have miraculously climbed on the unreasonably high throne they purposely set up to mock him. Śāntideva then asked the congregation whether they wanted an exposition of a text that already existed or something new. They asked for a new teaching, resulting in Śāntideva's delivery of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, or The Way of the Bodhisattva. Śāntideva is said to have levitated into the sky as he recited the verse "When existence and nonexistence do not remain before the mind, as there is no other aspect, the mind comes to rest without any grasping." He rose higher and higher until he disappeared, his voice still being heard. The disappearance into sky could be understood as an allegory for the highest experience of transcendence and emptiness of all conceptual thoughts in Śāntideva’s philosophical system. However, an old manuscript recently discovered in Drepung Monastery states that Śāntideva’s reputation soared after his recitation, resulting in much veneration and offering. And Śāntideva is said to have left Nālandā to avoid the distraction entailed by such attention. Thus, Śāntideva's miraculous disappearance into the sky likely represents a later mythological embellishment of the actual circumstances surrounding his departure.

Whatever the case may be of its origins, The Way of the Bodhisattva has arguably become the most influential Buddhist work in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on bodhicitta. In this work, Śāntideva lays out the practice of bodhicitta in ten chapters, making bold claims such as:

Those who wish to crush the many sorrows of existence, Who wish to quell the pain of living beings, Who wish to have experience of a myriad joys Should never turn away from bodhichitta. (1.8)

Since its propagation in the eighth century, The Way of the Bodhisattva, combining highly inspirational exhortations and incisive philosophical arguments in an evocative poetic language, appears to have become the locus classicus for bodhicitta study and practice, used and cited by many writers after its appearance. It was Śāntideva who also explicitly presented the meditation on equality between self and others and exchange between self and others as a way to cultivate bodhicitta, as illustrated by the following verse:

Do not be downcast, but marshal all your powers; Make an effort; be the master of yourself! Practice the equality of self and other; Practice the exchange of self and other. (7.16)

Traditional Tibetan scholars claimed that over a hundred commentaries were written on Śāntideva’s famous work, but there are only twelve Indian commentaries on it available today. They include works by Prajñākaramati, Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita, Kalyāṇadeva, Vairocanarakṣita, Vinītadeva, Vibhūticandra, Dharmakīrti of Suvarṇadvīpa, and Atiśa.

While The Way of the Bodhisattva is an original work by Śantideva written in poetic verse, his other major work, The Compendium of Training, is an anthology of citations of passages from sūtras interspersed with his own words. The two works most likely developed simultaneously in an iterative process, the latter being a compilation of sources for the former in verse. The Compendium of Training was condensed into a shorter verse summary, the Śikṣāsamuccayakārikā, the gist of which is presented by the following verses.

The vows of a bodhisattva Are taught in detail in the Mahāyāna sūtras. Know these to be the essential points, By which one can avoid transgressions.

One's body and possessions And the virtues accrued in the three times, Giving them to all sentient beings Protecting, purifying, and expanding them.

Despite being an important source for bodhisattva practice, there are only two commentarial works on The Compendium of Training. One is an exegesis by Vairocanarakṣita of Vikramaśīla, who most likely lived in the eleventh century, and the other is a cryptic and allegorical explanation of the content of the text for practice by Dharmakīrti of Suvarṇadvīpa.

The study and practice of bodhicitta within the Profound View tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism reached unprecedented heights following the eighth century, largely through the contributions of Śāntideva. In addition to the masters who commented on Śāntideva’s works mentioned above, there were other masters such as Mañjuśrīmitra, Jñānagarbha, Jetāri, Puṇyaśrī, Dhanaśrī, Vimalamitra, Śāntarakṣita, and Śāntarakṣita's disciple Kamalaśīla, who took up the scholarship and practice on bodhicitta. Among them, Mañjuśrīmitra and Jñānagarbha focused on the exposition of ultimate bodhicitta, which discerns the ultimate reality of emptiness, while Jetāri wrote a manual for taking the bodhisattva vow and a practice manual for beginners. In his treatise entitled Presenting Twelve Points on the Cultivation of Bodhicitta (Bodhicittabhāvāṛthadvadaśanirdeśa), Mañjuśrīmitra argues that bodhicitta is the mother of all buddhas, the basis of all disciplines, the foundation of all merit, the source of all enlightened qualities, the basis of liberation, and the supreme path leading to enlightenment. However, the most prolific Indian author on bodhicitta belonging to the Middle Way school in the first millennium after Śāntideva was Kamalaśīla. He wrote his trilogy on The Stages of Meditation (Bhāvanākrama) in which he presented the gradual process of the bodhisattva path. He and his teacher Śāntarakṣita, both of whom visited Tibet in the second half of the eighth century, and Atiśa Dīpaṃkara, who traveled to Tibet in the middle of the eleventh century, were the leading doyens who transmitted the teachings on bodhicitta to Tibet.

As for the Vast Conduct tradition, which is supposed to have come down from Maitreya and the pioneer advocate Asaṅga, it continued through Vasubandhu, the younger brother of Asaṅga, who initially followed a non-Mahāyāna school and was critical of Asaṅga's teachings, but later embraced the Mahāyāna school of Mind Only. Vasubandhu wrote commentaries on The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, Asaṅga's The Compendium of Mahāyāna (Mahāyānasaṃgraha), and The King of Aspiration Prayers: Aspiration to Good Actions (Āryabhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja). Additionally, a work entitled Treatise on the Generation of Bodhicitta (Bodhicittotpādaśāstra) is attributed to him. Other commentators and masters who continued the teachings on bodhicitta in this line include Vasubandhu's students Sthiramati, Dignāga, and Guṇaprabha, who wrote various commentaries. They were followed by Jinaputra, Jñānaśrī, Niḥsvabhāvatā, Parahitabhadra, and Sāgaramegha, whose works are included in the Tibetan Tengyur canon. A prominent master of this line was the householder Candragomin, who authored a treatise called Twenty Verses on Bodhisattva Vows (Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃśaka) and is said to have challenged Candrakīrti in debate. Śāntarakṣita and Bodhibhadra wrote commentaries on Candragomin's Twenty Verses. The teachings and instructions in this tradition were passed down to Atiśa mainly by Dharmakīrti of Suvarṇadvīpa in the tenth century.

While the teachings on bodhicitta spread through these two Mahāyāna lineages, Mahāyāna Buddhism also saw the rise of yet another mode of practice and transmission. This was the emergence of what came to be called Vajrayāna or tantric Buddhism, as the system was mainly based on a body of literature called tantras. Purported to be the words of the Buddha just like the Mahāyāna sūtras, these tantras presented a path to enlightenment that included a wide range of mental, verbal, and embodied tools, as well as radical techniques. Focused on the unraveling of the innate mind of enlightenment, it adopted a syncretic approach, using a great number of non-Buddhist rituals and elements infused with Buddhist philosophies and values to bring about an expedient internal transformation. The tantric masters and texts underscored the importance of bodhicitta as an indispensable component of the Vajrayāna path. They promoted the altruistic aspect of bodhicitta as an intention to seek buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings but championed the understanding of bodhicitta as the realization of the innate nature of the mind and existence. We find also in the Vajrayāna teachings the presentation of symbolic and embodied forms of bodhicitta, which Dorji Wangchuk categorizes as psycho-physiological and semeiological bodhicitta. These esoteric Vajrayāna teachings on bodhicitta flourished in India toward the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second millennium, when it also started to spread to Tibet.

A couple centuries after their emergence in India, the teachings on bodhicitta began to spread beyond India. The teachings first traveled to Central Asia and from there to China. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, for instance, was translated by Lokakṣema in 179 BCE. This was followed by the translation of many other sūtras and commentaries by translators such as Paramārtha, Dharmarakṣa, Kumārajīva, Buddhabhadra, and Dharmakṣema in the subsequent centuries. These included the main sūtras containing teachings on bodhicitta such as The Flower Ornament Sūtra (Avataṃsakasūtra), The Lotus Sūtra, The Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa, The Jewel Heap Sūtra, The Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith, The Treatise on Bodhicitta, and the other versions of the perfection of wisdom sūtras. From the accounts of Āryadeva and Dharmakīrti of Suvarṇadvipa, we can also surmise that the teachings on bodhicitta spread to Ceylon and southeastern parts of Asia.

The Transmission of Bodhicitta Teachings to Tibet

Tibetan historians claim that some Buddhist sūtras, such as Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations (Dpang skong phyag brgya pa zhes bya ba) and The Basket's Display (Karaṇḍa­vyūhasūtra), reached Tibet during the reign of the eighth Yarlung king, Lha Thothori, sometime in the fifth century. Although no one in Tibet understood the texts at that time, they contained teachings on altruism and the bodhisattva path. While The Basket's Display mainly focuses on the virtues of Avalokiteśvara, the buddha of compassion, and his mantra, oṃ maṇi padme huṃ, Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations contains homages to buddhas, the twelve sets of the Buddha's teachings, and bodhisattvas. It also explicitly mentions bodhicitta:

I, by the name . . . from now on until I reach the heart of enlightenment, shall cultivate the thought of enlightenment. I shall never let go of the thought of enlightenment. May I never be separated from the sublime virtuous friend.

The Buddhist teachings in general and the teachings on bodhicitta in particular may have spread to Tibet in some form in the seventh century during the reign of the thirty-second Yarlung monarch Songtsen Gampo. During this time Songtsen Gampo took two Buddhist brides—one from Tang China and another from the Kathmandu Valley—and also sent his minister Thönmi Sambhoṭa to India to learn Sanskrit. While we see the general introduction of the Buddhist system at this time, there are no specific records of texts related to bodhicitta having been translated or taught during this period, although later records such as the Maṇi Kabum would have us believe that teachings on compassion and bodhicitta were promulgated. Tibetan Buddhists also believe that the study and practice of bodhicitta and compassion formed a fundamental part of Songtsen Gampo’s promotion of the Buddhist religion, as he was himself considered an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, the buddha of compassion.

Historical records clearly point to the dissemination of teachings on bodhicitta in Tibet in the eighth century during the reign of Trisong Detsen, the thirty-seventh king of the Yarlung dynasty. Besides inviting to Tibet numerous Buddhist scholars and masters such as Śāntarakṣita, Padmasambhava, and Vimalamitra from India and Mohoyen from China, Tri Songdetsen initiated extensive Buddhist projects, including the construction of Samye Monastery, the institution of the first Tibetan monastic community, and above all the systematic translation of Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan from Sanskrit and Chinese. A great number of Mahāyāna sūtras, which contained the teachings on bodhicitta, as well as many tantras and commentaries, were translated toward the end of the eighth century and beginning of the ninth century, as witnessed by the catalogs of texts created around that time. For instance, The Stem Array Sūtra, which elaborates on the cultivation of bodhicitta, and The Way of the Bodhisattva and The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, two of the main treatises discussing bodhicitta, were translated as part of this massive translation program.

