Second flower bloom

Chapter 12 Bodhicitta

Without compassion for yourself, it is difficult to be truly compassionate to others.If you don't look inward, you can't really eliminate confusion. If you don't have gentleness in your heart, you will only suffer in practice.Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity all arise from inner tenderness.

A Buddhist is someone who is determined to be intimate with himself.Getting along with each other has two meanings: one is to be honestly aware of all the activities of one's body, speech, and mind, and the other is to treat oneself gently.

Observing as it is often allows us to see our own narrowness, indifference, and confusion. We thought we were good in all aspects, but now we find that it is not the case at all.This is probably the reason why many Buddhist enthusiasts, who have believed in Buddhism for many years, are still unwilling to start real practice.Facing one's own shortcomings is far from being able to satisfy vanity and bring a sense of accomplishment like talking about mysteries and superficial Buddhist deeds.Others, however, do just the opposite, and are so dismayed by the results of their awareness that they resolve to understand why they are so narrow, indifferent, and confused.Being harsh makes them lose their sense of humor and become increasingly sour and disgusted with themselves, others, and everything around them.

If you don't look inward, you can't really eliminate confusion. If you don't have gentleness in your heart, you will only suffer in practice.Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity all arise from inner tenderness.We often say that we must have compassion, but compassion is not only directed at others, but also at ourselves, and first of all, at ourselves.Without compassion for yourself, it is difficult to be truly compassionate to others.

Look at your current experience with respect in an open heart, respect your insights, don't deny your shortcomings and mistakes, and don't think that you are worthless and lose your inner dignity.Even in the face of our own narrowness, indifference, and confusion, we still do not forget to be content and grateful. The reason why this is important for practitioners is that we will not give up on others unless we give up on ourselves; Feelings, will be willing to empathize with the feelings of others; only believe in the potential of self-enlightenment, will believe in the potential of other people's enlightenment, and thus embark on the Mahayana Bodhisattva path.

For the ultimate liberation of all sentient beings, Mahayana Buddhists vow to practice Buddhism and attain supreme enlightenment. This kind of motivation is called Bodhicitta.We who have been lingering in samsara for a long time and are well-trained by greed, hatred, ignorance, suspicion, suspicion, it is not easy to generate true bodhicitta.However, we still have to make a wish, even if we are not very sincere or even have doubts, we still have to express our wish.Our mind has a characteristic, that is, it is extremely malleable. As long as we keep training, what is fake can become real in our mind.Over time, pretending to be motivated can also inspire true bodhichitta.

Bodhicitta is not an empty concept. It is based on the four immeasurable hearts of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and has detailed steps to establish.

[-]. Four immeasurable minds

"May all beings be happy and have the cause of happiness forever", wishing that all beings are happy, this is compassion.

Compassion is equivalent to unbiased friendship in the heart. Cultivating compassion can also be regarded as cultivating the ability to love, learning to treat all beings and get along with the outside world with sincerity and kindness.It is difficult for ordinary people to care for all beings equally in the first place.Usually we start with ourselves, wishing ourselves to be happy, and then gradually extend our kindness to our loved ones, relatives and friends, strangers, people we hate, and all sentient beings with a happy heart.

Someone told me: After doing good deeds, it is not difficult to dedicate the merit to "all sentient beings" in general, but if it is specifically associated with one's enemies, it is difficult to dedicate the merit to them willingly.It's normal to have this kind of thinking, because "all sentient beings" in your mind is just a noun without specific content, or at least it does not include those sentient beings you don't like.It is precisely because of this that we emphasize that the scope of vows is gradually expanded.Prejudice and limitations are not a big problem, the key is not to deceive yourself or perfunctory.

Being kind to ourselves is not indulging ourselves, because indulging will only make us disrespect ourselves less and less, instead of giving us inner peace.Kindness means getting to know yourself gently, observing your arrogance, your ignorance, your callousness, your rigidity, with a sense of humor.Although these things are stubborn, in the final analysis they are just ridiculous tricks played by the mind. Once you understand the gameplay behind this trick, you will gradually stop being confused by it.

