Indian Altruism: A Study of the Terms Bodhicitta and Cittotpāda

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Indian Altruism: A Study of the Terms Bodhicitta and Cittotpāda

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The highest form of altruism in scholastic Mahāyāna Buddhism is conveyed by the term cittotpāda ("mind-production, lifting up the heart"). In an earlier paper* I dealt with the place of this altruism in the Abhisaṁayālaṃkāra (=AA) and its commentaries. In those texts cittotpāda enjoys pride of place as entrance into the Mahāyāna, the first of seventy topics (Tib. don bdun bcu) under which the concealed meaning (Tib. sbas don) of the Prajñā-pāramitā (=PP) sūtras is discussed. In this paper I shall attempt to identify the PP sūtra from which the cittotpāda doctrine originates and show how it differs, in its origins, from bodhicitta.

Citation

Sparham, Gareth. "Indian Altruism: A Study of the Terms Bodhicitta and Cittotpāda." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15, no. 2 (1992): 224-42.

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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 the 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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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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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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