Similarly, tantric texts such as The Garland of Views: The King of Pith Instructions (Rājopadeśadarśanamālā) by Padmasambhava and Liquid Gold on Stone: The Cultivation of Bodhicitta (aka Bodhicittabhāvanā) by Mañjuśrīmitra, which explain the concept of ultimate bodhicitta in the tantric context, were also translated and taught. Mañjuśrīmitra praises bodhicitta in the latter text as follows:

All dharmas considered to be sublime features of liberation Are qualities of perfecting bodhicitta; they come from bodhicitta.

Many texts now included in the Collection of Nyingma Tantras (Nyingma Gyubum), such as The All Creating King of Bodhicitta (Kulayarājatantra), formulate the concept of bodhicitta as the ultimate nature of the mind and appear to have been translated by Vairocana and others during this period. History also records a debate between the gradualist Indian tradition, led by Kamalaśīla, and the simultaneist Chinese tradition, led by Mohoyen, with King Trisong Detsen as the judge. The Indian side that promoted a gradualist approach to the cultivation of bodhicitta is said to have won, and the king is said to have declared the gradualist Indian tradition to be the official system in Tibet. This period of the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet came to be known as the early diffusion period, or ngadar, in contrast to the later diffusion period, or chidar, which took place in Tibet from the eleventh century onward.

The great Buddhist intellectual and spiritual activity in Tibet that included the translation of innumerable works and the open promotion of Buddhist teachings stopped in the middle of the ninth century. As the Yarlung dynasty collapsed due to internecine conflicts, Tibet entered a century and half of political fragmentation and intellectual decline. However, with the revival of Buddhist systems toward the end of the tenth century, Tibet witnessed a resurgence of the study and practice of bodhicitta both in the exoteric sūtra and esoteric tantric traditions. Those who preserved the teachings from the early diffusion period became known as the Ancient, or Nyingma, school, while others who brought new teachings from India, Nepal, and Kashmir came to be known as the New, or Sarma, schools. The new schools included some of the leading sects such as Kadam, Kagyu, and Sakya.

Within the Nyingma school, the teachings on bodhicitta continued through the received tradition known as the kama teachings as well as the new revelations known as terma. The received kama tradition, which covers the complete range of the Buddhist system, including the nine vehicles, passed on the study and practice of bodhicitta as an essential component of the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna path. Most of the books in the Collection of Nyingma Tantras, considered to be apocryphal writings by later critics, began to circulate as Buddhism was revived in the eleventh century. Many of these works described bodhicitta as the state of perfect enlightenment which is latent in beings. This was further enhanced by the terma literature, which is believed to have been hidden by Padmasambhava and his coterie in the eighth and ninth centuries to be revealed and disseminated by treasure discoverers, or tertöns, at the right time in the future. Composed mostly of ritual liturgies and meditation instructions, the numerous cycles of rediscovered teachings also promoted bodhicitta as a fundamental aspect of Vajrayāna practice.

The new schools equally underscored the importance of bodhicitta in both exoteric sūtra and esoteric tantric study and practice. Among the most notable developments in this period was the arrival of Atiśa Dīpaṃkara (982–1055) in Tibet in 1042 CE at the invitation of Jangchub Ö, the king of Western Tibet. Historians narrate that with the chaotic and decentralized revival of Buddhism in Tibet toward the end of tenth century, the kings of Western Tibet were alarmed by the wayward conduct of some Buddhist teachers who were abusing tantric practices by making some of the secretive teachings public and taking some of the symbolic teachings literally. Thus, the kings felt the urgency to correct this by inviting an authoritative and eminent master from India, a bill which Atiśa fit perfectly, as he had become renowned as the most erudite and accomplished master in India by this time. Traditional Tibetan historians claim that Yeshe Ö, the monk ruler of Western Tibet and uncle of Jangchub Ö, was taken prisoner in a conflict with the Garlog Turks, who demanded a ransom in gold equal to his size. Yeshe Ö is said to have instructed his nephew to use the gold his nephew had raised to invite Atiśa to Tibet, rather than giving it to the Turks. This story, contested by some modern scholars, is often told to highlight the personal sacrifices made by Tibet’s kings to bring the sacred teachings of the Buddha to Tibet.

After two separate emissaries to India led by Gya Lotsāwa Tsöndru Senge (Brtson 'grus seng+ge, d.u.) and Naktso Lotsāwa Tsultrim Gyalwa (Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba, 1011–1064) respectively, and after much effort to persuade the abbot of Vikramaśīla, Atiśa was allowed to travel to Tibet. Jangchub Ö received him in Western Tibet, and during his time in the royal court, Atiśa composed The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Bodhipathapradīpa), a treatise which laid out the spiritual path for three types of persons. This text, along with its autocommentary, highlighted the ethical aspects of the Buddhist path, including the practice of bodhicitta, and would become the exemplar of the lamrim genre of literature on the spiritual path to enlightenment. Atiśa also composed the short text The Bodhisattva Garland of Gems (Bodhisattvamaṇyāvalī), which supplemented his earlier work on the conduct of the bodhisattva. He writes in it:

Cultivate loving kindness and compassion; Hold firm the thought of enlightenment. (v. 5)

Besides these two main works on bodhicitta and Mahāyāna, Atiśa also composed numerous other treatises and commentaries, many of them at the request of his Tibetan students. His teachings were spread by his many students, including Dromtön Gyalwai Jungne ('Brom ston rgyal ba 'byung gnas, 1004–64), his lay disciple who established Reting Monastery and launched the Kadam tradition, and Ngok Lekpai Sherab (Rngog legs pa'i shes rab, eleventh century), who founded Sangpu Neuthok, the famous Buddhist scholastic center in Tibet that flourished from the eleventh–fourteenth centuries. The three chief students of Dromtönpa—Potowa Rinchen Sal (Po to ba rin chen gsal, 1027–1105), Chengawa Tsultrim Bar (Spyan snga tshul khrims 'bar, 1033/8–1103), and Puchungwa Shonu Gyaltsen (Phu chung ba gzhon nu rgyal mtshan, 1031–1106)—often referred to as the three brothers (sku mched rnam gsum), developed the Kadam tradition further and initiated the rise of the rich and powerful tradition of Lojong, or mind training. At the heart of the Lojong tradition is the practice of cultivating bodhicitta, particularly through the seven points of cause and effect.

While Atiśa was on his way to Tibet, he met Marpa Chökyi Lodro (Mar pa chos kyi blo gros, 1012?–1097) in Kathmandu. Marpa, who declined to be Atiśa’s translator, was at that time on his trip to India to receive teachings from Nāropa. Having received teachings from many masters such as Nāropa, Maitrīpa, and Jñānagarbha, Marpa started giving teachings to numerous disciples in southern Tibet, leading to the establishment of the Marpa Kagyu school. Teachings on both relative and ultimate bodhicitta were disseminated through this school, and they were especially integrated into the instructions on Mahāmudrā and the Six Yogas of Nāropa. These teachings would spread widely in the subsequent centuries through at least twelve different subschools founded by the followers of Marpa.

Before Marpa embarked on his journeys to India, he studied under Drokmi Śākya Yeshe ('Brog mi shAkya ye shes, 992?–1043/1072), whose fees turned out to be too high for Marpa to afford. Drokmi had traveled to Nepal and India before Marpa and studied under many Buddhist teachers. He also translated many texts, but his specialization lay in the teachings on the Path and Result, or Lamdre (Lam 'bras), which he received from Gayadhāra (Ga ya d+ha ra, 994–1043) and Prajñendraruci (aka Vīravajra, eleventh century). In Tibet, he passed on these teachings to his main disciples, including Könchok Gyalpo (Dkon mchog rgyal po, 1034–1102), the founder of the Sakya school, which has championed the teachings of the Path and Result, of which bodhicitta is an essential component.

The bodhicitta teachings propagated by Marpa and Drokmi relied heavily on extensive new tantras such as the Hevajra, Cakrasaṃvara, and Guhyasamaja. They promoted the concept of bodhicitta both in its ethical dimension as the compassionate intention to take all sentient beings to perfect enlightenment and its ontological dimension as the state of ultimate reality. The following statement from the Hevajratantra sums up this unity:

That which is called bodhicitta Is the nonduality of emptiness and compassion.

The tantric teachings of the newer Marpa Kagyu and Sakya schools also discuss what Dorji Wangchuk calls the "psycho-physiological form of bodhicitta"—referring to seminal bodily fluids within tantric practices that utilize physical and psychic energies as catalysts for speedy spiritual transformation. Thus, the discussion of bodhicitta in such tantric contexts saw new heights in Tibetan religious discourse as the tantric schools gained prominence and became mainstream Buddhist traditions in Tibet.

Another important tradition through which the practice of relative and ultimate bodhicitta spread in Tibet, although the tradition did not take off to the same extent as the Kadam, Marpa Kagyu, and Sakya, is the Shangpa Kagyu, which originated in the famous scholar and meditation master Khyungpo Naljor (Khyung po rnal 'byor, 1050–1127). Khyungpo Naljor visited India and Nepal around seven times and studied under numerous teachers, his main masters being the female savants Sukhasiddhi and Nāropa’s sister Niguma, from whom he received the Six Yogas of Niguma. Similarly, the practice of bodhicitta also spread in Tibet through the tradition of Severance, or Chö (chöd), which is said to have begun with Machik Labdron (Ma gcig lab sgron, 1055–1149), and Pacification, or Zhije (zhi byed), a tradition attributed to Padampa Sangye (Pha dam pa sangs rgyas, eleventh century). Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom by the brahmin Āryadeva, which is a root text of the Chöd tradition, states at the outset:

Take up with respect the practice of refuge and thought of enlightenment Follow the precepts like protecting one’s eyes. The precepts of the bodhisattva Should not be abandoned even at the cost of one’s life. v.5

Similarly, Padampa Sangye, in one of his famous pieces of advice given to the local people in Dingri, states:

The six realms of beings are precious as fields for gathering two accumulations. Hold a loving mind and compassion, O Dingri people.