By observing our own behavior and feelings, we will gradually understand what kind of behavior brings us happiness and what kind of behavior causes pain.In order to make ourselves happy, we will learn to carefully choose the behavior of body and mind.In the process of observing ourselves, if we are honest and focused enough, we will find that many times we are unknowingly hurting ourselves and others.We like to exaggerate our inner feelings, especially negative ones, and while doing so can add to our own pain, we prefer to believe we are deeply hurt because we don’t want to open up, forgive someone, or face the truth.Sometimes it is easier and more enjoyable to break your heart than to forgive.

Because of lack of awareness, we don't see how things are and how we really feel, leaving us in needless pain, anxiety and confusion.Even with the best of intentions, the way we speak and act can cause harm to others, but we tend to ignore the harm on the grounds of our own good intentions.In fact, doing so just shows that we are not ready to open up, that deep down we do not want to communicate with others.The biggest impasse many people face in life is habitually closing themselves off and refusing to communicate with the outside world. Anything can be used to build a barrier between themselves and others.Right and wrong, moral values, values, and beliefs can all be good excuses for refusing to communicate.You think you are right and are on the side of morality and justice, so you have reason to ignore the harm to others.Or, you think that you have a deeper and more thorough understanding of life and the world, so it is difficult to show due openness and friendliness to people who do not believe in karma.

However, the friendliness of a Mahayana bodhisattva is unconditional.We can promote this kind of friendship step by step, the premise is to open our hearts, so that all the beings whom we wish him or her to be happy can really enter our hearts.For us, "all beings" is not an innocuous word, but represents a specific life that can be connected with us emotionally.

Cultivate the ability to love. If you find it difficult to start with yourself, you can choose anyone who can most arouse tender love and gratitude in your heart, and sincerely hope that he (she) is happy.You then project that love and gratitude onto others close to you and wish them the same well-being.

For many people, it is difficult to have unconditional love even for relatives and friends at the beginning, but this is okay. Contrived vows can also help us go beyond our own limits.If we hadn’t made a wish, we’d probably never realize our numbness and narrowness: not to mention the strangers we pass by every day, even the relatives and friends around us, how many people do we care about?
In some cases, we may find that it is more difficult to love unconditionally for those close to us, because there is often too much attachment between close people.We will have many expectations and demands in our hearts, asking the other party to fully understand, appreciate, accept, and conform to our wishes, otherwise we will feel lost and painful.Trapped in this state of mind, to love means to be prepared to be hurt.The closer the relationship, the easier it is for people to quarrel. For example, between parents and children, and between lovers, they are sincerely doing their best for each other, but they often hurt each other because of this desire-filled kindness.For those close to us, we do not lack love, but lack tolerance and relaxation.

As a practitioner, you might as well remind yourself: everyone we meet in life will make our life meaningful, but those who love us make your life not only meaningful but also beautiful.For that alone, we should also be grateful to them.

Making a wish for an unrelated person or a stranger is an even bigger challenge.Just imagining the scene of crowds on the street, and then saying "May they be happy" in general, does not seem sincere enough.We can implement our prayers in our daily dealings with others, so that everyone who comes into contact with us can feel our kindness.

Maybe he had a rough day, but our kindness gave him a little relief, and that was a good start.Next, we can make a wish for the person we meet, hoping that his good mood can last longer.Hearts are connected, and if we uphold the good wishes in our hearts, others will surely feel its warmth, even though they may not admit it or show it.When we express kindness to others, we are more relaxed and engaged if we don’t expect the other person to respond with kindness in the same way.In fact, the heart is getting wider, stronger, and gentler. This is the best reward we can get, and it is also the source of our own happiness.

It is extremely difficult to make a wish for someone we hate, so we save it for the end and push our limits further after we are used to being kind to a lot of people.From being unable to treat ourselves kindly at the beginning to being kind to strangers, our hearts are constantly expanding.Apathy is often not due to a lack of capacity to love, but rather to a lack of belief in one's own capacity to open one's heart.

A sane person would not take pleasure in harming others under normal circumstances, so when facing those who have hurt us, opposed us, embarrassed us, or hated us, we can sympathize with their troubles, Test your capacity for tolerance and openness.The hateful person can always see our weakness at a glance and poke at the pain, so meeting him is a good opportunity for us to practice.All pain comes from our own attachments. If someone makes us suffer, the first thing we should examine is ourselves.From this perspective, the hateful person is our teacher, and he will mercilessly point out where our attachments lie.No matter how unacceptable we may feel about these teachers who present themselves as enemies, we ultimately sincerely want them to be happy.Without them, we really cannot surpass ourselves again and again on the road of benevolence.

