Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
This is where prayer can be of value to us. When we As we practice shamata and constructive activity, we
feel upset or without a strong center, we can pray to will find that our minds begin a gradual change. We
the Buddha for strength and inspiration. The Buddhas are less worried about ourselves and our personal
only wish was that all beings become enlightened, and possessions and territory and are more open to oth-
he dedicated his life to accomplishing that goal. That ers. We begin to see that other beings are just like us
wish in itself means that he is constantly with us, and in their wish for happiness, but are held down by their
that the strength of his example is always open to us. conflicting emotions and selfishness, just as we have
Knowing this, our prayers are successful and our con- been. We begin to see the reasons for their sufferings,
fidence is bolstered. and begin to take more interest in helping them reach
enlightenment themselves.
Constructive actionprecepts and vows
In the Tibetan tradition, this re-direction of interests
Once we have dedicated ourselves to the Buddhist and energies is formalized in a practice called Bodh-
path through Refuge, its important to re-direct our icitta. Bodhicitta is a Sanskrit word meaning, Mind
energies to pursuing constructive activities. Because of Awakening, and is defined as both the wish to gain
we understand karma, and know that selfishness and enlightenment for the sake of others and the activity
selfish action are the causes of suffering and confu- that leads to that enlightenment.
sion, we try to pursue activities that decrease our ego-
As we gain more experience through our practice, we
clinging and increase our selflessness. The Buddhists
see that while our former motivation of gaining en-
call these actions virtuous actions because they nullify
lightenment solely for ourselves was helpful in getting
ego-clinging.
us to practice, that we eventually need to broaden our
The Buddha gave a list of virtuous and non-virtuous horizon and shake off the last traces of selfishness in
activities to serve as a guide in helping us follow a self- our motivation to reach enlightenment.
less life. He taught that killing, lying, stealing, sexual
The height of this desire to rid ourselves of selfishness is
misconduct, drunkenness, gossip, slander, covetous-
shown in taking the Bodhisattva Vow, in which we vow
ness, resentment and non-spiritual views lead to more
to work toward enlightenment for the benefit of all be-
selfishness and suffering. He also taught that protect-
ings. This means we have recognized the importance of
ing life, generosity, living ethically, telling the truth,
others to our path, and that we know our field of work-
patching up quarrels, speaking with gentleness, dis-
ing on ourselves includes our relationships to others.
cussing things helpfully, rejoicing in the fortune of
others, thinking of others benefit and not denounc- We generate Bodhicitta by saying prayers of aspira-
ing the beliefs of others produce more peace and hap- tion (bolstering the wish part of our practice) and
piness, not only for ourselves, but for others, as well. by counteracting our ego-clinging through practic-