The study and practice of bodhicitta also spread in Tibet through other transmissions such as the Kālacakra (more specifically, the six branches of yogic practice associated with Kālacakra teachings) and through the three vajra accomplishment practice of Orgyenpa Rinchen Pel (O rgyan pa rin chen dpal, 1229–1309). These transmissions, along with the teachings and meditation techniques in the Nyingma, Kadam, Marpa Kagyu, Shangpa Kagyu, and Sakya schools, as well as the Severance and Pacification traditions, make up the "eight great chariots of practice" (sgrub brgyud shing rta che brgyad) and are considered to be the main practice lineages that formed during the Buddhist resurgence of the later diffusion period. It was through these traditions that the study and practice of bodhicitta, as an essential element of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism, spread across Tibet.

The Propagation of Bodhicitta Teachings in Tibet

The Nyingma School

As these Buddhist schools and their associated teachings and practices flourished from the eleventh century onward—having first developed in the eighth century—Tibet also witnessed the sustained spread of bodhicitta teachings. Among the Nyingma, we see the continuous transmission of bodhicitta study and practice both through the received kama tradition and the new terma revelations. While the rediscovered terma teachings focused primarily on ritual texts and meditation instructions that emphasized bodhicitta as a key practice, the kama tradition presented bodhicitta mainly as an ontological state representing ultimate reality. This was done through discourses on the ground nature, the path of pristine awareness, and the resultant state of the Buddha, all of which were presented as the nondual, innate, luminous nature of the mind.

The three inner tantras of the Nyingma—comprising Mahāyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga—and the outer mind cycle, inner space cycle, and secret instruction cycle of the Atiyoga or Dzogchen teachings underscored the study and practice of bodhicitta as the innate nature of one’s mind. These tantric presentations were systematized and elaborated in the writings of leading Nyingma masters such as Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (Rong zom chos kyi bzang po, mid-eleventh–early twelfth centuries), Longchenpa Drime Ozer (Klong chen rab 'byams dri med 'od zer, 1308–1364), Ngari Paṇchen Pema Wangyel (Mnga' ris paN chen padma dbang rgyal, 1487–1542), Lochen Dharmaśrī (Lo chen d+harma shrI, 1654–1718), and Jigme Lingpa ('Jigs med gling pa, 1739–1798). Rongzom and Longchenpa, for instance, carried out detailed discussions on bodhicitta in the context of the ultimate nature of the mind in Dzogchen thought, making them the greatest thinkers and masters of the Dzogchen system. In his treatise Entering the Way of the Mahāyāna (Theg pa chen po'i tshul la 'jug pa), Rongzom discusses bodhicitta in detail and states:

The base of all phenomena is included in the mind and appearances of the mind. The nature of the mind is awakening, thus it is called the mind of awakening.

He also writes:

Here, bodhicitta is the cultivation of thought combining wisdom and compassion.

Rongzom, Longchenpa, and Lochen Dharmaśrī also commented on The Heart of Secret Tantra (Guhyagarbhatantra), which highlights the concept of bodhicitta as the innate nature of reality. Rongzom starts his commentary on this tantra with the claim that "bodhicitta is the essence of Three Jewels." With great emphasis on the higher tantric practices, the Nyingma masters vigorously took up the study and practice of bodhicitta as the ultimate nature of the mind and as the pristine nonconceptual self-awareness of such nature.

The Nyingma masters also covered the concept of bodhicitta as the altruistic intention to attain perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Among them, Longchenpa, who is unrivaled among the Nyingma masters in the systematization and synthesis of the Nyingma teachings in general and the Dzogchen system in particular, was perhaps the first one to discuss the theory and practice of relative bodhicitta in detail. He did this in two of his major works: The Treasury of Wish-fulfilling Jewels (Yid bzhin mdzod) and Resting in the Nature of the Mind (Sems nyid ngal gso). Like Rongzompa's description of bodhicitta as the essence of the Three Jewels, Longchenpa claims bodhicitta to be the root of all Dharma in his Resting in the Nature of the Mind:

Having become properly accustomed to the immeasurable thoughts, One must cultivate the two types of bodhicitta, the root of all Dharma.

He also defines bodhicitta in the following manner:

To cultivate the [bodhicitta] thought is to desire To reach the perfect buddha for the sake of limitless beings.

Closely following Longchenpa's elaborate discussion of bodhicitta—its definition, types, procedures for taking bodhicitta vow, and precepts—in his Resting in the Nature of the Mind and its two-volume commentary entitled The Great Chariot (Shing rta chen po), Ngari Paṇchen carries out a clear and elaborate discussion of bodhicitta and bodhisattva ethics in his Ascertaining Three Vows (Sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa), on which Lochen Dharmaśrī wrote a commentary. Dharmaśrī also wrote a detailed explanation of the eighteen root downfalls or transgressions associated with the bodhisattva vow according to Ākāśagarbhasūtra. Similarly, Jigme Lingpa deliberated on bodhicitta in The Treasury of Precious Qualities (Yon tan mdzod) and in his autocommentary.

The master most famous for championing the promotion of bodhicitta in the Nyingma school, however, was Patrul Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo (Dpal sprul o rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po, 1808–1887). This wandering teacher reportedly taught The Way of the Bodhisattva over a hundred times. His love for and expertise in this text was so remarkable that he was considered an incarnation of the Indian master Śāntideva by his contemporaries. Patrul held regular teaching retreats during which he would expound upon the text and also carry out the cultivation of bodhicitta. In this manner, he left behind a rich tradition of teaching and practicing bodhicitta in general and The Way of the Bodhisattva in particular. He also authored the famous inspirational work entitled The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Kun bzang bla ma'i zhal lung), which contains persuasive stories and teachings on compassion and bodhicitta. In one of his prayers, Aspiration to Generate Bodhicitta (Rnam dag byang chub mchog tu sems bskyed pa'i smon lam), he remarks:

If present, this alone is sufficient for reaching buddhahood. If this is absent, one is handicapped in reaching buddhahood. May I generate this pure thought of awakening, The unmistaken seed of buddhahood.

Patrul's inspiration and influence spread beyond his own Nyingma school, especially with regard to his deep understanding and unparalleled expertise in teaching and practicing bodhicitta according to The Way of the Bodhisattva. In the true spirit of Rime ecumenism of which he was a leading advocate, he would teach this text to different audiences, using the commentaries and giving interpretations which were most appropriate to each group. He did not compose a commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva as did many other Tibetan masters, but he wrote a guide for putting the text into practice and a powerful outline that captures the content and layout of the entire text with exceptional clarity and cohesion. Patrul became an immensely respected doyen for the study and practice of The Way of the Bodhisattva, so much so that almost everyone studying and teaching the text after him embraced his lineage and traced their line of transmission to him.

Patrul's students recorded the gems of his insight into The Way of the Bodhisattva in the commentary they put together. Among the many students who received teachings from him on bodhicitta was Orgyen Tenzin Norbu (O rgyan bstan 'dzin nor bu, 1841?–1900?), who received teachings on The Way of the Bodhisattva from Patrul many times and taught it some two hundred times. Both he and Patrul taught Kunzang Palden (Kun bzang dpal ldan, 1862–1943), who recorded their instructions in the extensive commentary entitled The Nectar of Mañjuśrī's Speech. Another student, Jigme Chöphel Zangpo ('Jigs med chos dpal bzang po, nineteenth century), received teachings on The Way of the Bodhisattva nine times from Patrul and compiled the notes from him on the first three and the tenth chapters. Minyak Kunzang Sonam (Mi nyag kun bzang bsod nams, 1823–1905), a scholar from the Geluk tradition, also received teachings on the text nine times from Patrul and composed an extensive commentary.

A student of Patrul who left a significant legacy for the Nyingma tradition was Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatso ('Ju mi pham rnam rgyal rgya mtsho, 1846–1912), probably Tibet's greatest polymath. Mipham wrote on a wide range of subjects and left behind an astounding thirty-two volumes covering almost all sciences known to him. His writings on Buddhist philosophy and practice, which contain the Nyingma understanding of Buddhist topics, form the core curriculum for scholastic study and meditation practice in the Nyingma tradition today. The Ketaka Gem (Nor bu ke ta ka), his commentary on the ninth chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva, which he wrote after he received teachings on it from Patrul, is a good example of his philosophical writing. While the text triggered polemical exchanges between him and his opponents, today it is widely read among followers of the Nyingma school. Mipham wrote a great deal on relative and ultimate bodhicitta in a number of his works in the context of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, including a commentary on Mañjuśrīmitra's Liquid Gold on Stone: The Cultivation of Bodhicitta. The legacies of Patrul and Mipham continued through the works of their students and followers, who vigorously promoted the study and practice of bodhicitta.

The Kham region of Tibet experienced a remarkable renaissance of the Nyingma tradition during the era of the great masters of Patrul and Mipham. This renaissance, which involved many eminent figures, saw a massive burst of new scholarship and terma revelation as well as the compilation, classification, and reproduction of existing Nyingma literature. Simultaneously, there was also a revitalization of Nyingma monasticism and the development of scholastic activity through the new culture of shedra exegetical seminaries, which became vibrant centers of scholarship. The literary and institutional legacies left by this renaissance changed the trajectory of the study and practice of bodhicitta in the Nyingma school.

It was ultimately the Rime movement led by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo ('Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po, 1820–1892), Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye ('Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas, 1813–1899), Patrul Rinpoche, and Mipham that had a significant impact on wider Buddhist study and practice. This movement came into being primarily to counteract the sectarian disputes and violence that frequently occurred between Tibetan Buddhist schools. Historical examples of violent sectarian conflicts include clashes between the Sakyapas and Drigungpas (thirteenth–fourteenth centuries), Kagyupas and Gelukpas (seventeenth century), and Nyingma and Geluk schools (eighteenth century). Moreover, the Gelukpa school with the political support of the Gaden Phodrang government had been extending their influence since the fifteenth century, leading to widespread religious prejudice and proselytization. In addition, the Rime masters had reservations about Gelukpa scholasticism, which was codified in individual college textbooks and professed through the eristic study of formulaic argumentation. Mipham particularly expressed such concern about the rigidity, verbosity, and aridity of Gelukpa scholasticism, which was founded on sophistic logic.