Finally, we wish with kindness that all sentient beings, including ourselves, others, animals big and small, and beings in other worlds, will always have happiness and the cause of happiness.

"May all beings be free from suffering and its causes", wishing all beings to be free from suffering, this is compassion.

Regardless of the circumstances in life, we must aspire to live a happy life. Compassion is based on this and we must have courage and be willing to experience pain, not only for ourselves, but also for others.

Compassion requires more tenderness and strength than loving kindness.The willingness to feel pain is not because we are addicted to pain, but because pain allows us to let go of our pride, see our vulnerable side, and through it, experience other people's fears, pains and worries.People often become aggressive because they feel vulnerable, trying to protect themselves by being harsh and cruel.The training of compassion is to do the opposite, to have compassion for others because of self-compassion.

The best protection for ourselves is not to make others suffer, nor to protect ourselves from pain, both of which only make us more apathetic and isolated.If we don't realize this, we will keep hurting others and hurting ourselves.

By learning to experience suffering with an open mind, we will no longer view the suffering of other beings at a distance, and we will gain a deeper understanding of the root of suffering.At this time, the vow "May all beings be free from suffering and its causes" has a more sincere and specific meaning in our hearts.

I always remember that when I was a teenager, I followed the old Khenpo Chicheng Jiacan to go out to teach the Dharma. Whether it was an empowerment or a lecture, Khenpo would cry every time he read something related to the suffering of sentient beings.Sometimes when there are large pujas and the audience is full of believers, he still bursts into tears.I was young and ignorant at the time, and felt that it was embarrassing for a dignified Khenpo to cry on the throne, so I privately reminded him not to do that.We are as close as grandparents and we talk about everything.The old Khenpo explained to me apologetically that when he thought of the pain of all sentient beings, he felt really uncomfortable and couldn't help but burst into tears.When I was old enough to understand the compassion of the old Khenpo, he had already passed away.

The training of compassion is the same as that of compassion. It also starts with yourself or any person or animal that most arouses your compassion, and gradually expands to relatives, friends, people you know but have nothing to do with, strangers, people you hate, and even All beings.

When I am experiencing pain, try to stay aware, see the changes in emotions, see my own reactions, see the vulnerability, resentment and panic, and try to open my heart as much as possible.Then you can understand the feelings of those unfortunate people in the newspapers, on TV, and in books.No matter what they do, you will not be surprised, you will understand.You begin to understand the deep meaning behind the words humility, tolerance, and gratitude.

When we see the scene of suffering, don't turn your head away immediately, experience the pain within the range that you can bear, and extend a helping hand as much as you can.This is an important lesson in how we learn how to live.

Shantideva Bodhisattva described in detail the practice of exchanging oneself with others in "Entering the Way": absorb pain and worry into one's heart, and release joy and ease.The exchange of self and others is also called the method of giving and accepting, that is, giving and receiving.In daily work and various specific situations in life, you can practice this method for yourself and other sentient beings through visualization anytime and anywhere.For example, when you feel depressed or tired, you should quiet down for a moment and focus on your inner feelings, see yourself who is exhausted under pressure, and then take a deep breath to absorb the discomfort such as depression and tiredness. Send lightness and exuberant energy to yourself and others.

Visualization during inhalation and exhalation can be very specific.If your friend accidentally cuts his hand, you can try to visualize his wound, feel his pain, and then inhale the pain through long inhalation, and visualize sending him to stop the bleeding when exhaling Patches, wound medicine and pain relievers.If you know what the other person needs most, or what makes the other person happy and relaxed the most, you can visualize what to give him when exhaling, a cup of tea, a piece of music, whatever.If you don't know what to give, put yourself in the shoes of what you would need in the same situation and give it away.

The basis of compassion is equality.If there is a distinction between up and down, between people and me, it is impossible to fully understand the family affection that all things have the same origin.Don't pity those who are in a bad situation with a superior attitude, so that instead of experiencing and sharing their pain, we will cause new harm to them.The feeling of being pitied is not good.People need equal communication more than any other time in adversity, so we have a strong desire to communicate when we feel compassionate.What we do is not giving, but sharing.

Of course, it is not advisable to be humble enough to be trampled on by others.Smooth communication cannot be achieved by putting yourself too high or too low.Compassion is the sincere hope that all sentient beings will be happy and free from suffering. Sometimes giving in will only encourage the aggression and attachment of others, but it will not make them happy or free from suffering.

