The Power of the Bodhisattva #1
by Venerable Shangpa Rinpoche

First of all, each practitioner should decide if he wants to be a genuine follower of Buddhism. If he does, he needs to study earnestly and cultivate Bodhicitta and the enlightened attitude. These will lead to enlightenment.
Now what is Bodhicitta? Bodhicitta is not a single attribute. It is the combination of many positive attributes such as the application of compassion, kindness, right view and wisdom. Development of these is, thus, development of Bodhicitta and all these positive actions lead a person towards enlightenment.
Bodhisattvas do not rest in their peaceful state. They have a great deal of loving kindness and compassion towards all sentient beings and they are neither trapped in samsara, nor have they entered into nirvana. They take on the role of bridging samsara and nirvana.
According to the Mahayana view, the great Bodhisattvas such as Avalokitesvara, Manjushri and others are nearing enlightenment, which means that they are not yet fully enlightened. Why are they nearing enlightenment? Because they have great compassion and want to serve all sentient beings. They have made a commitment that all sentient beings will enter nirvana and because of this commitment they choose to remain as Bodhisattvas and not enter the supreme enlightened state. On the other hand, the Vajrayana teachings state that all these manifestations were fully enlightened long ago, but for the accomplishment of others they function as Sambogakaya forms to benefit sentient beings unconditionally.
The Mahayana and Vajrayana viewpoints may seem contradictory on the surface. In actual fact, they are not. They merely appear contradictory, as people of different levels of understanding and awareness perceive different qualities in Bodhisattvas who have attained their status through the development of the aspiration and application aspects of Bodhicitta. Just as a king who is walking along the street may be seen and recognised by those who know him as a king; and by those who don’t, as a merely distinguished, or noble-looking gentleman.
The aspiration aspect of Bodhicitta is when one learns and understands the result of the development of Bodhicitta and has the desire to achieve that goal. To do that one makes a commitment of aspiration Bodhicitta. Application Bodhicitta is when after one has made a commitment, one follows the path to fulfil that commitment and in the process becomes a Bodhisattva.
We can develop Bodhicitta through loving kindness and compassion. Generally, each and every body has the ability to be kind and compassionate. Even tigers and snakes, which can be ferocious towards other animals, are compassionate to their offspring. This is true of many other sentient beings, including human beings, who do have a compassionate nature that is inherent. It is due to the lack of right view and wisdom that this inherent nature becomes corrupted loving and compassion. It is corrupted in that once the emotion forms an attachment, it generates defilement. That is why we are not able to develop with good results because we have the motive to benefit ourselves.
If we are kind to someone, we also expect to be kind to one we know and that kindness has self involved. The involvement of self-interest will contaminate the exercise of loving kindness and compassion and so the results of that are not so effective or pure. The development of a selfless kind of loving kindness and compassion is not an easy task. It is quite difficult and impossible at first, because we need a good basis and only from there are we able to develop accordingly. The good basis is that we must have a certain kind of understanding of loving kindness and compassion even though it may at first involve self-interest. Somehow we must know the characteristic of loving kindness and compassion so that we can express it with people we know and then gradually and increasingly to others. That kind of expanding improvement we will be to do if we have a good basis. Everybody has loving kindness even though some may initially be very weak and some very strong. We all have to develop from wherever we are. That basis is the starting point.
To develop the selfless view we have to start from the self and then, through wisdom and right view, gradually develop a selfless attitude. We develop loving kindness and compassion towards all sentient beings selflessly without any expectation. That is selflessness. The selflessness is initially generated by self and then it is transformed into selflessness through wisdom and right view. Poison can kill a person, but if used properly, poison can also save a life. Everything is inter-related. If one wants to know selflessness, first one needs to know selfishness and recognise it and then from the nature of that recognition, one realises selflessness.

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