To stem this scholastic trend and the doctrinal controversies arising from partisan interpretations, the Rime teachers promoted the reorientation of religious study toward the Indian original texts and an eclectic approach to studying the essential teachings of all Tibetan traditions regardless of one's religious affiliation. This led to a restructuring of scholarly curricula in the shedra exegetical colleges and fostered some degree of interdenominational learning and teaching by the beginning of the twentieth century. To this effect, Khenpo Zhenga, or Zhenphen Chökyi Nangwa (Gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba, 1871–1927), an ecumenical abbot of the shedra in Dzongsar, compiled commentaries on thirteen great classic Indian treatises, including The Way of the Bodhisattva, Introduction to the Middle Way, The Four Hundred Verses on Yoga, The Ornament of Direct Realization, and The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, which discuss bodhicitta and the bodhisattva path in detail. His commentaries, which are based on the writings by the Indian masters, came to be widely used as the core curriculum in the rising shedra colleges affiliated with the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya schools.

The study and practice of bodhicitta were flourishing in the scholastic and meditation centers when the People’s Liberation Army swept across Tibet. This was followed by the tragic Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). These events no doubt disrupted the scholarly pursuit of bodhicitta and gave ample opportunities for its practitioners to put it into practice in the face of overwhelming challenges and hardship. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the study and practice of bodhicitta in the Nyingma school, like in most other Tibetan Buddhist schools, recovered and reached new heights in large centers such as Namdroling Monastery in India and Larung Gar and Yachen in Tibet. These institutions attracted unprecedented numbers of students from Tibet and around the world, all of whom came to pursue Buddhist education through modernized monastic college programs that typically lasted nine years and covered topics such as bodhicitta in comprehensive detail.

The Kadam School

The Kadam school, which is considered the earliest of the sarma, or new, schools, came to be known as a leading promoter of teachings on bodhicitta. Atiśa Dīpaṃkara is said to have combined in his teachings and practice both the Profound View and Vast Conduct traditions—the two main transmissions of Mahāyāna teachings in general and bodhicitta in particular. He received these transmissions from numerous masters such as Dharmarakṣita, Bodhibhadra, Dharmakīrti, Maitrīyogi, and Nāropa, and passed them down to numerous students, including his three main students—Dromtön Gyelwai Jungne, who founded Reting Monastery, Khutön Tsöndru Yungdrung, and Ngok Lekpai Sherab. The Kadam tradition became formalized as a tradition of seven divinity-dharmas (bka’ gdams lha chos bdun ldan), which include Śākyamuni, Avalokiteśvara, Tārā, and Acala as four deities and the corpuses of Vinaya, Sūtra, and Abhidharma as the three dharmas.

The founding fathers of Kadam were succeeded by many influential masters, chief among them being the aforementioned "three Kadam brothers"—Potowa Rinchen Sal, Chengawa Tsultrim Bar, and Phuchungwa Shönu Gyaltsen. As the Kadam tradition evolved, it also saw the development of two distinct lines of practice, especially in terms of the content and style of its teachings. Firstly, the Kadam tradition became a champion of the Lamrim, or stages of path, tradition. The Lamrim tradition revolved around Atiśa's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which covered the paths for persons of inferior, middling, and superior capacities. This was supplemented by the six treatises of Kadam (bka' gdams gzhung drug), which they adopted as their core scriptural sources. They included Asaṅga's Stages of the Bodhisattva, Maitreya's Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, Śāntideva's Way of the Bodhisattva and Compendium of Training, Āryaśūra's Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamāla), and The Collection of Aphorisms (Udānavarga), attributed to the historical Buddha. These texts became the main treatises for the study and practice of bodhicitta in the Kadam tradition.

Among the early Tibetan lamrim texts were Potowa's Blue Booklet (Be'u bum sngon po), works by Gönpawa Wangchuk Gyaltsen (Dgon pa ba dbang phyug rgyal mtshan, 1016–1082) that drew directly from Atiśa's teachings, and texts by Ngok Lekpai Sherap that were based on the teachings of Khutön Tsöndru Yungdrung. Stressing the importance of bodhicitta, Potowa, as quoted by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361), states in The Blue Booklet,

Knowing them to be just like oneself, Treat everyone with love and compassion. By doing so, if one upholds bodhicitta, Therein lies each and every dharma.

Potowa also composed The Teaching in Similes (Dpe chos), which contains similes, sayings, and stories from folk culture employed to illustrate the points related to the spiritual path. Around the same time, a set of literary compositions on the spiritual path closely related to the lamrim called tenrim (bstan rim), or stages of the doctrine, developed. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Doctrine (Bstan rim chen mo) by Drolungpa Lodrö Jungne (Gro lung pa blo gros 'byung gnas, eleventh century) is perhaps the earliest one. These books, in contrast to works in the lamrim genre which lay out the path for the persons of three capacities, discuss the different teachings in the Buddhist system, taking an inclusive and cohesive approach in order to reconcile the diverse teachings. Some scholars understood the terms lamrim and tenrim to be synonyms, but others differentiated the two and considered tenrim to refer to public discourses and lamrim to refer to personalized private instructions.

Whatever the case, the approach of seeing all teachings as noncontradictory, understanding all scriptures as pith instructions, fathoming the intent of the Buddha easily, and absolving evil actions spontaneously are seen as the four special qualities of the Kadam tradition. With such an open and inclusive approach, the Kadam master generally embraced all Buddhist teachings. Yet, this did not entail a monotonous and homogenous system. Based on their specializations, the adherents of the Kadam school became divided into the tradition of scriptures (bka' gdams gzhung pa) associated with Potowa and the tradition of oral and didactic pith instructions (bka' gdams man ngag pa) associated with Chengawa, the latter further divided by some into essential instructions and oral instructions. In the cases of both the scriptural and instructional traditions, there were numerous other methods, styles, and techniques for presenting the teachings. Potowa favored approaching the teachings through mindfulness of the Buddha, Puchungwa through dependent origination, and Chengawa through the four noble truths. Within a couple generations of its diffusion, the Lamrim tradition of the Kadam school generated numerous commentaries and instructional texts while developing diverse approaches and styles for practicing the lamrim teachings.

The second most important component of Kadam study and practice was the tradition of Mind Training, or Lojong. Atiśa received various texts and techniques for mind training from his Indian teachers and passed them on to his main disciples, who in turn passed them on to their disciples. The pith instructions for mind training were mostly transmitted as secret teachings (lkog chos) in private sessions. Potowa passed down the lojong transmissions to Sharawa Yönten Drak (Sha ra ba yon tan grags, 1070–1141), whose disciple Tumtön Lodrö Drak (Gtum ston blo gros grags, ca. 1106–1166) founded the famous Kadam center of Narthang in 1153, and to Langri Thangpa (Glang ri thang pa, 1054–1123), who composed Mind Training in Eight Verses (Blo sbyong tshig brgyad ma). Sharawa passed the instructions on to Chekawa Yeshe Dorje ('Chad kha ba ye shes rdo rje, 1101–1175), who established Cheka Monastery and composed the famous Seven-Point Mind Training (Blo sbyong don bdun ma). The transmission of lojong from Chekawa branched into northern and southern traditions and spread widely, with the cultivation of ultimate and relative bodhicitta as its core.

As the Kadam tradition evolved with its wealth of lamrim and lojong teachings, its main historical records, teachings, and practices were compiled in The Book of Kadam (Bka' gdams glegs bam las btus pa'i chos skor). With The Bodhisattva Garland of Gems by Atiśa at its core, the book contains sections called "Father Teachings," which are composed of questions and answers between Atiśa and Dromtönpa, and "Son Teachings," made up of questions and answers between Atiśa and Khutön Tsöndru Yungdrung and Ngok Lekpai Sherab. In the chapter discussing how all problems lie in the sole point of self-attachment—an important topic of meditation in the Lojong tradition—Atiśa asks:

"In that case, do you understand the mind's true mode of being?"

"Yes, I do," replied Drom.

Atiśa: "So what need is there of desires for this mind; cultivate contentment. Even though you perceive many sentient beings, all of them are your fathers and mothers who have taken joy in your overcoming of misfortune and [attainment] of good fortune. They have cleaned your runny nose with their mouths, your excrement with their hands, have nurtured you with kingdoms and with gifts, and some, despite having been abandoned [by us], have cared for us again. It is due to the kindness of the teacher that positive qualities are revealed. In general, it is the teacher who has done you the great kindness of granting you your ultimate aim. And it is your parents who are the source of great kindness granting you joy and happiness in this life. You should therefore recognize their kindness and repay their kindness.

"For this, serve the teacher through respectful veneration and meditative practice, and toward your parents, in order to repay their kindness, cultivate immeasurable loving-kindness, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable joy when they are happy, and immeasurable equanimity that is free of discriminating thoughts of near and distant. For the benefit of all—all your mothers—strive as much as possible to attain buddhahood and, discarding lingering doubts, cherish your persistence in meditative practice. Abandoning all obstacles such as sloth, mental dullness, and laziness, endeavor with joyful perseverance.

"Drom, although one speaks of "recognizing the kindness of others and repaying it," it all seems to pertain to the practice of the four immeasurable thoughts, such as loving-kindness and compassion; the stabilization of the awakening mind; its enhancement from high to ever higher levels; and the definite steering of one's parents with the paddles of [the two awakening minds,] aspirational and engaging."

These passages and the many texts and teachings in the Lamrim and Lojong traditions of the Kadam school sufficiently demonstrate how bodhicitta forms the bedrock of the Kadam tradition and how the school came to champion its propagation. We also see the gradual development of the structures and procedures for practice, such as the seven instructions of cause and effect.

In addition to its strong practical orientation, the theoretical and philosophical study of bodhicitta also flourished within the Kadam school. This took place mainly through the scholastic education at Sangpu Neutok, the monastic college which was founded by Ngok Lekpai Sherab in 1072 and which rose to be a prominent Kadam center of learning some fifty years after its founding. At its peak, Sangpu Neutok was the most well-known center for scholastic education in Tibet, with alumni that included the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (Dus gsum mkhyen pa, 1110–1193), Longchenpa Drime Özer (Klong chen pa dri med 'od zer, 1308–1364), Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357–1419), and Rongtön Sheja Kunrik (Rong ston shes bya kun rig, 1367–1449), who went to Sangpu for debate sessions. Some forty-five great masters such as Ngok Loden Sherab (Rngog blo ldan shes rab, 1059–1109), Chapa Chökyi Senge (Phywa pa chos kyi seng ge, 1109–1169), Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo (Phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110–1170), Sonam Tsemo (Bsod nams rtse mo, 1142–1182), Patsab Nyima Drakpa (Pa tshab nyi ma grags pa, twelfth century) worked at Sangpu, making it a wonderful enclave of scholarship. Bodhicitta was rigorously studied through lectures, debates, and writing on The Way of the Bodhisattva, The Ornament of Direct Realization, The Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras, The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and many other texts.

