WORDS OF WISDOM AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

With bodhicitta, many problems related to practice could be easily solved since bodhicitta has within itself the incredible capacity for accumulating merit, forgiving and purifying evil karma and so forth. Thus, bodhicitta is regarded as the indispensable universal key for the entrance of Mahayana Buddhism.

If the body is doing virtuous action but the mind wanders off, the virtue so cultivated will be made superficial and brings no benefit.

So, I hope you will all make generation of renunciation and bodhicitta your aim and strictly refrain yourselves from undertaking any Vajrayana practice until your aim has been achieved.

The more it is dedicated, the more it grows; the more it is kept for oneself, the more likely it decreases. This aspect of the root of virtue is just the opposite of that of worldly things.

Being “mindful” means that not only the body does virtuous action but the mind also engenders proper aspiration, visualizes carefully and dedicates the merit.

Genuine bodhicitta of a bodhisattva refers to the aspiration to give others whatever is needed unselfishly and unconditionally, which in hard times is a particularly difficult thing to do.

After performing each virtuous action, dedication must be properly offered as the resulting good karma may likely be destroyed before it ripens.

The Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism offers rich pickings of sublime practices, described by some as being plentiful as the yak’s hair. But no one would be qualified to practice any without first developing renunciation and bodhicitta as the base, which ought to be the single most important practice for us now.

In summary, the first requisite of generating bodhicitta is the aspiration to deliver sentient beings from samsara; the second, the determination to attain Buddhahood in order to free sentient beings from the suffering of samsara.