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Doctrine

Bodhicitta

Also Known As The mind of awakeningOriginal Term bodhicitta (Sanskrit)
Mind, Self and Emptiness
Origin 100 to 750 CE

Bodhicitta is the mind or resolve of awakening: the aspiration to become a buddha not for oneself but in order to be of use to every other being. It is what makes a practitioner a bodhisattva, and it is the defining commitment of the Mahayana.

The tradition distinguishes the aspiration from the undertaking, wishing to go somewhere as against setting out, and pairs the relative form, which is this compassionate resolve, with an ultimate form identified with the direct realisation of emptiness. The two are held to require each other: compassion without the wisdom that sees emptiness is well-meaning entanglement, and emptiness without compassion is a dead end.

The vow is deliberately extravagant. The bodhisattva undertakes to continue over incalculable ages until all beings are liberated, and the literature is unembarrassed about the arithmetic.

This ideal was formulated partly in opposition to the arhat, the figure who attains liberation and passes beyond, and Mahayana texts can be sharp about the arhat as a lesser and more self-regarding aim. That polemic should be identified as polemic. Theravada does not recognise the characterisation, holds that the arhat's attainment is complete and that compassion is intrinsic to it, and preserves the bodhisattva path as a genuine if rarer option within its own scheme. Presenting the Mahayana's account of its rival as a neutral description of Theravada is a standard error and this atlas does not repeat it.

Facts
Status
Status Within the Tradition
Defined and binding within this tradition 2Tradition: Mahayana
Definitional for the Mahayana path: the bodhisattva vow is taken on it
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 3
Doctrinal Category
Mind, Self and Emptiness 2
The Claim
The Claim
Bodhicitta is the aspiration to attain enlightenment not for oneself alone but for the sake of liberating all sentient beings, treated in Mahayana Buddhism as the foundational motivation of the bodhisattva path. 4
Origins
Origin Period
100 to 750 CE 1
Held By
Mahayana Buddhism 2
Doctrinal category (class)
Action, Rebirth and Consequence 5
Learn More
The Mind Set on Awakening for All Beings

Bodhicitta, the "mind of awakening," is the resolve to attain full buddhahood not for oneself alone but for the sake of liberating all sentient beings. It is the defining commitment of the Mahayana and the vow that constitutes a bodhisattva, one bound for awakening who takes on the deliverance of others as the point of the whole enterprise.

The tradition distinguishes two aspects. Aspirational bodhicitta is the wish itself, the heartfelt intention that all beings be freed; engaged bodhicitta is that intention taken up as a career, expressed in the actual practice of the perfections, generosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditation and wisdom. The classic source is Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, which treats the arising of bodhicitta as the pivotal event of a spiritual life, "like a flash of lightning in the dark," and devotes itself to how the aspiration is generated, protected and carried through. Its cultivation is understood to transform ordinary compassion into the engine of the entire path.

The Bodhisattva Ideal, and a Disagreement with the Elders

Bodhicitta is inseparable from a polemic, and the atlas presents both sides. The Mahayana defined itself partly by contrast: it set the bodhisattva, who out of compassion postpones final rest until all beings can be brought across, against the figure it ascribed to the "lesser vehicle", the arhat, portrayed as seeking only personal liberation. On this framing the bodhisattva's universal resolve is a higher aspiration than the arhat's escape.

The Theravada tradition does not accept the framing. In its understanding the arhat is one who has fully realised the Buddha's awakening and is moved by compassion, not selfishness; the bodhisatta path exists in Theravada too, but as the rare and extraordinarily long vocation of one who will become a future Buddha, not as the norm expected of everyone. The atlas records the contrast as a difference of ideal rather than a defect on either side. As to method, later Indian and Tibetan traditions systematised the generation of bodhicitta, through the "seven-fold cause and effect" that cultivates the sense of all beings as one's own kin, and through Atisha's teaching of "exchanging self and other," the mind-training (lojong) that reverses the instinct to prefer oneself.

Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Buddhism, Religions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Jodo Shinshu, Denominations

Amida Buddha's own bodhisattva vows as Dharmakara, fulfilled in the Pure Land's founding, are this school's scriptural basis.

Source The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless LightLuis O. Gomez (translator and editor)
Mahayana, Denominations

Bodhicitta, the resolve to attain awakening for the sake of all beings, is this tradition's defining commitment.

Source Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal FoundationsPaul Williams
Pure Land, Denominations

Amida Buddha's own bodhisattva vows as Dharmakara, fulfilled in the Pure Land's founding, are this tradition's scriptural basis.

Source The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless LightLuis O. Gomez (translator and editor)

Positions on This Question

Gelug, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Gelug school and is taught in the lamrim as the gate to the great vehicle.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Jonang, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Jonang school.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Kagyu, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Kagyu school and is generated formally in the preliminary practices.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Karma Kagyu, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Karma Kagyu school, and the school administers the bodhisattva vow as a formal rite.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Madhyamaka, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Madhyamaka, and the school's account of the two truths is what allows compassionate action to be undertaken in a world known to be empty.

Source Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal FoundationsPaul Williams
Nichiren, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Nichiren Buddhism, and Nichiren identifies his own community with the bodhisattvas of the earth the Lotus Sutra says will uphold it in the latter age.

Source Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika Sutra)Anonymous
Nyingma, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Nyingma school.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Rinzai, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Rinzai school and is renewed in the four great vows.

Source Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume 2: JapanHeinrich Dumoulin
Sakya, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Sakya school.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Shingon, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Shingon.

Source Kukai: Major WorksYoshito S. Hakeda
Soto, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in the Soto school and is renewed in the four great vows.

Source Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume 2: JapanHeinrich Dumoulin
Tendai, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Tendai, and the school's adoption of the bodhisattva precepts alone for ordination, in place of the full monastic code, was its founding constitutional act in Japan.

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Theravada, Denominations

The bodhisatta path is present in Theravada, in the Jataka narratives and in the aspiration a minority of monks and lay people take up in Sri Lanka and Burma, but the canonical goal of the Theravada path is arahantship and the tradition does not make the bodhisatta vow general.

Source An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, 2nd editionPeter Harvey
Tiantai, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Tiantai.

Source Emptiness and Omnipresence: An Essential Introduction to Tiantai BuddhismBrook Ziporyn
Tibetan Buddhism, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held across the Tibetan schools and is the stated ground of the tantric path.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Vajrayana, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is the stated prerequisite of tantric practice in Vajrayana, and empowerment is withheld from a candidate who has not generated it.

Source Introduction to Tibetan BuddhismJohn Powers
Zen, Denominations

The bodhisattva motivation is held in Zen, and the four great vows are chanted in the daily liturgy of Zen monasteries.

Source Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume 2: JapanHeinrich Dumoulin
Sources
1. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations
Paul Williams, Routledge, 1989
2. Bodhicaryavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life)
Shantideva, Aditya Prakashan, 1990Chapter 1, on the aspiration and the undertakingView the Source
3. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
4. The Foundations of Buddhism
Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press, 1998View the Source
5. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light
Luis O. Gomez (translator and editor), University of Hawaii Press, 1996

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