Another Kadam center where both the theoretical study and practical application of the teachings flourished and where a combination of both the tradition of scriptures and oral instructions thrived was Narthang, located in the Tsang region. Narthang produced great scholars such as Chim Namkha Drak (Mchims nam mkha' grags, 1210–1285), Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims, 1219–1299), and Chomden Rikpai Raldri (Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri, 1297–1305), who wrote commentaries on texts discussing bodhicitta and also composed practice manuals for its cultivation. Scholarship on bodhicitta flourished in the Kadam tradition. Some two dozen works, including full commentaries and short treatises, were written on The Way of the Bodhisattva alone by authors including Gyamar Jangchub Drak (Rgya dmar ba byang chub grags, eleventh–twelfth century), Chapa Chökyi Senge, Tsangnakpa Tsöndru Senge (Gtsang nag pa brtson 'grus seng+ge, twelfth century), Drotön Dutsi Drak (Gro ston bdud rtse grags, 1153–1232), Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim, Lodöe Tsungme (Blo gros mtshungs med, thirteenth century), and Kyitön Drakpa Gyaltsen (Skyi ston grags pa rgyal mtshan, thirteenth century).

An outstanding Kadam luminary of his time was Gyalse Tokme Zangpo (Rgyal sras thogs med bzang po, 1295–1369) of Ngulchu, particularly in terms of teaching and practicing bodhicitta. After studying in Sakya, Bodong, and Shalu Monasteries, Tokme Zangpo composed commentaries on The Way of the Bodhisattva and The Seven-Point Mind Training, but his most significant contribution was The Thirty-Seven Bodhisattva Practices (Rgyal sras lag len so bdun ma), which today ranks among the most popular and influential texts for the study and practice of the path of the bodhisattva. Through these centers and masters, the study and practice of bodhicitta spread widely among the followers of the Kadam school.

The old Kadam tradition gradually declined in the fourteenth century but found a new manifestation in the new Gandenpa school of Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa. An influential monk, literary star, and master meditator, Tsongkhapa gave fresh life to the Kadam school but also departed from some of its old philosophical positions. He composed The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam rim chen mo), a medium-length work on the lamrim (Lam rim 'bring po), and a condensed work on the lamrim called Three Principal Aspects of the Path (Lam gtso rnam gsum). He also composed works on lojong, presenting a synthesized and structured theory as well as procedures for practice. By then, the old Kadam school declined as its teachings were incorporated into other Tibetan Buddhist traditions, particularly the new Geluk school, which emerged as a reformed version of the Kadam school to carry on its legacies.

Toward the end of Tsongkhapa's life, the main seat of Ganden Monastery was established, followed soon by the founding of Sera and Drepung. These large monastic centers housed thousands of monks and carried out the rigorous study of bodhicitta in the context of their specific college curriculum (yigcha). The authors of the yigcha such as Sonam Drakpa (Bsod nams grags pa, 1478–1554), Jamyang Zhepa ('Jam dbyangs bzhed pa, 1648–1721), and Jetsun Chökyi Gyaltsen (Rje btsun chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1469–1544) presented the definition, divisions, and benefits of bodhicitta during their deliberations on various Buddhist philosophical and moral topics. In fact, bodhicitta is the first of the seventy topics they studied as part of their long course on The Ornament of Direct Realization. However, these monasteries did not include The Way of the Bodhisattva or The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment in their curriculum and study of these texts was carried out separately outside of the monastic curriculum.

Besides the authors of the curriculum, the study and practice of bodhicitta in the new Geluk school was also promoted by the successive Dalai Lamas, Paṇchen Lamas, and Ganden Tripas, as well as by the abbots and other geshes of the three main seats (Ganden, Sera, and Drepung) and the two tantric colleges. The First Dalai Lama, Gedun Drup (Dge 'dun grub, 1391–1474), and the First Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Chökyi Gyaltsen (Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1570–1662), both wrote on lamrim and lojong practices. Other inspirational Geluk figures such as Changkya Rolpai Dorje (Lcang skya rol pa'i rdo rje, 1717–1786) and Könchok Tenpai Drönme (Dkon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me, 1762–1823) wrote specific works on the cultivation of bodhicitta. Könchok Tenpai Drönme, for example, presents instructions on how to first cultivate relative bodhicitta, then ultimate bodhicitta, and finally how the two work together. In his instructions for practicing the equality between self and others and the exchange between self and others, he pretends to be in a debate with selfishness, which he refutes using different arguments.

The study and practice of bodhicitta in the Geluk school, like all other traditions in Tibet, went through tumultuous changes beginning in the middle of the twentieth century with the arrival of the People's Liberation Army and continuing through the Cultural Revolution. For over three decades, the study of bodhicitta in the Geluk school went through its darkest chapter, though many masters did excel in the practice of bodhicitta in the face of severe atrocities.

The bodhicitta teachings were soon revived in India through the establishment of monastic centers for education and practice by Tibetans who had fled Tibet following the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. These efforts were crowned by the enthusiasm and commitment of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who emerged as a global paragon of wisdom and compassion. With dozens of books in multiple languages and public sermons attended by tens of thousands of people, he and his students took the teachings of bodhicitta to an unprecedented level by spreading the teachings across the globe. At the same time, the Geluk tradition also actively adopted the transmission of bodhicitta teachings that were passed down from Patrul Rinpoche. These came via two main lines: through Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen (Khu nu bla ma bstan 'dzin rgyal mtshan, 1894?–1977) to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and through Minyak Kunzang Sonam (1823–1905), who wrote an extensive commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva based on Patrul's teachings.

The Kagyu School

The teachings on bodhicitta coming from the Kadam school were also passed down through the Marpa Kagyu school. The focus of Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (Mar pa chos kyi blo gros, 1012–1097) and his disciple Milarepa (Mi la ras pa, 1040–1123) remained on the esoteric tantric teachings that Marpa brought from India, having received them from teachers such as Nāropa and Maitrīpa. However, Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (Sgam po pa bsod nam rin chen, 1079–1153), the third founding father of the Kagyu tradition from the Dakpo region of Tibet, combined the esoteric tantric teachings he received from Milarepa with the Kadam teachings he had received before becoming Milarepa's disciple. Thus, we see an effective pairing of the relative bodhicitta teachings from the Kadam tradition with the teachings on ultimate bodhicitta in the tantric texts and mahāmudrā transmission.

This synthesis by Gampopa is best seen in The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (Dam chos yid bzhin nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan), which condenses the entire path to buddhahood into six topics, which he puts in the following verse:

The buddha-nature is the cause, Precious and supreme human body, the support, The virtuous master is the agent, And his instructions, the expedient technique. The result is the body of the perfect Buddha, Who engages in actions for the world with no thought.

Gampopa discusses both relative and ultimate bodhicitta in some detail in this work, stating concisely that the objects of relative bodhicitta are the state of enlightenment and sentient beings, and that ultimate bodhicitta is the realization of emptiness endowed with compassion that is clear, unperturbed, and free from mental elaborations. He then presents the procedures to obtain the bodhisattva vow, the precepts to follow, the definition and types of bodhicitta, and a detailed treatment of the six perfections as applied bodhicitta. This work would remain a core text for the study and practice of bodhicitta in the Dakpo Kagyu tradition.

The four chief disciples of Gampopa started the four Kagyu schools and spread the teachings on bodhicitta. They include the aforementioned Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo, who founded the Pakdru Kagyu; Barompa Darma Wangchuk ('Ba' rom pa dar ma dbang phyug, 1127–1199/1200), who established the Barom Kagyu; the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, who established the Karma Kagyu; and Zhang Yudrakpa (Zhang g.yu brag pa, 1123–1193), who established the Tselpa Kagyu. Pakmodrupa is said to have viewed himself as a servant of all sentient beings and to have lived a life committed to strict morality and service to others. He wrote several works on bodhicitta, including a commentary on Candragomin's Twenty Verses on Bodhisattva Vows and a treatise entitled Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva, not to be confused with Śāntideva's work, although they have the same title in Tibetan. In another text called The Great Pearl Garland (Sems bskyed mu tig phreng chen), he wrote in praise of bodhicitta:

Other intentions and precepts are like well-cooked food but thoughts and precepts concerning bodhicitta are like the celestial cake with a hundred tastes. The mass of other merits is like a ruler from a castle, while bodhicitta is like the universal monarch ruling over all gods and men. The merit accrued from other virtues is like the light of a firefly, while the merit of bodhicitta is like the blazing disc of the sun.

Pakmodrupa's eight chief disciples took the teachings further by founding eight subschools of the Pakdru Kagyu. Among them are figures such as Jikten Gönpo Rinchen Pal ('Jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143–1217), who founded the Drikung Kagyu, Lingrepa Pema Dorje (Gling ras pa pad+ma rdo rje, 1128–1188), whose disciple Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (Gtsang pa rgya ras ye shes rdo rje, 1161–1211) founded the Drukpa Kagyu, and Taklungtangpa Tashi Pal (Stag lung thang pa bkra shis dpal, 1142–1209/1210). Jikten Gönpo established Drikung Thil, had a large following, and also wrote many texts on the cultivation of bodhicitta. The Experiential Hymns on the Fivefold Mahāmudrā (Phyag rgya chen po lnga ldan gyi rtogs pa'i mgur) is perhaps the most well-known work. Only five verses, it starts with the following:

If the steed of love and compassion Does not run for the benefit of others, It will not be rewarded in the assembly of gods and humans. Attend, therefore, to the preliminaries.

Like Jikten Gönpo, Tsangpa Gyare, the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu, became a highly influential Kagyu master and spread the teachings on bodhicitta widely. He is said to have sent many waves of students across the Himalayas so that the Drukpa Kagyu teachings could spread across vast distances—as far as a vulture can fly in eighteen days. It has been said in a highly exaggerated claim that half of humanity are followers of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition, half of them paupers, and half of the paupers accomplished saints. The upper Drukpas, went another panegyrical claim, are as many as stars in the sky, the lower Drukpas are as many as the particles of dust on the earth, and the middle Drukpa tradition has 2500 leading hierarchs who are entitled to parasols over their head. No doubt, the teachings on both relative and ultimate bodhicitta spread widely through the works of Tsangpa Gyare and his followers. Tsangpa Gyare remarked in one of his pieces of advice:

If bodhicitta is not cultivated, all meritorious activities, like an offering of flour to demons will throw one to the currents of worldly concerns.