Having compassion will naturally keep you away from hatred, but in practice, some people's compassion may lead to hatred, for example, they will have a strong prejudice against the killer when releasing lives.At this time, we might as well look at our own hearts. We obviously put ourselves on the side representing morality, justice, and worthy of salvation, while the other side is hopeless and unworthy of mercy.The division of people is not so simple.

Everyone has a good side and a dark side.As long as you still have attachments in your heart, you cannot avoid harm to others and yourself, so loathing those with more ignorant habits is like laughing at a hundred steps at fifty steps.One does not become free or not free just because one is labeled as moral or immoral. Freedom goes beyond that.A practitioner of compassion firmly believes in the potential of liberation for all beings, and therefore refuses to abandon any beings.

When I was a child, I was often bullied because of my bad background, and I would feel angry in my heart, but it was just a child’s impulse, and things passed as they passed, and I would not hold grudges against anyone.After learning Buddhism, facing people who destroy the Dharma and slander my master, if I say that I didn’t have any thoughts at that time, it would be a lie, but I never really hated anyone.I feel more sympathy for them.Many people in society envy power, wealth and ability, but if these things are not used properly, they will become the conditions for doing evil.Not only that, life is short, and the prosperity and wealth are only a few decades in the end. When you die, you can't take anything with you. Instead, you will suffer more because you have more things you can't let go.

The training of compassion gradually broadens our tolerance, and brings joy in peace.

Joy is gratitude to oneself and rejoicing to others.

Dharma King Ruyibao once said that gratitude is the most precious quality.For modern people who suffer from a lack of satisfaction, joy is a strange thing. People who don't know how to appreciate their own blessings may find it difficult to understand the kind of hopeless joy.

In Tibet, the first step of traditional Dharma education is to contemplate and practice the rare and precious time, and sincerely cherish and appreciate everything that is worth encountering.Ordinary people can cherish good experiences, but practitioners should still be grateful for their blessings in difficult times.I have a disciple whose fiancée suffered from uremia eight years ago and has been living on dialysis for a long time.From their twenties to their thirties, the best time in their lives, they spent together in the wards of the hospital.They don't have their own house or savings, but they live in peace and happiness.They never complain about anything, but sincerely think that they are very, very lucky to be born as human beings and to learn the Dharma.

With respect and appreciation, everything we do comes naturally with respect.In this impetuous and chaotic era, few people can calm down and do things solemnly and attentively, so many elegant things are missing in our lives.Joy helps us find our inner dignity and grace.Rejoicing at the success, health, good deeds, happiness, etc. of others is rejoicing.It is only when the discipline of rejoicing begins that one sees how powerful and easily aroused one's own jealousy can be.

Rejoicing seems to be easy, but it is quite difficult to do in practice. It must be like training compassion, and gradually expand the scope of rejoicing step by step.It doesn't matter whether you start with a close person or a stranger, the key is to find the person who is easiest to say "I'm really happy for you".Some people may be more likely to be jealous of those close to them, and do not have much reaction to whether indifferent or distant people are better than themselves; some people are just the opposite.No one likes to admit that they are jealous, but few are able to please others effortlessly and willingly.

Everyone knows that envy can do us no good except to blind our eyes to the good in others and torment our hearts.But because jealousy can always masquerade as other emotions, we can be fooled by it if we're not careful.You try to be calm and objective, and it's possible that you just don't want to compliment someone on a whim.Your grievance and loss may be nothing more than jealousy.

Jealousy is good at disguising, but to be honest, we can see through it at a glance in our hearts, but we just don’t want to admit that we are jealous, because we subconsciously don’t want others to know where our weaknesses are.On the surface, jealousy is dissatisfaction with others, but in fact it reflects dissatisfaction with oneself.Where we are conscious of our own inadequacies, we show envy of others.From this perspective, jealousy is like a searchlight, which can illuminate the dissatisfaction and attachment hidden deep in the heart.If we can train ourselves to gradually let go of these dissatisfaction and attachments, we can gradually reduce our jealousy and try to rejoice in the merits of others.

Kindness, Compassion, and Joy all emphasize equality.Mahayana practitioners do not strive for equality in order to show justice.Just because his heart is open enough to accept everything, what he sees often transcends others, closeness, likes and dislikes, so he can naturally treat all beings equally, tolerate everything, and have no prejudice.

