Just as a bank multiplies your money, bodhichitta multiplies your merit, and not just by a little, but by leaps and bounds! With each thought of benefiting others, your merit becomes limitless because the number of beings you wish to help is also boundless. Even the slightest intention to heal the headaches of sentient beings accumulates inconceivable merit. But when you actively strive to eliminate their suffering and bring them happiness, the merit skyrockets-like hitting the jackpot! Reciting the Twenty-one Tara praises with bodhichitta is equivalent to reciting them a hundred thousand times while offering a single butter lamp with bodhichitta yields the merit of a hundred thousand light offerings. It's like a mega bonus!
Bodhichitta is like a treasure trove of merit, as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo beautifully explained. It holds limitless skies of merit within your reach! Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that when reciting mantras with bodhichitta, each mantra becomes a powerhouse of merit, benefiting every sentient being-including the smallest insects, the tigers, snakes, and even our enemies. There's no discrimination-it covers all races and all living beings. Bodhichitta encompasses countless insects, animals, and all living beings in forests, fields, and skies who endure immense suffering.
By generating bodhichitta, we are planting seeds that bring us closer to its realization. Every action we undertake with the motivation of bodhichitta benefits countless sentient beings, supporting their happiness and well-being. Its scope is vast, embracing all beings in all universes, from the tiniest to the largest, providing hope and relief to even those who have committed unspeakable acts of cruelty.
We should reflect on the immense power of bodhichitta, a force capable of transforming the world and alleviating the suffering of countless beings. Through cultivating compassion, wisdom, and realization, we can offer increasingly profound benefits to others and ultimately guide them from happiness to enlightenment.
Bodhichitta is the door to the Mahayana path of enlightenment, and by embracing it, we can unlock the qualities admired by all Buddhas. With bodhichitta, we embark on the journey of becoming buddhas ourselves, bringing happiness and freedom from suffering to every single sentient being. By taking universal responsibility for their well-being, we can actualize the highest potential within ourselves.
This teaching was given at Institut Vajra Yogini, France as part of a Four Kadampa Deities Retreat from April 18-May 11, 2003. You can see all the teachings from this retreat here:
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