"If one had compassion like a shepherd," he said, "one would care for both the good and bad."

A leading disciple of Gampopa was Dusum Khyenpa, who established a lineage that became highly influential in Tibetan religion and politics. He was later recognized as the First Karmapa. Dusum Khyenpa founded Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet and had a great following. He taught that Dharma is about benefiting sentient beings and emphasized the importance of loving-kindness and compassion as part of the Mahāyāna path. But it was his successors who excelled in the scholarship on bodhicitta theory and practice. The Second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (Kar+ma pak+shi, 1204–1283), mentioned bodhicitta in his writings, but Rangjung Dorje (Rang byung rdo rje, 1284–1339 ), the Third Karmapa, wrote many important works on ultimate bodhicitta. These included books on the perfection of wisdom, which covered the empty aspect of ultimate bodhicitta, and books on buddha-nature, which covered the luminous aspect of ultimate bodhicitta.

Among the seventeen Karmapas who have become heads of the Kamtsang Kagyu school so far, the Eighth Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje, wrote commentaries on The Ornament of Direct Realization and Introduction to the Middle Way in which he discusses bodhicitta. He also composed many other short manuals and instructions for bodhicitta practice such as The Instructions for Bodhicitta, Cultivation of Bodhicitta in One Night, and Instructions for Mind Training. In The Instructions for Bodhicitta, he presents guidance on how to generate bodhicitta using a dialogue between Maitreya and Maitrīyogi as the main text. In it, he also gives instructions on how to combine the cultivation of bodhicitta with breathing. Mikyö Dorje also wrote the liturgy for taking the bodhisattva vow according to the Mādhyamaka, Cittamātra, and Vajrayāna traditions.

Another major author on bodhicitta belonging to the Kamtshang Kagyu subschool was Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa (Dpa' bo gtsug lag phreng ba, 1504–1564), a historian and commentator on The Way of the Bodhisattva. Besides his commentary on this classical text on bodhicitta, he also authored liturgies for taking the bodhisattva vows for both relative and ultimate bodhicitta and instructions on how to turn both positive and negative life experiences into opportunities for mind training.

The sixteenth century saw another major Kagyu figure belonging to the Drukpa Kagyu subschool. Pema Karpo (Pad+ma dkar po, 1527–1592), the Fourth Drukchen of the Drukpa Kagyu school, wrote commentaries on The Way of the Bodhisattva and The Ornament of Direct Realization. He also composed a treatise on the three vows, the second chapter of which deals with the bodhisattva vow and precepts. He also wrote texts related to the lamrim stages of the path to enlightenment and many works on mahāmudrā, which deal with the ultimate form of bodhicitta.

In the nineteenth century, a major Kagyu figure to champion all traditions of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, including the study and practice of bodhicitta, was Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye (1813–1899). As a leading promoter of the Rime ecumenical movement in eastern Tibet alongside his teacher and colleague Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892), Kongtrul produced the five great treasuries, including The Treasury of Kagyu Tantras (Bka’ brgyud sngags mdzod), The Treasury of Revealed Treasures (Rin chen gter mdzod), The Treasury of Instructions (Gdams ngag mdzod), The Treasury of Knowledge (Shes bya kun khyab mdzod), and The Treasury of Extensive Teachings (Rgya chen bka' mdzod). While the first three are mainly compilations of existing teachings, Kongtrul added many supplements to enrich the collections. In the Treasury of Instructions, he put together the rare and important meditation instructions of all major Tibetan Buddhist transmissions and also composed many instructions and liturgies himself. A good example of this is his composition of the liturgy to take the bodhisattva vow according to the Mādhyamaka tradition as received via Śāntideva. The two last collections mainly consist of his own encyclopedic writings and include his commentary on Chekawa Yeshe Dorje's Seven Points of Mind Training and his Aspirational Prayer for Mind Training.

The last great Kagyupa/Nyingmapa promoter of bodhicitta in India in the twentieth century was Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, although he was also more aligned to the Rime ecumenical tradition than a specific sect. Born in North India with deep knowledge of its languages and cultures, and trained in Tibet before Buddhism's decline there, Khunu Rinpoche was uniquely positioned to preserve and transmit bodhicitta teachings during Tibet's takeover by the People's Liberation Army and the subsequent refugee exodus. At such a critical moment, Khunu Rinpoche passed on the profound teachings on bodhicitta to his students, the most eminent among them being the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who emerged as the unparalleled paragon of bodhicitta study and practice in modern times. Khunu Rinpoche also composed his very deep and poetic treatise on bodhicitta entitled The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta.

Around the same time, another prominent Kagyu master to promote bodhicitta through his writings was Gedun Rinchen (Dge 'dun rin chen 1926–1997), the sixty-ninth Je Khenpo, or Chief Abbot, of Bhutan. Gedun Rinchen wrote commentaries on Introduction to the Middle Way, notes on The Way of the Bodisattva, and several short works on the cultivation of both relative and ultimate bodhicitta. He is perhaps the first Bhutanese author to also write extensively on topics related to bodhicitta, although several other Bhutanese would do so in the twenty-first century. Today, traditional scholarship on bodhicitta among the Kagyu school thrives with an unprecedented number of scholars and masters writing and teaching both in the Himalayan Buddhist areas and in the diaspora.

The Sakya School

The Sakya school was founded by Khön Könchok Gyalpo (Dkon mchog rgyal po, 1034–1102) with the establishment of Sakya center in the Tsang region of Tibet in 1073. In subsequent generations, the school evolved to become renowned for their scholarship and their dedicated practice of the Buddhist teachings in general and the teachings on the Path and Result in particular. This was also true with regard to their study and practice of bodhicitta. According to the tradition, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (Sa chen kun dga' snying po, 1092–1158), the son of Könchok Gyalpo and the first of the five eminent ancestors of Sakya, is said to have had a vision of Mañjuśrī in which he received the teachings known as Parting from the Four Attachments (Zhen pa bzhi bral). The teaching went as follows:

If you are attached to this life, you are not a true spiritual practitioner; If you are attached to saṃsāra, you have no renunciation; If you are attached to your own self-interest, you have no bodhicitta; If there is grasping, you do not have the View.

The third point on parting from the attachment to self-interest underscored the importance of the practice of bodhicitta and compassion in the Sakya spiritual practice. A generation after him, his son Sonam Tsemo (Bsod nams rtse mo, 1142–1182), who got trained at Sangpu Neutok under the illustrious scholar Chapa Chökyi Senge, carried on the scholarly tradition of Sakya and composed a commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva. The younger son, Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1147–1216), carried on the tradition and composed a summary of The Way of the Bodhisattva, instructions on Parting from the Four Attachments, a manual for taking the refuge and bodhisattva vows, and an exegesis on The Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vow.

The greatest scholar among the five sublime ancestors of Sakya, however, was Ngawang Kunga Gyaltsen, who is popularly known as Sakya Paṇḍita or Sakya Paṇchen (Sa skya paN+Di ta, 1182–1251). A scholar of exceptional caliber, Sakya Paṇḍita composed many original works, some of which discuss bodhicitta. These include Distinguishing the Three Vows (Sdom gsum rab dbye), The Clarification of the Intent of the Sage (Thub pa'i dgongs pa rab tu gsal ba), a liturgy for taking the bodhisattva vow, and a collection of scriptural citations to substantiate the points related to bodhicitta. Sakya Paṇḍita bestowed the bodhisattva vow according to the Middle Way tradition and followed this with teachings on The Clarification of the Intent of the Sage so that one's bodhicitta would not decrease but would increase. Yet, it was generally his critical and polemical discourses on both relative and ultimate bodhicitta that often attracted the greatest attention from scholars and readers. For instance, he argued that not all bodhisattva aspiration prayers would come true, for if they did, bodhisattvas would be constantly inflicted by the pain and suffering that they prayed would fall on them. However, he accepted the essential role that bodhicitta played in Buddhist soteriology. "If one mishandles the crux of bodhicitta, other dharma cannot make one fully enlightened," he argued. Furthermore, he writes,

If one has bodhicitta and skill in means, Even if one indulges in the five sensory objects, Such an act becomes an act of great virtue for a bodhisattva. It is considered as sin by the hearers.

In his Clarification of the Intent of the Sage and the liturgy on the bodhisattva vow, he presents a brief historical account of the two main Mahāyāna traditions, a clear account of bodhicitta and its types, the ritual for receiving the bodhisattva vow, and the precepts that follow. Sakya Paṇḍita was succeeded by his nephew Chögyal Pakpa (Chos rgyal 'phags pa, 1235–1280), who followed his uncle to China and later became the court priest and tutor of Kubilai Khan. Chögyal Pakpa is said to have given the bodhicitta vow to large gatherings of 70,000 people during the Chumik convention in 1270 and to have also administered it to his Mongol disciples in the Yuan court.

The Sakya school, put in place by the five great masters, continued to grow through the works of many great figures on the Tibetan intellectual scene and the many monasteries and centers they founded. In the generation after Chögyal Pakpa, we see the rise of Butön Rinchen Drub (Bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), a Sakya scholar who became the head of Shalu Monastery and was also responsible for the compilation of the first Kangyur and Tengyur canons, today referred to as the Old Narthang Kangyur and Tengyur. Butön left behind a prodigious oeuvre that includes a commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva, a summary of it, and a commentary on The Ornament of Direct Realization. He also wrote one of the earliest and elaborate treatises on buddha-nature and numerous texts on Vajrayāna, covering ultimate bodhicitta.

An influential contemporary of Butön with a strong connection to the Sakya school was Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361). Initially associated with the Sakya school, Dölpopa undertook Kālacakra practice at Jomonang center, which eventually led him to his exposition of the philosophy of zhentong (gzhan stong), or other emptiness. He wrote a commentary on The Ornament of Direct Realization and original works such as The Mountain Dharma: Ocean of Definitive Meaning and The Fourth Council, which elaborate an understanding of ultimate bodhicitta which is starkly different from the mainstream Sakya position. Dölpopa and his writings, which were carried on by the Jonang school, left behind a significant impact on Tibetan Buddhist scholarship and practice.