Traditionally, the training of the four immeasurable minds generally starts with equanimity.Equanimity is the starting point and foundation of compassion. There is a vivid metaphor in "Teachings of Samantabhadra Master": cultivating the boundless mind of equanimity is like welcoming everyone to a banquet, and no one will be turned away.

We separate love, compassion, joy, and equanimity for the convenience and power of training. In fact, these four immeasurable hearts are not independent of each other.If compassion and joy are not based on a mind of equanimity, they are not pure enough, they are not boundless minds.The so-called limitless means that the scope of the object of motivation is vast, boundless and inexhaustible; the merits of motivation are immeasurable.If there is no compassion and joy in the heart of equality, it becomes indifference and indifference.The four immeasurable minds are me in you and you in me, which cover and integrate each other.

[-]. Vow and practice Bodhicitta

Under the support of the four immeasurable hearts, we wish all sentient beings to obtain the supreme enlightenment, to be completely free from suffering, and to obtain peace and happiness. This kind of vow is called Bodhicitta.

You can wish yourself to be enlightened first, and then guide all beings to escape suffering and gain happiness, or you can wish to cross the sea of ​​suffering of samsara with other sentient beings and reach the shore of liberation.Or like Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, unless all sentient beings are free and liberated, they will not become enlightened.

Aspirations can be big or small, but not good or bad. Everyone can arouse bodhicitta according to their own karma.As long as you are honest and sincere for the liberation of all sentient beings, no matter how big or small your intention is, it is worthy of admiration.If it is just to be a "standard" Mahayana Bodhisattva and feel that "should" have the greatest aspiration, then it is not necessary.

After generating bodhicitta, we will still be selfish and ignorant.It's okay, everyone does.There is still a long way to go from the generation of Bodhicitta to the complete enlightenment, so we use six powerful methods of generosity, precepts, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom to support our words and deeds to help realize our wishes. This is the practice of bodhicitta.

Wishing and doing bodhicitta are collectively referred to as secular bodhicitta.After long-term practice and continuous accumulation of blessings and wisdom, we will finally see the reality of all dharmas, that is, the ultimate bodhicitta.The ultimate bodhicitta can only be realized through practice, while the secular bodhicitta is to make a wish, receive and hold it through rituals, and increase it day by day with the six perfections and ten thousand actions.

The conventional bodhicitta of beginners is undoubtedly artificial, but continuous practice can eventually transform the artificial bodhichitta into a spontaneous bodhicitta.

Six degrees, Sanskrit called six paramita, which means "crossing to the other shore". "Crossing to the other shore" is a metaphor that we use these six methods to transcend the narrow thinking of duality and opposition, and achieve a suddenly enlightened freedom.

The six degrees cover a very wide range. Shantideva Bodhisattva's "Entrance to the Practice" and Lunar Bodhisattva's "Entry to the Middle" talk about the six degrees.Here is just a brief explanation of the basic meaning of the six degrees.The six degrees of perfection are not a code of conduct for "excellent Buddhists", nor are they rigid rules such as "must do this" or "don't do that".In the world of Mahayana practitioners, all actions under the influence of Bodhicitta are expedient and skillful.

1. Giving
It's not because you're a Buddhist that you don't feel ashamed if you don't show sympathy for the weak, so you give alms.Doing good deeds from religious or philosophical motives is not in line with the teachings of the Buddha.

The essence of giving is giving up greed.Giving away things that you don't want or value, no matter whether the things themselves are valuable or not, is not considered pure giving.We get rid of our greed and attachment through giving, so there is no such thing as giving benefits to others, and there is no need to be condescending, complacent, or worry about the results of giving.

Giving is to give within the scope of one's ability.If someone needs something, we have it and give it to him.Deliberately striving for and accumulating property for the sake of giving, giving itself becomes a kind of attachment, which is obviously contrary to the spirit of giving.Being able to give up what you have at any time, no longer greedy for what you don't have, and being satisfied in your heart, this is the best charity.

The above is mainly about giving of property, but the same principle applies to giving of Dharma and giving of fearlessness.

2. Precepts
Precepts are often misunderstood as bondage.Tie yourself up and be trapped in a frame, unable to move. This is just to feel sorry for yourself. Buddhist precepts will not be so blunt and boring.

