Property:SanskritTranslation
From Bodhicitta
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<p class="displayOnFirstVersePage" style="display: none;">Chapter I
The Power of a Commitment to Awakening</p>
Reverently prostrating myself before the sugatas,<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Note 1" title="1" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon bca-note note">1</span><span class="smwttcontent">''Sugata'' is an epithet of a buddha, meaning “he who has gone well."</span></span> their sons, and their bodies of dharma, and before all those who are worthy of reverence, I will offer, according to scriptural tradition and in succinct form, an introduction to the principles guiding the life of bodhisattvas, true sons of the sugatas. +
This impure image is transformed into the priceless image of the jewel of a victorious conqueror. Hold on firmly, therefore, to this powerful elixir called "thought of awakening"! +
The immeasurably wise guides of the world's caravan have assessed its great value—hold on firmly to this jewel of the thought of awakening, you who travel through the marketplaces of human destinies. +
Truly, all other goods perish after bearing fruit, like a plantain tree; but the tree of the thought of awakening never perishes after bearing its fruit, and remains fruitful thereafter. +
Even someone who has committed the most abominable sins overcomes them all in an instant when he takes refuge in this thought, as he who takes refuge in a great hero overcomes the greatest dangers. How can it be that there are insensible beings who do not take refuge in this thought? +
It consumes in an instant the gravest sins, like the fire that puts an end to the<span class="smw-highlighter pagebreaks" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Page number from:" title="398" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon pagebreak note text-80">[p.398]</span><span class="smwttcontent"><big>[[How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (The Bodhicaryāvatāra)]]</big> <br> <span class="muted">Gómez, Luis O., trans. "How to Be a Bodhisattva: Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva Path (''The Bodhicaryāvatāra'')." In ''Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism'', edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 395–441. New York: Norton, 2017.</span></span></span> cosmic cycle. The sagely protector Maitreya explained to Sudhana<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Note 2" title="2" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon bca-note note">2</span><span class="smwttcontent">A young bodhisattva whose pilgrimage is described in the Avatamsaka Sutra. "Maitreya": the buddha who will succeed Gautama.</span></span> the endless virtues of this thought. +
In short, the thought of enlightenment is twofold: the thought of the vow of awakening and the thought of setting out toward awakening. +
The wise should distinguish the two in the same way that one distinguishes someone who only wishes to depart from someone who has already set out, respectively. +
The thought of the vow of awakening produces great fruits, even in the realm of becoming, but it is not a source of uninterrupted merit, as is the thought of setting out. +
From the moment in which you take possession with unwavering mind of this determination to free the whole unlimited sphere of living beings, +
uninterrupted currents of merit, endless like space, continue to flow, even if one is asleep or if one neglects this thought repeatedly. +
Now, I will not say anything new. Besides, since I have no skill in writing, I have not composed this work with others in mind, but only as a way to cultivate my own mind. +
For the benefit of beings of inferior aspiration, the Tathagata<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Note 3" title="3" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon bca-note note">3</span><span class="smwttcontent">A title of a buddha (literally, “one who has thus come/gone”); it is the one most often used by the historical Buddha to refer to himself.</span></span> himself has explained this resolution with detailed reasons in the sutra The Questions of Subahu. +
If a person, endowed with a good disposition, resolved to allay merely headaches among living beings, that person would gain immeasurable merit. +
How much more would he not gain if he sought to free them, one by one, from infinite pain, and endow each of them with immeasurable virtues? +
Who has a father or a mother with a wish for the well-being of his son that would be comparable to this desire of the bodhisattva? Could there be such a desire among gods, rishis,<span class="smw-highlighter" data-type="8" data-state="inline" data-title="Note 4" title="4" tabindex="0"><span class="smwtticon bca-note note">4</span><span class="smwttcontent">Sages.</span></span> or brahmins? +
What is more, none of these, not even in dreams, have ever desired, even for themselves, something like this. How could it be possible then that they would desire it for others? +
How is it that the bodhisattva, this sublime jewel among living beings, is born, without precedent—he whose disposition to do good to others is not found in anyone else, even as a wish for their own personal benefit? +
How is one to assess the merit of this jewel of the thought of awakening, which is the seed for all the world’s bliss, a balm for all its pains? +
By simply desiring to benefit others one goes beyond the merit that can be derived from worshipping the Awakened ones; how much more will arise then from the actual effort to bring all happiness to all living beings? +