In the fourteenth century, the Sakya school produced two outstanding scholars who both got trained at Sangpu Neutok. The first was Yaktön Sangye Pal (G.yag ston sangs rgyas dpal, 1350–1414), one of the six scholars known as the Six Ornaments of Tibet who wrote a commentary on The Ornament of Direct Realization but did not write any independent work on bodhicitta. The second scholar, Rongtön Sheja Kunrik (1367–1449), in contrast, wrote commentaries on major Indian treatises, including The Ornament of Direct Realization and Introduction to the Middle Way. He also composed many short works on the practice of relative and ultimate bodhicitta, including a short text containing instructions on how to put The Way of the Bodhisattva into practice.

Scholastic and polemical writings in the Sakya school reached unprecedented heights during the time of Rongtön's students, which included three of the most renowned scholars of their time—Taktsang Sherab Rinchen (Stag tshang shes rab rin chen, 1405–1477), Śākya Chokden (ShAkya mchog ldan, 1428–1507), and Gorampa Sönam Senge (Go rams pa bsod nams seng ge, 1429–1489). Taktsang Sherab Rinchen composed two works on the sciences and philosophical tenet systems and became a vocal critic of Tsongkhapa’s understanding of emptiness but did not write anything significant on bodhicitta. Śākya Chokden wrote commentaries on The Ornament of Direct Realization, Introduction to the Middle Way, and on Sakya Paṇḍita's Distinguishing the Three Vows. He also wrote a commentary on Mind Training in Eight Verses by Langri Thangpa. An independent thinker, Śākya Chokden introduced a new interpretation of buddha-nature, and his philosophical interpretation often differed from early Sakya masters. Because of this, his colleague Gorampa Sönam Senge, a sharp commentator and debater, became the main authority who established and carried on the Sakya philosophical tradition. Like his teacher Rongtön and his colleague Śākya Chokden, Gorampa wrote commentaries on The Ornament of Direct Realization, Introduction to the Middle Way, and also Distinguishing the Three Vows. Gorampa, Śākya Chokden, and Taktsang Sherab Rinchen would become known as Goshāktaksum, a trio of Sakya scholars who were among the harshest critics of Tsongkhapa and his Geluk school of thought.

Another prolific scholar around this time, though not directly related to Sakya, was Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal (Bo dong paN chen phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1376–1451). Chokle Namgyal left behind perhaps the largest collection of writings in Tibet, including commentaries on The Ornament of Direct Realization, Introduction to the Middle Way, and an exegetical commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva. Scholarship on bodhicitta thrived with the rise of scholasticism from the fourteenth century. The theory of bodhicitta was discussed as the first of the seventy topics covered in The Ornament of Direct Realization, and the practice of bodhicitta in the Sakya tradition took place through the bodhisattva vow and through the instruction on Parting from the Four Attachments. The study and practice of bodhicitta in the Sakya school especially flourished and would culminate in the works of masters such as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the Sakya figure who rose to be the leading advocate of the Rime ecumenical movement in the nineteenth century. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo bequeathed an enormous collection of writings that included many dozens of texts on bodhicitta. While he did not write commentaries on the main classical texts as other scholarly Sakya masters did, he composed many works concerning the practice of bodhicitta in the form of practical instructions, liturgies, and historical accounts.

The Spread of Bodhicitta Teachings beyond Asia

Although some early cultural transmissions and interactions between Asia and the West occurred in ancient times, the proper transmission of Buddhism, particularly Mahāyāna teachings, to the West has taken place only since the beginning of the twentieth century. The general trend of globalization facilitated by the advancement in communication technology and the travel industry, political upheavals such as World War II and the Korean War, and the rise of communism in China, Vietnam, and Tibet all led to the migration of people from Mahāyāna countries in Asia to the West and to the spread of bodhicitta teachings. Western interest in Buddhist cultures was at first largely driven by cultural curiosity and academic interest, often motivated by a colonial agenda. However, this changed by the middle of the twentieth century with the significant growth of serious interest in Eastern spirituality, the introduction of Buddhist Studies in Western universities as part of religious and theological studies, and the rise of Dharma centers for practicing Buddhists.

The initial transmission of Mahāyāna teachings to the West began with the introduction of Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism from the beginning of the twentieth century. Figures such as Soyen Shaku (1860–1919) and Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (1870–1966) brought Zen Buddhism and the Mahāyāna teachings from the Sino-Japanese tradition, while explorer-writers such as Evans Wentz (1878–1965) and Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) introduced the West to Tibetan Buddhism. These were followed by a rising number of scholars in leading academic institutions, many of whom undertook sustained and in-depth study of Mahāyāna Buddhism. At the same time, numerous Asian Buddhist teachers from Tibet and East Asia started to establish Dharma centers, particularly in Europe and North America, where people with an interest in Buddhism took up their spiritual practice. Such a diffusion of Mahāyāna Buddhism in general and teachings on bodhicitta in particular was further enhanced by the rising popularity of figures such as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Chögyam Trungpa (1939–1987).

One way to gauge the spread of the teachings on bodhicitta is to look at the transmission of the main classics on bodhicitta—namely, Śāntideva's Way of the Bodhisattva and The Compendium of Training. Early translations of these two works, which gained much popularity in India soon after their composition in the eighth century, appeared in Tibetan and Chinese in the ninth and tenth centuries respectively. The Way of the Bodhisattva was initially translated into Tibetan by Kawa Paltsek in the eighth century and into Chinese by Tiān Xīzāi (d.1000) in 985 CE. The Tibetan translation went through subsequent revisions at least twice in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by Lotsāwa Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055) and Ngok Loden Sherab (1059–1109) respectively. The text was then translated into Mongolian by Čosgi Odser (Chos kyi ’od zer, fl. 1305–1321) in 1305. The Compendium of Training was translated into Tibetan by Yeshe De (eighth century) and later revised by Ngok Loden Sherab. It was translated into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa in the first half of the eleventh century.

In the centuries after their composition, both of these texts appear to have spread quickly beyond North India to places such as Kashmir and Kathmandu. For example, the Nepal-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project has found forty-one manuscripts related to The Way of the Bodhisattva, including twelve palm-leaf manuscripts, and the earliest one (located in Kathmandu) dated to 1180 CE. The only existing Sanskrit manuscript of The Compendium of Training, now housed in Cambridge University Library, was also acquired from Kathmandu.

Although these texts attracted much attention in India, Kashmir, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, and other traditional Buddhist areas, their transmission to the West occurred only around the beginning of the twentieth century. The first publication of The Way of the Bodhisattva in the Western world took place in Russia in 1889 when Ivan P. Minayev reviewed and published the Sanskrit text using the manuscript brought by Brian Houghton Hodgson from Kathmandu. Similarly, The Compendium of Training was first published through the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1902 by Cecil Bendall, who used the Sanskrit manuscript obtained by Daniel Wright in 1875 from Kathmandu. The first translation of The Way of the Bodhisattva into a European language was undertaken by Louis de la Vallée Poussin, who translated the text in stages from 1892 onward and completed it in 1907. This was followed by five different translations into French in the twentieth century. Lionel David Barnett produced the first translation of The Way of the Bodhisattva into English in 1909, although he only did an abridged version. The first complete English translation of the verses appears to have been carried out by Marion Matics. Since then, there have been some seventeen different English translations of The Way of the Bodhisattva, and writings on this text continue to grow. It is today found in over a dozen European languages. It was also translated into Japanese by Ekai Kawaguchi (1866–1945) and published in 1921, and translations can be found in many other Asian languages.

Śāntideva’s other main work, The Compendium of Training, was edited and published for the first time in the West by Cecil Bendell in 1902. He also started the translation, but it was finished by W. H. D. Rouse and published in 1922. As regards the translation of The Compendium of Training into other languages, Moritz Winternitz produced an incomplete translation by rendering some excerpts and quotes into German in 1930. Around this same time, Gisho Nakano rendered it into modern Japanese from the Chinese version. The latest and most popular translation of The Way of the Bodhisattva today is the one by the Padmakara Translation Group and that of The Compendium of Training is the one by Charles Goodman.

Through these academic and religious translations and numerous other writings on bodhicitta, the teachings and practice of bodhicitta have today spread widely in many continents. Yet, the biggest impetus for the promotion of bodhicitta across the world has come from the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (b. 1935), an ardent promoter of bodhicitta doctrine and practice. Throughout the decades following the exodus of Tibetans into exile in 1959, the Dalai Lama has tirelessly taught and written about bodhicitta and spread the teachings to large global audiences. Interest in Tibetan Buddhism in general and the bodhicitta teachings has grown rapidly as these teachings, which were previously inaccessible to foreigners, have become easily available.

Moreover, the teachings on bodhicitta and the bodhisattva ideal continue to appeal to modern progressive sensibilities, leading to their adoption and application even beyond religious circles. With influential leaders such as the Dalai Lama promoting these ideas, the rich tradition of bodhicitta—the way of wisdom and compassion—continues to spread in different parts of the world in the twenty-first century in a sustained effort to curb materialism, individualism, egocentricity, aggression, and environmental degradation, which are rampant in the world. This web resource contains extensive materials on bodhicitta in one place, launching a new chapter in the history of bodhicitta teachings. It provides timely support to help students and practitioners easily enhance their knowledge, deepen their understanding, and strengthen their practice.

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Stender, Daniel. "Bodhicitta." In Buddhism and Jainism, edited by K. T. S. Sarao and Jeffery D. Long, 252–54. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2017.

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Ringu Tulku. "Bodhicitta." In Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung", transcribed and prepared by Gabriele Hollmann, 171–84. Vol. 3 of Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg (Weiterbildendes Studium), 1999. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd3-k10rinpoche.pdf.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ and ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt प्रभास्वर  Tib འོད་གསལ་  Ch 光明  

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Vinaya - Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time. Skt विनय  Tib འདུལ་བ།  Ch 毘奈耶  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Vaidya, P. L., ed. Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 5. Darbhanga, Bihar: The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1960. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.326198/mode/2up.

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Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra [बुद्धावतंसकनाममहावैपुल्यसूत्रात गण्डव्यूहसूत्रः पटलः]. sdong pos brgyan pa'i le'u [སྡོང་པོས་བརྒྱན་པའི་ལེའུ]. [Chapter 45: The Gaṇḍhavyūha Sūtra (84000)]. Translated by Divākara, Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Prajña, Sheng-chien. Kangyur, RKTSK 44-45 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=44-45&typ=1.

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Ākāśagarbhasūtra [आर्याकाशगर्भनाममहायानसूत्र ]. 'phags pa nam mkha'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Ākāśagarbha Sūtra (84000)]. Translated by Śākyaprabha, Ratnarakṣita, Buddhayaśas, Dharmamitra, Jñānagupta. Kangyur, RKTSK 260 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=260&typ=1.

