10th Condition to Arise Bodhi Mind
Being Mindful of the Importance of Preserving the Right Dharma for a Long Time
Master Xing’an (1686–1734), the 11th Patriarch of the Chinese Pure Land School, has composed “An Inspiration to Give Rise to the Bodhi Mind” when he experienced sudden enlightenment and generated the great vows of enlightenment for all sentient beings.
Master Xing’an emphasized the importance of generating the true Bodhi mind and making a vow in cultivation, urging that our goal is to be reborn in the Western Pure Land and then we will return to this world to liberate other sentient beings.
An Inspiration to Give Rise to the Bodhi Mind
Tenth Criterion: Being mindful of the importance of preserving the right dharma for a long time
Why should we be mindful of the importance of preserving the right Dharma for a long time?
For immeasurable kalpas, the Buddha has cultivated the Bodhi path for us. He navigated the impassable, endured the intolerable, and he completed all that is necessary to attain Buddhahood. Once the Buddha attained enlightenment, he taught to all he could, then entered nirvana.
The ages of the Right Dharma and Semblance Dharma had passed.
In this Age of Declining Dharma, his teachings do not have many true followers. There is no distinction between right and deviant, right and wrong. People boast of their cultivation and chase after fame and fortune — so many are like this in the world. Do they know who is the Buddha? What is the Dharma? What is Sangha? Degeneration to such a degree is truly intolerable to mention. Once one thinks of this, one’s tears flow unconsciously.
I am a son of the Buddha! I am not able to repay his kindness; there is no benefit to myself and others. When I am alive, I do not benefit beings. When I die, I do not benefit my descendants. Though the sky is high, it cannot cover me; though the earth is thick, it cannot carry me. Among the most serious wrongdoers, am I not one?
Even with such intolerable pain, I do not have any good plan. So I ignore how deluded I am, and I instantly set the initiation of a great mind.
Even if we cannot halt the decline of the Dharma now, we can determinedly vow to protect the right Dharma for future lives.
Thus, I and some good friends come to the temple for repentance and establish this Dharma function. We make the forty-eight vows: each vow is to liberate all sentient beings and hope with the profound mind of hundreds of thousands of kalpas that each mind will become a Buddha.
From now to an endless future, our goal is to be reborn in the Pure Land.
Once we reach the nine ranks of the Western Pure Land, then we will return to this world to liberate sentient beings.
Let the Buddha’s light shine again, and the gate of the Dharma will reopen.
All monastics will be pious and righteous and liberate people here.
Then the true Dharma will be prolonged.
This is indeed my sincere intention.
This completes the ten causes and conditions for the initiation of Bodhi mind.
Ten Causes and Conditions that Help Initiate the Bodhi Mind
The Bodhi mind is the king of all wholesomeness, yet there must be some causes and conditions that lead one to set one’s mind on Bodhi. Here are ten causes and conditions that help one to initiate the Bodhi mind.
- Being mindful of the Buddha’s deep kindness.
- Being mindful of our parents’ deep kindness.
- Being mindful of our teachers’ deep kindness.
- Being mindful of our benefactors’ deep kindness.
- Being mindful of all sentient beings’ deep kindness.
- Being mindful of the suffering of life and death.
- Having respect for our own spiritual being.
- Being repentant of karmic hindrances.
- Aspiring toward rebirth in the Pure Land.
- Being mindful of the importance of preserving the right Dharma for a long time.
The above is excerpted from the masterpiece “An Inspiration to Give Rise to the Bodhi Mind” (勸發菩提心文) authored by Master Xing’an 省庵大師 (1686–1734), originally composed in Chinese and was translated into English. Translation credits to Fo Guang Shan International Translation Center.
