On the Two Kinds of Bodhicitta in the Bhāvanākrama

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On the Two Kinds of Bodhicitta in the Bhāvanākrama
Journal Article


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Morinobu Asano
author
Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies
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  • Sutra

Description

This article discusses the concept of bodhicitta (enlightenment mind) as presented in Kamalaśīla's Bhāvanākrama (Stages of Meditation) works. Here's a summary:

The article examines how Kamalaśīla presents two different conceptions of bodhicitta across his writings:

In the first volume of the Bhāvanākrama, bodhicitta is divided into:

Praṇidhicitta (aspiration mind): The initial vow to become a Buddha for all beings
Prasthānacitta (implementation mind): Aspiration accompanied by practice

In the middle volume of the Bhāvanākrama, bodhichitta is instead divided into:

Conventional bodhichitta: Similar to praṇidhicitta - the initial resolution to attain enlightenment
Ultimate bodhichitta: Not a stage of practice but a transcendent state attained through practice

The article also discusses Kamalaśīla's Yogabhāvanāvatāra text, which presents bodhichitta in the same way as the middle volume of Bhāvanākrama, focusing primarily on śamatha (calm-abiding) and vipaśyanā (insight meditation). The author analyzes textual connections between Kamalaśīla's works and Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya, noting that:

Kamalaśīla's first volume borrows extensively from the Śikṣāsamuccaya's discussion of bodhichitta
While the Śikṣāsamuccaya presents multiple causes for generating bodhichitta, Kamalaśīla critically selects and emphasizes compassion (karuṇā) as the primary cause

The article concludes by clarifying the relationships between these texts and their presentations of the bodhicitta concept in Buddhist meditation practice. (Generated by Claude.ai Apr 11, 2025])

Citation
Asano, Morinobu. "On the Two Kinds of Bodhicitta in the Bhāvanākrama. (In Japanese.) Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu (Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies) 36, no. 2 (1988): 70–73.
Interconnections
Works related to this item
2 Scholarship on
Kamalaśīla (པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་). bhāvanākrama [भावनाक्रम]. bsgom pa'i rim pa [བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ]. [Stages of Meditation 1 of 3]. Tengyur, RKTST 4228 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=4228&typ=2.
Classical WorksAbout this item
[I]n the first Bhāvanākrama, Kamalaśīla sets forth the three forms of wisdom (prajñā): the wisdom derived from learning (śrutamayīprajñā), the wisdom derived from reflection (cintāmayīprajñā), and the wisdom derived from cultivation (bhāvanāmayīprajñā), explaining that the last of these gradually destroys the afflictive obstructions (kleśāvaraṇa) and the obstructions to omniscience (jñeyāvaraṇa). (Source: "Bhāvanākrama." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 113. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Kamalaśīla (པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་). bhāvanākrama [भावनाक्रम]. bsgom pa'i rim pa [བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ]. [Stages of Meditation 2 of 3]. Tengyur, RKTST 4229 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=4229&typ=2.
Classical WorksAbout this item
The second Bhāvanākrama considers many of [the] same topics [as the first], stressing that the achievement of the fruition of buddhahood requires the necessary causes, in the form of the collection of merit (puṇyasaṃbhāra) and the collection of wisdom (jñānasaṃbhāra). Both the first and second works espouse the doctrine of mind only (cittamātra); it is on the basis of these and other statements that Tibetan doxographers classified Kamalaśīla as a Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Madhyamaka. (Source: "Bhāvanākrama." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 112–13. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)



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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Kamalaśīla (slob dpon chen po ka ma la shI la). yogabhāvanāvatāra [योगभावनावतार]. rnam 'byor bsgom pa la 'jug pa [རྣམ་འབྱོར་བསྒོམ་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ]. [Entering into Yogic Meditation (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3260 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3260&typ=2.

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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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Karuṇā - The profound wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is a core virtue in Buddhism and, in the Mahāyāna tradition, develops into 'great compassion' (mahākaruṇā), the driving force behind the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Karuṇā - The profound wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is a core virtue in Buddhism and, in the Mahāyāna tradition, develops into 'great compassion' (mahākaruṇā), the driving force behind the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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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'

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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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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Kamalaśīla (པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་). bhāvanākrama [भावनाक्रम]. bsgom pa'i rim pa [བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ]. [Stages of Meditation 3 of 3]. Tengyur, RKTST 4230 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=4230&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ'

Kamalaśīla (པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་). bhāvanākrama [भावनाक्रम]. bsgom pa'i rim pa [བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ]. [Stages of Meditation 2 of 3]. Tengyur, RKTST 4229 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=4229&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ'

Kamalaśīla (པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་). bhāvanākrama [भावनाक्रम]. bsgom pa'i rim pa [བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ]. [Stages of Meditation 1 of 3]. Tengyur, RKTST 4228 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=4228&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'བསྒོམ་པའི་རིམ་པ'

Ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt आत्मन्  Tib བདག་  Ch 我;灵魂  

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Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

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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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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt योगाचार  Tib རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་  Ch 瑜伽行派  

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

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