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|jumbo-text=Bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment or awakening (''byang chub kyi sems''), is an altruistic intention, suffused with compassion, that aspires to free all beings from suffering and is motivated by the determination to work toward the attainment of complete enlightenment in order help others reach that same state.
|jumbo-text=Bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment or awakening (''byang chub kyi sems''), is an altruistic intention, suffused with compassion, that aspires to free all beings from suffering and is motivated by the determination to work toward the attainment of complete enlightenment in order help others reach that same state.
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Bodhicitta is defined in the ''Great Tibetan Dictionary''<ref>Tsik Dzö Chenmo" (ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ། tshig mdzod chen mo)</ref> as "a special type of cognitive faculty of the mind that arises from an intention that has as its focus a longing to attain complete enlightenment for the sake of others and functions as the main pillar of the path of the Great Vehicle."<ref>དམིགས་པ་གཞན་དོན་ལ་དམིགས་ནས་རྣམ་པ་རྫོགས་བྱང་ཐོབ་འདོད་ཀྱི་འདུན་པ་ལས་བྱུང་ཞིང་ཐེག་ཆེན་ལམ་གྱི་གཞུང་ཤིང་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་རིག་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་ (''dmigs pa gzhan don la dmigs nas rnam pa rdzogs byang thob 'dod kyi 'dun pa las byung zhing theg chen lam gyi gzhung shing du gyur pa'i yid kyi rnam rig khyad par can'')- ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ། (''Tshig mdzod chen mo''), 1869.</ref> Therefore, it is this mental attitude that provides the impetus for the bodhisattva path.


{{TermBox
<h2>The Bodhicitta to Be Defined</h2>
|classes=col-md-4
Bodhicitta, as we have seen, is the mind or thought of awakening or enlightenment. ''Bodhi'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to awakening or knowledge. In the specific Buddhist context, it refers to the state of enlightenment, which is attained through the cultivation of wisdom. There are three levels of bodhi, or enlightenment:
|side=right
|term=Bodhisattva
|definition=A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.
}}


In terms of scope, it is the motivation of bodhicitta that distinguishes a bodhisattva from a śrāvaka. Though both groups are intent upon liberation, the śrāvaka focuses on freeing themself, while the bodhisattva's goal is to eventually free all beings. This difference in the scope of their respective motivations affects not only the nature of the path through which they work toward liberation, but where those different paths culminate. For the śrāvaka, their path leads to the cessation of emotional defilements and the suffering associated with them. Thereby they become an arhat and achieve nirvāṇa.
:#The enlightenment of the hearers (''śrāvaka'', ཉན་ཐོས་), who are disciples of the Buddha seeking individual liberation.
:#The enlightenment of the solitary realizers (''pratyekabuddha'', རང་སངས་རྒྱས་), who seek individual liberation on their own in eras when there is no buddha.
:#The enlightenment of the Buddha. This enlightenment is often called the perfect, complete enlightenment (''samyaksaṃbuddha'', ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་).  


{{TermBox
The term ''bodhi'' in bodhicitta generally refers to the third type—that is, the perfect, complete enlightenment of the Buddha. ''Citta'' refers to the mind or thought encompassing the inner world of thoughts, emotions, and impulses. In the most common translations, bodhicitta is rendered as the mind of enlightenment or thought of awakening.
|classes=col-md-4
|side=left
|term=śrāvaka
|definition=The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.
}}


On the other hand, since the bodhisattva's intention is to remain in saṃsāra until all beings are free of suffering, they eschew the peace of nirvāṇa in order to continue to benefit beings no matter how long this may take. And, since sentient beings are considered to be limitless, so are the activities of the bodhisattva and the time frame in which their labors unfold. Nevertheless, theoretically, their path does come to an end, as it is said to culminate in the complete enlightenment of buddhahood. Though the length of time the bodhisattva spends upon this path is not counted in lifetimes, but rather in eons, with three incalculable eons as the most common estimation. Yet, therein lies the value of bodhicitta in that the bodhisattva is, thereby, undaunted by the enormity of the task at hand. In the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' Śāntideva expresses this sentiment, stating,
However, the term ''bodhicitta'' has many different meanings. Dorji Wangchuk, in his book ''The Resolve to Become a Buddha: A Study on the Bodhicitta Concept in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism'', presents five different uses of the word ''bodhicitta''.


{{PullBcaVerses|10.55|171}}
:1. Ethico-spiritual bodhicitta. In the most common usage, ''bodhicitta'' refers to the altruistic resolve to become a buddha for the benefit of all beings. It is the compassionate and volitional core of the Mahāyāna path, encompassing both the aspirational and engaging aspects.


