GENERATING THE ALTRUISTIC MIND OF AWAKENING

The ceremony for generating bodhicitta, the altruistic mind of awakening.

Among the audience, those who are practicing Buddhists can participate fully in this ceremony. Those who are not Buddhists can participate in the ceremony as a means to strengthen your commitment to the ideals of compassion and altruism.

Before you participate in the actual ceremony, as a preliminary practice you should call to mind

the Seven Limb Practices—these being :

(i) prostrations, (ii) making offerings, (iii) disclosure and purification of non-virtuous actions, (iv) cultivating the capacity to rejoice in the positive actions of others, (v) appealing to the buddhas to turn the Wheel of Dharma, (vi) requesting the buddhas not to enter into nirvana, and (vii) dedication.

For the actual ceremony, in the space where the thangka painting of the Buddha is hung you should imagine the presence of a real Buddha in person. Imagine that the Buddha is surrounded by many great spiritual masters of the past, such as Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti, Shantideva and those whose works we have cited. Then, with a mind untainted by afflictive emotions, reflect upon the fact that, just like you, all sentient beings have a natural desire to be happy and to overcome suffering. Also reflect upon the disadvantages of self-centeredness and the self-cherishing attitude, and upon the benefits of thinking about and working for the well-being of others. Bring to mind the infinite number of sentient beings, and cultivate the strong determination that you will seek the attainment of the full enlightenment of buddhahood so that you can accomplish their welfare.

With the recitation of the first verse we are invoking the presence of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and calling out to them to bear witness to our generation of the altruistic mind. Now, with a strong resolve and determination to bring about the welfare of all beings, arouse the altruistic mind within you.

With these preparations, let us read together the following stanzas three times:

With the wish to free all beings

I shall always go for refuge

To the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

Until I reach full enlightenment.

Enthused by wisdom and compassion

Today in the buddhas’ presence

I generate the mind for full awakening

For the benefit of all sentient beings.

As long as space remains

As long as sentient beings remain

Until then may I too remain

To dispel the miseries of the world.

We cannot expect to actually gain the realization of the altruistic mind of awakening simply by participating in this ceremony. But if we constantly engage in the thought processes of training the mind by reciting these verses on a daily basis, and try to deepen our experience that way, we will gradually become more and more familiar with the sentiments of these verses and with the ideals of the altruistic mind of awakening. Over time we will be able to gain deeper levels of experience.

It will also be useful to remind yourself from time to time that you participated today in this ceremony of generating the altruistic mind of awakening on the basis of reading these lines. You can use this as an inspiration for your spiritual practice.

Similar Posts

  • Common Ground Between Islam And Buddhism

    By Reza Shah-Kazemi With an essay by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Introduced by H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama H. R. H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali First published in 2010 by Fons Vitae 49 Mockingbird Valley Drive Louisville, KY 40207 http://www.fonsvitae.com Email: fonsvitaeky@aol.com© Copyright The Royal Aal-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan…

  • Buddhism In Russia

    THE STORY OF AGVAN DORZHIEV, LHASA’S EMISSARY TO THE TSAR John Snelling, world-renowned Buddhist scholar, died in 1991. He was General Secretary of the Buddhist Society and Editor of The Middle Way, He is the author of The Sacred Mountain, The Buddhist Handbook and The Elements of Buddhism. IN MEMORIAMKHAMBO LAMA AGVAN DORZHIEVAND FORTHE BUDDHISTS…

  • Reality

    Also known as “meat space” to differentiate it from cyberspace and regular space, which is a vacuum. “How can this chair be a chair and also a quantum probability and also mostly empty space?   How do those different realities co-exist? How can the same “object” follow one set of physics at a conventional scale…

  • An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism

    An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism Acknowledgments ix A Note on Transliteration xi Introduction: The Archaeology and History of Indian Buddhism 1 The Material of Religion 34 From the Buddha to Ashoka: c. 600–200 bce 70 The Sangha and the Laity: c. 200 bce–200 ce 104 The Beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha Images, and Monastic…

  • Rulers, ruled by Women

    Lewis, Jone Johnson. (2025, April 1). Women Rulers of the Ancient and Classical World. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-women-rulers-3528391 Though most rulers in the ancient world were men, some women wielded power and influence as well. These women ruled in their own names, and some even influenced their society as royal consorts. The ancient world’s most powerful…

  • DEPENDENT ORIGINATION AND THE LAW OF CAUSALITY

    A key principle here is dependent origination. This fundamental principle of Buddhism states that everything arises and ceases in dependence upon causes and conditions. The fourth-century Indian Buddhist thinker Asanga identified three key conditions governing this principle of dependent origination. First is “the absence of designer condition,” which pertains to the issue of whether or…