dzogchen view of bodhicitta

7/29/2019 Dzogchen View of Bodhicitta

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Bodhichitta in Dzogchen

In a Dzogchen context, especially in the teachings of the category of mind, bodhichitta isused to refer to the awakened mind, or rigpa. In Chapter 12 of the Treasury of theDharmadhatu1, Longchenpa explains the literal meaning of bodhichitta in Dzogchen:

༈རང་བྱ ུང་ཡེ་ཤསེ་གཞ་ིཀླ ོང་ཡངས་པ་ལ།།

ཡེ་ནས་དྲ ི་མེད་འཁོར་བས་མ་གོས་བྱང༌།།

ཡོན་ཏན་ལྷ ུན་གྲ ུབ་རྒ ྱ ུ་འབསྲ་འདས་པར་ཆུབ།།

རང་རགི་སྙ ིང་པོ་འོད་གསལ་དག་པས་སེམས།།བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་སུ་ཀུན་འདུས་རམྣ་པར་དག།

Within the broad expanse, the ground of naturally arising wisdom,

There has never been any flaw, and so, untainted by samsara, it is pure (བྱང་, chang).

Enlightened qualities are present spontaneously, and therefore, beyond cause and effect, it

is consummate (ཆུབ་, chub).

In essence it is self-aware pure luminosity, and therefore it is mind (སམེས་, sem) —

Within this bodhichitta, the awakened mind, utterly pure, all is contained.

1 Seven Treasures or Treasuries (མཛོད་བདུན་, Dzö Dün; mdzod bdun)

Wish Fulfilling Treasury (ཡིད་བཞནི་མཛོད་, Yishyin Dzö; yid bzhin mdzod)

Treasury of Pith Instructions (མན་ངག་མཛོད་, Mengak Dzö; man ngag mdzod)

Treasury of Dharmadhatu (ཆོས་དབྱ ིངས་མཛོད་, Chöying Dzö; chos dbyings mdzod)

Treasury of Philosophical Tenets (གྲ ུབ་མཐའ་མཛོད་, Drubta Dzö; grub mtha' mdzod)

Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle (ཐེག་མཆོག་མཛོད་, Tekchok Dzö; theg mchog mdzod)

Treasury of Word and Meaning (ཚིག་དོན་མཛོད་, Tsik Dön Dzö; tshig don mdzod)

Treasury of the Natural State (གནས་ལུགས་མཛོད་, Neluk Dzö; gnas lugs mdzod)

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This is his commentary2 on the verse:

༈རགི་པའ་ིངོ་བོ་ལ་དྲ ི་མ་ཡེ་ནས་མེད་པས་འཁོར་བ་ཡོད་མ་མྱ ོང་བའ་ིཕྱ ིར་བྱང་བཞསེ་བྱའོ།།

སྙ ིང་པོ་ད་ེཉདི་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྷ ུན་གྱ ིས་གྲ ུབ་པས་ཆུབ་པ་སྟ ེ།།གང་ཡང་འཆར་རུང་དུ་ཡོད་པའ་ིཕྱ ིར་རོ།།

ཐུགས་རྗ ེ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཏུ་གནས་པས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཅིང་འོད་གསལ་བའ་ིཕྱ ིར་དང་སོ་སོ་རང་རི ག་པར་སྐ ྱ ེས་པའི་ཕྱ ིར་སེམས་ཞསེ་བྱའོ།།

Within the essence of rigpa, there has never been any flaw and so, since there has never

been any experience of samsara, it is pure (བྱང་, chang).

Within that very essence, enlightened qualities are spontaneously present, and so it is

consummate (ཆུབ་, chub) and can arise as anything at all.

It is mind (སམེས་, sem) because its compassionate responsiveness is all-pervasive and

extends throughout all samsara and nirvana, and it is clear light; and because it arises asour own individual self-knowing rigpa.

source: http://www.rigpawiki.org

2 Longchen Rabjam: A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission (Skt. Dharmadhātu ratna ko a nāma v tti;ṣ ṛ ཆོས་དབྱ ིངས་

རིན་པོ་ཆའེ་ིམཛོད་ཅེས་བྱ་བའ་ིའགྲ ེལ་པ།, chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod ces bya ba'i 'grel pa).

Treasury of Dharmadhatu (ཆོས་དབྱ ིངས་མཛོད་, Chöying Dzö; chos dbyings mdzod) — one of the Seven Treasuries of Longchenpa. It consists of two texts:

* a short verse work entitled The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena (Skt. Dharmadhātu ratna ko aṣ

nāma; ཆོས་དབྱ ིངས་རནི་པོ་ཆའེི་མཛོད་ཅེས་བ་ྱབ།, chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod ces bya ba) dealing principally with the view of

trekchö, and

* Longchena's own commentary on those verses, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission (Skt. Dharmadhātu

ratna ko a nāma v tti;ṣ ṛ ཆོས་དབྱ ིངས་རནི་པོ་ཆའེི་མཛོད་ཅེས་བ་ྱབའ་ིའགྲ ེལ་པ།, chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod ces bya ba'i 'grel pa).