In his expansive study of the concept of bodhicitta, Professor Dorji Wangchuk states,
2. Gnoseological bodhicitta. ''Bodhicitta'' can refer to the knowledge or meditative insight that experiences the ultimate truth. It is the pristine wisdom realizing the true nature of things.
{{QuoteCite
                |quote-text=As we all know, Mahāyāna is principally defined by a new goal of salvation: One should not only seek one's own freedom from ''saṃsāra'' but should become a ''buddha'', whose task consists in primarily leading others, too, to salvation. One should hence follow the path of a ''bodhisattva''. Because the way to Buddhahood is much longer and arduous than the direct way to ''nirvāṇa'', a strong motivation is required to overcome and endure the difficulties. The Mahāyāna texts often mention compassion (''karuṇā'') as a decisive motive for this undertaking. Empathy or compassion is hence seen as the root (''mūla'') or seed (''bīja'') of ''bodhicitta'', and ''bodhicitta'' as the defining principle of a ''bodhisattva'' striving to become a ''buddha''.
                |source-wiki-page=The Resolve to Become a Buddha
|page-number=82 }}
And,
{{QuoteCite
                |quote-text=The notions of ''bodhicitta'', ''bodhisattva'', and Mahāyāna are so intricately linked with each other that it seems to be almost impossible to deal with one of them without referring to the others. Doctrinally speaking, there cannot be a bodhisattva without ''bodhicitta'', and no Mahāyāna without a ''bodhisattva''.
                |source-wiki-page=The Resolve to Become a Buddha
|page-number=107 }}


3. Ontological bodhicitta. The term bodhicitta, in its deepest sense, is also used to refer to the ultimate reality or nature of being that an enlightened insight apprehends.
4. Psycho-physiological bodhicitta. In the context of the tantric or Vajrayāna form of Buddhism, the term is used to refer to male semen and blood, often presented as the white and red bodhicitta, which is associated with the great bliss of enlightenment.
5. Semeiological bodhicitta. ''Bodhicitta'' can also denote visual, vocal, or other symbols that express one or more of the four preceding types of bodhicitta. Such symbols include the full moon, jewel, vajra, diadem, syllables, light balls, and deities such as Vajrasattva.
''Bodhicitta'', as it is used on this website, refers primarily to the first two types, with the third type being marginally covered in the context of the ultimate reality that a bodhisattva must realize. This website does not discuss the last two types.
What Dorji Wangchuk calls ethico-spiritual bodhicitta corresponds to what is known in the classical texts as relative or conventional bodhicitta (''saṁvṛti bodhicitta'', ཀུན་རྫོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་), and gnoseological bodhicitta corresponds to what is called ultimate or absolute bodhicitta (''paramārtha bodhicitta'', དོན་དམ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་). They are also known respectively as the generation of the relative mind (''saṁvṛticittotpāda'', ཀུན་རྫོབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) and the generation of the ultimate mind (''paramārthacittotpāda'', དོན་དམ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) because "generation of the mind" (''cittotpāda'', སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) is a synonym of bodhicitta. The following sections discuss the definitions (''lakṣaṇa'', མཚན་ཉིད་) or the essential characteristics of these two types of bodhicitta.


In his ''The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta'' Khunu Lama describes the importance of bodhicitta to the bodhisattva path, stating,
{{QuoteCite
|quote-text=
Those who wish to follow the spiritual practice<br>of the bodhisattvas, the Victor's children,<br>at the very outset strive to produce<br>bodhicitta since it is the foundation of that practice. Verse 101
|source-wiki-page=Vast as the Heavens Deep as the Sea
|page-number=59
}}
{{QuoteCite
|quote-text=
Since a buddha is born from a bodhisattva<br>and a bodhisattva is born from bodhicitta,<br>intelligent persons understand<br>the greatness of supreme bodhicitta. Verse 102
|source-wiki-page=Vast as the Heavens Deep as the Sea
|page-number=59
}}
Furthermore, the ''Great Tibetan Dictionary'' definition goes one to say that, "if one were to divide [bodhicitta], then there are two, the mind of aspiration and mind of application<ref>''de la dbye na smon sems dang 'jug sems gnyis''- ''Tshig mdzod chen mo'', 1869.</ref>. The ''locus classicus'' for this division of bodhicitta is found in the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' where Śāntideva describes these two in the following verses,
{{PullBcaVerses|1.15|33}}
    {{PullBcaVerses|1.16|33}}
Though the above two are some of the most commonly referenced, there are, in fact, many types of bodhicitta based on various schema for categorizing them. To read more about these, see the [[Divisions of Bodhicitta]].


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Revision as of 19:38, 21 January 2026


Defining Bodhicitta
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Bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment or awakening (byang chub kyi sems), is an altruistic intention, suffused with compassion, that aspires to free all beings from suffering and is motivated by the determination to work toward the attainment of complete enlightenment in order help others reach that same state.

