The Path of the Bodhisattva
Chapter in a Book
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Description
There is an interesting description of the meaning of bodhicitta in this short article in relation to generosity:
While dāna, the typical word for the virtue of generosity, indicates as much the giving of some thing to another as the state of mind with which one gives, bodhicitta is specifically a mental quality. It is, indeed, the mental quality sine qua non. Literally translated as something like ‘awakened mind’ or ‘enlightenment-mind’, bodhicitta is a mental state of aliveness to suffering (the first Noble Truth) as an active concern to eliminate it. Before one has understood suffering so as to eradicate it, bodhicitta is the firm aspiration to attain this state. Bodhicitta also names this state once fully realized, or perfected. True generosity is the enlightenment-mind dedicated to giving happiness and relief from suffering to all beings. Śāntideva begins by recommending this quality of attention to us as an aspiration, and then describes its benefits – and the harms of its absence – so as to cultivate within the reader a firm commitment to bodhicitta. (Carpenter, page 227)
No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
Like most Buddhist philosophers, Śāntideva (685–763 CE) was also a Buddhist practitioner and teacher. And like many prominent Buddhist practitioner-thinkers, his life attracted a great deal of legend and myth, so that it is difficult retrospectively to distinguish the history from the story. But Śāntideva's story is worth retelling, for it gives us a sense of the spirit in which later readers would pick up his most beloved composition, the Bodhicāryāvatāra (Introduction to the Conduct of the Bodhisattva). (Carpenter, para 1, 224–25)
Citation
Carpenter, Amber D. "The Path of the Bodhisattva." In Indian Buddhist Philosophy: Metaphysics as Ethics, 224–31. London: Routledge, 2014.
