Discover/Feedback 10

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Page reviewed	Discover
Date reviewed	2026-01-11
Reviewed by	User:SusanShannon
Feedback Content	I wonder if it would be useful to mention how one's life changes when the pilot light of bodhicitta is lit? I always tell my students it is as if you get a new assignment in life, whether it is one of changed perspective, or more frequently, opportunities to be of benefit to a greater number of beings. My petri dish for observing this is my own life but more importantly, what I've seen with the inmates I worked with who awakened their hearts to interconnectedness and love and emerged into lives of service in ways they could never have imagined. I always like what Skilton/Crosby write in their translator's introduction of their translation of the Bodhicaryavatara (pg xxxvi my copy) "As it is, Awakening Mind' risks the possibility of reification by the unwary reader, and so we hope that readers will remember that the arising of the Awakening Mind involves the internal transformation of the individual rather than the evocation of an external entity. This latter is not to be confused with the sense in which Shantideva talks of the Awakening Mind as a force which is active within the universe." This last sentence in the quote I feel is really important to convey, so people can get the sense that we as individuals open into this force that is there for us to open into, and all the trainings and practices we do will move us into that force, that energy. Versus something people can acquire by simply doing practices without the heart hero's constant intention and without doing their own constant hard work with their kleshas. Many dharma students in the west see these practices as commodities, something to be consumed, but I think it is useful to see that awakening of bodhicitta happens in a certain sense by de-consuming. Hope that makes some sense.
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