Bodhichitta

What is bodhichitta?

It is a Sanskrit word with many nuances and is easier to understand, perhaps, than to translate. For this reason it is hoped that after careful definition it may be incorporated into, and allowed to enrich the English language.

Chitta means "mind," "thought," "attitude." Bodhi means "awakening," "enlightenment," and is cognate with the term buddha itself.

This gives us "awakened mind," "mind of enlightenment" -- the attitude of mind that tends toward Buddhahood, the awakened or enlightened state.

It should be noted that bodhichitta is not a synonym for compassion; it is a broader term in which compassion is implied.

According to tradition, bodhichitta is said to have two aspects, or rather to exist on two levels. First, one speaks of ultimate bodhichitta, referring to the direct cognizance of the true status of phenomena. That is the wisdom of emptiness: an immediate, nondual insight that transcends conceptualization. Second, there is relative bodhichitta, by which is meant the aspiration to attain the highest good, or Buddhahood, for the sake of all, together with all the practical steps necessary to achieve this goal.

The connection between these two bodhichittas -- the wisdom of emptiness on the one hand and the will to deliver all beings from suffering on the other -- is not perhaps immediately clear. But within the Buddhist perspective, ultimate and relative bodhichitta are two interdependent aspects of the same thing. The true realization of emptiness is impossible without the practice of perfect compassion, while no compassion can ever be perfect without the realization of the wisdom of emptiness.