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Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra [महापरिनिर्वाणसूत्र]. 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo; 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo chen po; 'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra]. Translated by Buddhabhadra, Devacandra, Dge ba'i blo gros, Dharmakṣema, Wang phab zhun, Rgya mtsho'i sde, Jinamitra, Jñānagarbha, Kamalagupta, Faxian, Xie Lingyun, Huiyan, Huiguan. Kangyur, D119;120;121. http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=119&typ=1;http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=120&typ=1;http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=121&typ=1.

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt धर्मधातु  Tib ཆོས་དབྱིངས་  Ch 法界  

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Nāgārjuna (ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་). Dharmadhātustava [धर्मधातुस्तव]. chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa [ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ།]. [Praise of the Dharmadhātu (84000)]. Translated by Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita, Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba, Dānapāla. Tengyur, RKTST 10 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=10&typ=2.

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Nāgārjuna (ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་). Bodhicittotpādavidhi [बोधिचित्तोत्पादविधि]. byang chub tu sems bskyed pa'i cho ga [བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་ག།]. [A Ritual for the Generation of Bodhicitta (84000)]. Translated by Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde. Tengyur, RKTST 3307 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3307&typ=2.

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Nāgārjuna (ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་). Bodhicittotpādavidhi [बोधिचित्तोत्पादविधि]. byang chub tu sems bskyed pa'i cho ga [བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོ་ག།]. [A Ritual for the Generation of Bodhicitta (84000)]. Translated by Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde. Tengyur, RKTST 3307 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3307&typ=2.

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Śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt श्रावक  Tib ཉན་ཐོས།  Ch 聲聞  

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Āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt आवरण  Tib སྒྲིབ་པ་  

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Maitreya (བྱམས་པ་). Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā [महायानसूत्रालंकारकारिका]. theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།]. [The Verses on the Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras (84000)]. Translated by Śākyasiṁha, Ska ba dpal brtsegs, Prabhākaramitra. Tengyur, RKTST 3359 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3359&typ=2.

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Maitreya (བྱམས་པ་). Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā [महायानसूत्रालंकारकारिका]. theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།]. [The Verses on the Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras (84000)]. Translated by Śākyasiṁha, Ska ba dpal brtsegs, Prabhākaramitra. Tengyur, RKTST 3359 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3359&typ=2.

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt चित्तमात्र  Tib སེམས་ཙམ་  

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Bīja - A seed, commonly used figuratively in the sense of something which has the potential to develop or grow, and likewise as the basic cause for this development or growth. Skt बीज  Tib ས་བོན་  Ch 無漏種  

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Candrakīrti (ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་). Madhyamakāvatāra [मध्यमकावतार]. dbu ma la 'jug pa [དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [Entering into the Middle Way (84000)]. Translated by Pa tshab lo tsA ba nyi ma grags pa, Tilakakalaśa, Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita, Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba. Tengyur, RKTST 3206 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3206&typ=2.

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Advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt अद्वय  Tib གཉིས་མེད་  Ch 不二  

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Advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt अद्वय  Tib གཉིས་མེད་  Ch 不二  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Lele, Amod. "Śāntideva." In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Accessed Feb. 11, 2021. https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/.

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Tsukamoto, Keisho, Yukei Matsunaga, and Hirofumi Isoda, eds. "Śāntideva." In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Vol. 3, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, 250–69. Kyoto: Heirakuji-Shoten, 1990.

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Lang, Karen. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 137–39. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Goodman, Charles. "Śāntideva." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 15, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/

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Potter, Karl H., David J. Kalupahana, and Michael J. Sweet. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 516–25. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Potter, Karl H. ed. "Śāntideva." In Bibliography: Part 1, Texts Whose Authors Can Be Dated; Authors Listed Chronologically, 5th through 9th Century. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Online edition. Last updated Apr 15, 2020. https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xtxt2.htm.

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

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Weeraratne, D. Amarasiri. "Bodhicaryāvatāra." The Maha-Bodhi 79, nos. 2–3 (1971): 406–9.

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Śikṣāsamuccaya [शिक्षासमुच्चय]. bslab pa kun las btus pa [བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།]. [The Compendium of Training]. Tengyur, RKTST 3281 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3281&typ=2.

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Śikṣāsamuccayakārikā [शिक्षासमुच्चयकारिका]. bslab pa kun las btus pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa [བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།]. [Verses of the Compendium of Study Materials (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3280 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3280&typ=2.

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Niḥsvabhāvatā - The state of lacking a truly independent existence. Skt निःस्वभावता  Tib ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་ཉིད་  

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Candragomin (བཙུན་པ་ཟླ་བ་). Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃśaka [बोधिसत्त्वसंवरविंशक]. byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa nyi shu pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་པ།]. [The Twenty Vows of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3419 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3419&typ=2.

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Vajrayāna - The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras. Skt वज्रयान  Tib རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ།  Ch 金剛乘  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Neyārtha - Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true. Skt नेयार्थ  Tib དྲང་དོན་  

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Pad+ma 'byung gnas. Rājopadeśadarśanamālā [राजोपदेशदर्शनमाला]. Man ngag gi rgyal po lta ba'i 'phreng ba [མན་ངག་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྟ་བའི་འཕྲེང་བ]. [A Garland of Views: The King of Pith Instructions]. Tengyur, RKTST 2725 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=2725&typ=2.

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sarma - The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet. Tib གསར་མ།  

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Sarma - The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet. Tib གསར་མ།  

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Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib བཀའ་གདམས་  

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Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་  

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Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib ས་སྐྱ་  

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). Bodhipathapradīpa [बोधिपथप्रदीप]. byang chub lam gyi sgron ma [བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།]. [A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment]. Tengyur, RKTST 3288 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3288&typ=2.

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Sangpu Neutok - Sangpu Neutok is an important monastery in central Tibet, just south of Lhasa, that was founded in 1072 by Ngok Lekpai Sherab, a disciple of Atiśa, and developed by his nephew, Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab. Originally a Kadam monastery with two colleges, it evolved into a monastery that includes both Sakya and Geluk traditions. At its peak in the 11th to 14th centuries, it was one of the most highly esteemed centers for monastic education and the study of Buddhist philosophy in all of the Tibetan plateau. Many influential philosophers of the time studied there. Tib གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་  

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt महामुद्रा  Tib ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།  

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt महामुद्रा  Tib ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།  

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Kālacakra - Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered. Skt कालचक्र  Tib དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།  Ch 時輪  

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Advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt अद्वय  Tib གཉིས་མེད་  Ch 不二  

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Advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt अद्वय  Tib གཉིས་མེད་  Ch 不二  

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Mahāyoga - This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas. Skt महायोग  Tib མཧཱ་ཡོ་ག and རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ།  

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Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt अनुयोग  Tib ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག  

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Atiyoga - A system of esoteric thought and practice associated with the Nyingma tradition and equivalent to Great Perfection, it is considered as the pinnacle of the nine vehicles or paths one can follow to reach Buddhahood. The system focusses on the pure, luminous and empty nature of the mind as the ground reality which must be realised through the path of trekchö and thögal practice. Skt अतियोग  Tib ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག and ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།  

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Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt महासन्धि  Tib རྫོགས་ཆེན།  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt तन्त्र  Tib རྒྱུད།  Ch 密宗  

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib དགེ་ལུགས་  

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib དགེ་ལུགས་  

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib དགེ་ལུགས་  

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib དགེ་ལུགས་  

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Sarma - The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet. Tib གསར་མ།  

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Sarma - The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet. Tib གསར་མ།  

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Abhidharma - Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha. Skt अभिधर्म  Tib ཆོས་མངོན་པ།  Ch 阿毗达磨  

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Sangpu Neutok - Sangpu Neutok is an important monastery in central Tibet, just south of Lhasa, that was founded in 1072 by Ngok Lekpai Sherab, a disciple of Atiśa, and developed by his nephew, Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab. Originally a Kadam monastery with two colleges, it evolved into a monastery that includes both Sakya and Geluk traditions. At its peak in the 11th to 14th centuries, it was one of the most highly esteemed centers for monastic education and the study of Buddhist philosophy in all of the Tibetan plateau. Many influential philosophers of the time studied there. Tib གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་  

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt महामुद्रा  Tib ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།  

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt महामुद्रा  Tib ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།  

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt चित्तमात्र  Tib སེམས་ཙམ་  

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

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Gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib གཞན་སྟོང་  

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Gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib གཞན་སྟོང་  

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Jonang - The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo. Tib ཇོ་ནང་  

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ and ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt चित्तमात्र  Tib སེམས་ཙམ་  

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Asaṅga (ཐོགས་མེད་). Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ [बोधिसत्त्वभूमिः]. rnal 'byor spyod pa'i sa las byang chub sems dpa'i sa [རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།]. [From The Levels of Spiritual Practice: The Level of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Translated by Prajñāvarman, Ye shes sde. Tengyur, RKTST 3376 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3376&typ=2.

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Gzhi - The foundational basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It is often used as a synonym for tathāgatagarbha and dharmadhātu. Tib གཞི་  

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Gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt गोत्र  Tib རིགས་  Ch 鍾姓,種性  

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Śāntarakṣita (ཞི་བ་འཚོ་). Saṃvaraviṃśakavṛtti [संवरविंशकवृत्ति]. sdom pa nyi shu pa'i 'grel pa [སྡོམ་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ།]. [A Running Commentary on The Twenty Vows (of a Bodhisattva) (84000)]. Translated by Vidyākarasiṃha. Tengyur, RKTST 3420 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3420&typ=2.

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Bodhibhadra (ཞི་བ་འཚོ་). Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃśakapañjikā [बोधिसत्त्वसंवरविंशकपञ्जिका]. byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa nyi shu pa'i dka' 'grel [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་པའི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ།]. [A Commentary on the Difficult Points of The Twenty Vows of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Translated by Ksemagagana, byang chub shes rab. Tengyur, RKTST 3421 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3421&typ=2.

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Pad+ma 'byung gnas. Rājopadeśadarśanamālā [राजोपदेशदर्शनमाला]. Man ngag gi rgyal po lta ba'i 'phreng ba [མན་ངག་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྟ་བའི་འཕྲེང་བ]. [A Garland of Views: The King of Pith Instructions]. Tengyur, RKTST 2725 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=2725&typ=2.

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