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The Bodhicitta to Be Defined

Bodhicitta, as we have seen, is the mind or thought of awakening or enlightenment. Bodhi is a Sanskrit term which refers to awakening or knowledge. In the specific Buddhist context, it refers to the state of enlightenment, which is attained through the cultivation of wisdom. There are three levels of bodhi, or enlightenment:

  1. The enlightenment of the hearers (śrāvaka, ཉན་ཐོས་), who are disciples of the Buddha seeking individual liberation.
  2. The enlightenment of the solitary realizers (pratyekabuddha, རང་སངས་རྒྱས་), who seek individual liberation on their own in eras when there is no buddha.
  3. The enlightenment of the Buddha. This enlightenment is often called the perfect, complete enlightenment (samyaksaṃbuddha, ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་).

The term bodhi in bodhicitta generally refers to the third type—that is, the perfect, complete enlightenment of the Buddha. Citta refers to the mind or thought encompassing the inner world of thoughts, emotions, and impulses. In the most common translations, bodhicitta is rendered as the mind of enlightenment or thought of awakening.

However, the term bodhicitta has many different meanings. Dorji Wangchuk, in his book The Resolve to Become a Buddha: A Study on the Bodhicitta Concept in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, presents five different uses of the word bodhicitta.

1. Ethico-spiritual bodhicitta. In the most common usage, bodhicitta refers to the altruistic resolve to become a buddha for the benefit of all beings. It is the compassionate and volitional core of the Mahāyāna path, encompassing both the aspirational and engaging aspects.

2. Gnoseological bodhicitta. Bodhicitta can refer to the knowledge or meditative insight that experiences the ultimate truth. It is the pristine wisdom realizing the true nature of things.

3. Ontological bodhicitta. The term bodhicitta, in its deepest sense, is also used to refer to the ultimate reality or nature of being that an enlightened insight apprehends.

4. Psycho-physiological bodhicitta. In the context of the tantric or Vajrayāna form of Buddhism, the term is used to refer to male semen and blood, often presented as the white and red bodhicitta, which is associated with the great bliss of enlightenment.

5. Semeiological bodhicitta. Bodhicitta can also denote visual, vocal, or other symbols that express one or more of the four preceding types of bodhicitta. Such symbols include the full moon, jewel, vajra, diadem, syllables, light balls, and deities such as Vajrasattva.

Bodhicitta, as it is used on this website, refers primarily to the first two types, with the third type being marginally covered in the context of the ultimate reality that a bodhisattva must realize. This website does not discuss the last two types.

What Dorji Wangchuk calls ethico-spiritual bodhicitta corresponds to what is known in the classical texts as relative or conventional bodhicitta (saṁvṛti bodhicitta, ཀུན་རྫོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་), and gnoseological bodhicitta corresponds to what is called ultimate or absolute bodhicitta (paramārtha bodhicitta, དོན་དམ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་). They are also known respectively as the generation of the relative mind (saṁvṛticittotpāda, ཀུན་རྫོབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) and the generation of the ultimate mind (paramārthacittotpāda, དོན་དམ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) because "generation of the mind" (cittotpāda, སེམས་བསྐྱེད་) is a synonym of bodhicitta. The following sections discuss the definitions (lakṣaṇa, མཚན་ཉིད་) or the essential characteristics of these two types of bodhicitta.


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Thich Nhat Hanh: Bodhicitta: The Mind of Love & Enlightenment
The 14th Dalai Lama: On the Importance and Benefits of Bodhichitta
Dzigar Kongtrul: Bodhicitta Provides the View
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Bibliography: Works on Defining Bodhicitta

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'

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'

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'

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'

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 'mind of enlightenment'

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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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 'thought of awakening'

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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Bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt बोधि  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་  Ch 菩提;悟;覺  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhi'

Bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt बोधि  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་  Ch 菩提;悟;覺  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhi'

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  

Go to the page with the definition of 'wisdom'

Bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt बोधि  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་  Ch 菩提;悟;覺  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhi'

Bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt बोधि  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་  Ch 菩提;悟;覺  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhi'

Śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt श्रावक  Tib ཉན་ཐོས།  Ch 聲聞  

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Pratyekabuddha - Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups. Skt प्रत्येकबुद्ध  Tib རང་སངས་རྒྱས།;རང་རྒྱལ།  Ch 緣覺  

Go to the page with the definition of 'pratyekabuddha'

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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Vajrayāna - The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras. Skt वज्रयान  Tib རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ།  Ch 金剛乘  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Vajrayāna'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib ས་སྐྱ་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Sakya'
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The purpose of this website is to provide a resource hub for trustworthy information for learning about and teaching Bodhicitta ("bodhichitta") and Śāntideva's ("Shantideva's") related texts. Unique content will be shared here and the site will act as a broker for other projects and authors that have already created quality materials, which we will curate for a wide range of audiences.

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