Translations and commentaries:

Longchen Rabjam, Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena, translated by Richard Barron, Padma

Publishing, 2001

Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission , translated by Richard Barron, Padma Publishing,2001

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…. Bodhichitta is the one practice we cannot do without. Even if we have been given theprecious oral instructions on realizing the nature of mind, they will not be the sufficientcause for realization if we have not learned to generate Bodhichitta. The great Dzogchenyogi Patrul Rinpoche said:

If we have only one thing, the precious Bodhichitta is enough. If we havenothing else, we must have the method of the precious Bodhichitta.

We should learn to develop Bodhichitta in a twofold way: through our aspirations andthrough our actions. Aspiration Bodhichitta is our initial wish that all sentient beings beliberated from the vast ocean of samsara's suffering.

Action Bodhichitta requires that we first generate aspiration Bodhichitta, and practice theSix Paramitas as the method to establish the two benefits of 1) attaining Buddhahoodoneself to 2) be of ultimate benefit to others.

The way to practice aspiration and action Bodhichitta was taught by the omniscient PatrulRinpoche, who said:

The instructions for aspiration [Bodhichitta] are to practice the Four Immeasurables; The instructions for action [Bodhichitta] are to practicethe Paramitas.

THE FOUR IMMEASURABLES

The Teachings say that taking up the practices of the Four Immeasurables is essential for the attainment of liberation. Although these four practices seem quite ordinary, they areactually the means for attaining the extraordinary result if we rely on the Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta. Practicing the Four Immeasurables is the cause for attainingthe extraordinary result of the four kayas, sometimes referred to the four "bodies" or aspects of the Buddha: the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya, and

Svabhavakaya. Specifically, meditating on immeasurable compassion is a cause for theattainment of the Dharmakaya, or the Body Which Is the Nature of Truth. Meditating onimmeasurable love is a cause for the attainment of the Sambhogakaya, or the Body of Perfect Enjoyment. Meditating on immeasurable joy is a cause for the attainment of theNirmanakaya, or the Body of Emanation. And finally, meditating on immeasurableequanimity is a cause for the attainment of the Svabhavakaya, or the Essence Body of aBuddha.

Besides planting the seed for attaining the four kayas, the practice of the Four Immeasurables also gives us a noticeable benefit in this life, by enabling us to effectivelycut through many of our mental afflictions, and thus to tame our mind. In fact, the amount

of negativity our minds tend to produce decreases in direct proportion to how much wepractice. As our negativity decreases, our minds begin to gain stability. This stability actsas a good condition for any other type of meditation or contemplation we wish to practicethereafter.

.… we are using ordinary, impure appearances to train in the fact that they are of thenature of primordial purity. Longchenpa summarizes:

When entering though a doorway, practice Bodhichitta by wishing that all sentientbeings attain enlightenment.

At night before going to sleep, wish that all sentient beings attain Buddhahood.

When dreaming, wish that all sentient beings realize the nature of reality to be like a

dream.

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When seated, wish that all sentient beings attain the indestructible seat of Buddhahood.

When lighting a fire, wish that this fire might burn through the mental afflictions of all sentient beings.

When the fire is burning, wish that the wisdom of all sentient beings might burn likethe roaring flames.

When eating, wish that your food might become the "food" of meditativeconcentration that can be eaten by all sentient beings.

When going outside, wish that all sentient beings be freed from samsara. Whenopening a door, imagine that you are opening the door to realization for all sentientbeings.

When closing a door, imagine that you are closing the door to the lower realms.

When walking down a road, wish that all sentient beings enter the noble path of theBodhisattvas.

When climbing a mountain, imagine that all sentient beings are climbing to the purelands.

When meeting someone, imagine that this meeting is like the meeting betweenordinary beings and a Buddha.

When walking, imagine that each step you take is the steady work of benefitingothers.

When encountering someone adorned with necklaces and jewels, wish that allbeings attain the major and minor marks of a Buddha.

When encountering someone living in poverty, wish that all sentient beings becomelike yogis who care nothing for worldly life and devote themselves solely to theDharma.

When seeing a cup or bowl that is full to the brim, imagine that it is the completionof all good qualities.

When seeing an empty cup or bowl, imagine that all faults have been abandoned.

When seeing a being who is rejoicing, imagine that it is the happiness of all beingswho have received the precious Teachings.

When seeing a being who is grieving, wish that all beings realize the nature of impermanence and renounce their worldly lives.

When seeing a being suffering from an illness, wish that all beings be freed fromsickness.

When hearing someone speaking praises, imagine they are praising the Buddhas

and Bodhisattvas.When seeing even the simplest representation of the body of a Buddha, wish that allsentient beings may gaze without obstruction upon the face of the EnlightenedOnes.

Finally, when seeing a merchant doing business, imagine that all beings will attainthe seven riches that adorn the nature of ultimate reality.

…. Dahenta, student of the great Dzogchen masters Garab Dorje and Manjushrimitra,spoke of the importance of relying upon the method of Bodhichitta when he said:

Bodhichitta is the Buddhas of the three times: The Buddhas of the past all arosefrom it; The Buddhas of the present all abide in it; And it is the cause for all theBuddhas still to come.

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So, no matter how we think about it, it is crucial that we realize that without the methodaspect of the path, realization of the nature of mind cannot arise. In other words, withoutthe method we have nothing.

source: Anyen Rinpoche - The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta

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dzogchen view of bodhicitta

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