Activating Bodhicitta The Awakening Mind And Meditation On Compassion

ACTIVATING BODHICHITTA There is no more powerful mind than bodhicitta. There is no more joyous mind than bodhicitta. For the accomplishment of one's own ultimate purpose, the awakening mind is supreme, and to accomplish the purpose of all other living beings there is nothing superior to bodhicitta. The awakening mind is the unsurpassable way to collect merit. To purify obstacles bodhicitta is supreme. For protection from interferences bodhicitta is supreme. It is the unique, all-encompassing method. Every kind of ordinary and supra-mundane power can be accomplished through bodhicitta. Thus, it is absolutely precious. Even though we personally may find difficulty in immediate and thorough generation of such a mind, we should at least direct our thoughts towards it. To train our mind in such an ultimately altruistic manner from the very beginning of our practice of Dharma is vitally important. MEDITATION ON COMPASSION "The Inseparability of the Spiritual Master and Avalokiteshvara: A Source of all Powerful Attainments” All beings wish to be happy and free from misery. Although scientific development, modern weapons and abundant material progress may alleviate the temporary effects of dissatisfaction, such external means can never totally eradicate its fundamental cause. The true solution is to cultivate deep human compassion, love and respect for others. By cultivating such altruistic and beneficial attributes, the cause of suffering, self-cherishing, will gradually diminish. This, in turn, will promote unity and harmony among human beings of all nations. Although compassion is cultivated in one's own mind, the embodiment of it is the deity known as Avalokiteshvara (Tib. Chän-rä-zig). The various aspects that are visualized in meditation practices and represented in images and paintings are merely the interpretative forms of Avalokitebhvara, whereas the actual definitive form is compassion itself. “The Inseparability of the Spiritual Master and Avalokiteshvara: a Source of all Powerful Attainments” sādhana was composed by the XIV Dalai Lama when he was nineteen years of age and was first printed in Tibet in the Wood-Horse year (1954).