Precepts refer to proper behavior, and keeping precepts is to do the right thing at the right time, and its purpose is not to harm all sentient beings including oneself.Watching what we say and do, we discover that we are always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, in the wrong place, like an elephant breaking into a china store, making a mess around us and bruising ourselves.

The Buddha compassionately taught us what we should do to be in harmony and not suffer from clumsiness anymore.All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will laugh when they see us pretending, deceiving ourselves and others, and always self-defeating.Therefore, Zhiming Wuweizhou said: "To keep the precepts is to stop making the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas laugh, otherwise it will be so embarrassing in front of them."

3. Patience
Accurate behavior means that we must maintain righteous thoughts and not easily judge and react to the situation. This is the essence of patience.

Adaptable to any situation, open to any possibility, the heart of a Mahayana practitioner is always open.There is no avoidance, so no fear, and no impatience.His heart is too flexible and open, and he can accommodate everything without worry.Practitioners who practice the paramita of patience and humiliation are like the earth, which prostrates at the feet of all things because it has the ability to carry all things.

4. Refined
Through generosity, we learn to let go of our attachments; when our attachments are reduced, our actions will not cause harm so easily, which is keeping the precepts; it is not easy to get angry, which is patience and humiliation.The resulting changes in our lives were inspiring, and our journey into the Six Paradigms entered a new phase: a phase of joyful, continuous practice.Diligence is not about working hard because you have to.

We are so intrigued by our own creativity, by our own transformations, that we want to know more.If the complexity of life gets in the way of this curiosity, we rejoice in keeping it simple.If this kind of knowledge-seeking takes a lifetime, we will happily walk on the road of seeking knowledge for the rest of our lives, not anxious or frustrated because the journey is long and arduous, and there seems to be no end in sight. This is diligence.

5. Meditation
Meditation means letting go of distractions.Generally, it is difficult for people who have not been trained in meditation to grasp their own thoughts, and they will always involuntarily climb to the outside world.It is almost impossible to try not to get distracted amidst the noise without concentration.For beginners, a quiet place away from temptation and noise is an ideal environment to help develop meditation.Practitioners of the predecessors have repeatedly praised the extraordinary merits of the quiet place.

If you can live in peace and stay with clear awareness, then all actions can be meditation.

6. Wisdom
Prajna emptiness transcends words. From the perspective of feeling, it is closer to the extreme open state of the heart: clear, vast, not stubborn, not rigid, not rejecting, not expecting, not nostalgic.Everything is possible.

With an open and clear mind to give, observe precepts, endure humiliation, strive hard, and meditate, you will experience the ubiquitous emptiness.

We have sincerely aroused our bodhicitta and are willing to walk on the path of Mahayana Bodhisattva, but we still secretly hope that if the situation gets worse, we will have a way out.It's no surprise, it's part of our reflex to try to get away with it.If it were not for the assumption that there was a way out, we would not dare to do anything.However, in our world, time is a one-way street, and life is basically a one-way street.There is no way to go back after anything has happened, and we have no way out.Bodhisattva vows help us let go of our earlier self-deceptions.If we truly believe that all sentient beings in samsara are inherently indistinguishable from the Buddhas, we should know that we have no choice in our relationship with sentient beings.

Bodhisattva precepts are not created out of thin air, the fact is, what changes before and after taking precepts is only our mentality.Taking precepts means that we no longer think that we are separate from all living beings, and no longer believe that we can be separated from all living beings.This realization is so vivid and powerful that it constantly inspires our still fragile bodhichitta.Some people compare bodhicitta to a seed, and bodhisattva precepts to the soil, sunlight, and dew, and care for the seed to take root, germinate, and grow.

Bodhicitta is so ordinary and simple that it is often overlooked by people, but it is the foundation of all Mahayana Buddhism.Someone asked me: "How long does it take to practice Bodhicitta?" My answer is: "Life after life."

Chiarombo
The 22nd day of the ninth month in the Tibetan calendar
Nov. 2008, 11

finishing text
At that time, Sakyamuni Buddha ascended to the 33rd day and returned to the world after three months of preaching for his mother.Later generations designated the day when the Buddha returned to the world as the day of the heavenly descending, to commemorate the merits of the Buddha speaking for his mother.Khenpo Xiarongbo hopes that everyone who reads this article will have the precious bodhichitta.

(End of this chapter)