Ten Conditions to Arise Bodhi Mind
Understanding the Eight Forms of Your Mind
Bodhi Mind (also called Bodhicitta, Great Mind)
The spirit of enlightenment, the aspiration to achieve it, the Mind set on enlightenment. It involves two parallel aspects:
- the determination to achieve Buddhahood and,
- the aspiration to rescue all sentient beings.
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.
In this masterpiece, Master Xing’an first highlighted the eight forms of our mind, which offered a clear understanding of what mind we should cultivate for the goal of attaining enlightenment.
Then, he laid out the ten criteria (causes and conditions) that helps initiate the Bodhi mind. He 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.
Introduction
This unworthy and common monk, Shixian, weeping tears of blood, sincerely bows and pleads to the great assembly and to all the faithful: Please be compassionate, listen for a moment, and reflect upon my words. Once I have heard that the main gate for entering the path is first to give rise to a Bodhi mind; among the urgent tasks of cultivation, the foremost is to make a vow.
Having a vow, all beings can be liberated; having a Bodhi mind, Buddhahood is attainable. Yet, without a great mind, and a firm and profound vow, one is trapped in the cycle of birth and death through countless kalpas. Even with endless cultivation, it would still be in vain.
The Flower Adornment Sutra says,
“Forgetting the Bodhi mind but cultivating wholesomeness is called the action of mara.”
If forgetting the Bodhi mind is like this, what more would it be for one who has never set one’s mind on the Bodhi path. Therefore, if one wishes to learn the Tathagata Vehicle, one must give rise to one’s Bodhi mind without delay.
Understanding the Eight Forms of Your Mind
There are many vows with different forms. Without an explanation, how is one to know the right path? For this reason, I briefly describe it as follows.
There are eight forms: evil, right, true, false, great, small, partial, and perfect. But, what do “evil, right, true, false, great, small, partial, and perfect” mean?
False Mind: There are some people who practice without understanding their minds; they are only concerned with external appearances. Some people seek offerings of wealth and gifts; some people seek fame and a good reputation; some people crave present pleasures or future effects. Any initiation of mind like this is called false mind.
Right Mind: If one does not seek offerings, fame, and a good reputation, pleasure or future effects, and one’s only concern is for the Bodhi path of liberation from birth and death, it is called right mind.
True Mind: If one seeks, thought by thought, the Buddha Way above, and one wishes to liberate all sentient beings, mind after mind, below; if one learns that Buddhahood is long and far away but never fears and retreats; if one contemplates that sentient beings are difficult to rescue, but never tires; if, like climbing a mountain of a thousand miles, eventually one shall reach the summit; if, like climbing a tower of nine floors, in the end one shall reach the pinnacle; this is called true mind.
False Mind: If one commits wrongdoing but does not repent, knows of a vice but does not remove it; if one is clean on the outside, yet filthy inside, diligent at the beginning and idle at the end; if one has a good heart but one’s deed is mixed with the desire for fame and fortune; and if one has the practices of wholesomeness but is polluted by action of wrongdoing; this is called false mind.
Great Mind: If, having liberated all sentient beings, one’s vow is completed; if, having attained Buddhahood, one’s vow is fulfilled, it is called great mind.
Small Mind: If one contemplates the three realms as a prison and the cycle of birth and death as the enemy; if one aims for self-liberation, not for the liberation of all, it is called small mind.
Partial Mind: If one sees there are sentient beings and Buddhahood outside of one’s mind and makes a vow to liberate sentient beings and to attain Buddhahood; and if one is not able to forget one’s merits and break through worldly knowledge and views; this is called a partial mind.
Perfect Mind: If one realizes that one’s intrinsic nature is as a sentient being and therefore one vows to liberate it; that one’s intrinsic nature is Buddhahood and therefore one vows to attain it; that there is no existence of a phenomenon away from one’s mind; that using a mind of emptiness, one makes a vow of emptiness, practices the way of emptiness, and achieves the fruit of emptiness; and that, however, even emptiness, in actuality, has no form; this is called a perfect mind.
Give Rise to the True Bodhi Mind
To know these eight different forms of a vow is to know how to examine them. Having right examination, one knows how to accept and how to reject. Knowing how to accept and reject, one can give rise to the Bodhi mind.
How does one examine them? In setting one’s mind, there are these eight forms, so which is evil, and which is right? Which is true, and which is false? Which is great, and which is small? Which is partial, and which is perfect? How does one accept and reject?
One should reject an evil, false, small, and partial mind but accept a right, true, great, and perfect mind.
If one initiates such a mind, it is called the initiation of true Bodhi mind.
Continued …
First criterion: Being mindful of the Buddha’s deep kindness
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.
