picturing your mother ravished by hunger and thirst and tormented by disease, train in compassion towards hungry ghosts. Imagining your mother rendered incapable—being beaten, enslaved, and forced to do all sorts of arduous labor—train in compassion towards animals. Imagine that she is blind, standing at the edge of an abyss. Since she doesn’t know where to turn, she falls with no escape from suffering. Using that analogy, train in developing an almost unbearable feeling of compassion towards the beings of the three higher realms. Just as before with loving-kindness, gradually expand your sense of compassion to all beings.
When you start to feel an uncontrived compassion, think, “I will protect all of my old mothers, the sentient beings of the six classes, from negative karma and suffering. I will lead all of them out of these painful states of samsara. May they all be freed from suffering. May they be freed from the causes of suffering, karma and the negative emotional states.” Think in that way and also recite the words verbally.
It is said in The Realization of Avalokiteshvara:
If you possess a single quality, that is equal to having every teaching of the buddhas in the palm of your hand. What is that single quality? It is great compassion.
This illustrates the immeasurable benefits of compassion.
Having thus aroused loving-kindness and compassion, which you previously lacked, you must train in strengthening and expanding them and in giving up selfishness. Instead, practice giving your pleasure to others and taking their pain upon yourself, thus equalizing and exchanging yourself with others.
As Shantideva said:
Unless you exchange thoroughly the suffering of others with oneself, you will not obtain enlightenment, and there is no happiness in samsara.
To begin with, follow this train of thought: “I want to be happy, and I don’t want to suffer. All other sentient beings are exactly the same; they are equal in having the same wish. I am just one person, but sentient beings are many, so actually they are more important. Therefore, I will take upon myself the suffering that my old mothers so detest and give them the happiness they wish for.” Combine this with your breathing and imagine that when you exhale, whatever virtue you have accumulated from beginningless time and whatever happiness you now possess, all of it, is sent to other sentient beings in a stream of white light. Imagine with confidence that each and every one of them receives your virtue and happiness in full measure and that they attain peace and well-being and their causes, in both body and mind.
When inhaling, imagine that all the causes of suffering—karma, negative emotions, evil actions, and obscurations—which they have accumulated since beginningless time, as well as the results of suffering, all of it, is completely absorbed into you as a black cloud, and it dissolves into you. Thus, they are all freed from suffering and its causes. Also recite the following from the depth of your heart, training your mind in loving-kindness and compassion:
May all sentient beings attain my virtue and happiness.
May all the evil deeds, obscurations, and suffering of sentient beings ripen upon myself.
TRAINING IN BODHICHITTA
This has two aspects: training in the bodhichitta of aspiration and training in the bodhichitta of application, which is the six paramitas.
Training in the bodhichitta of aspiration
Here, train in the following thought: “In order for all parent sentient beings to constantly have well-being and be perpetually free from suffering, they must attain complete enlightenment. But in order to help them do that, I must first, for their sake, attain the state of true and complete enlightenment myself. Having attained that, I will lead every single sentient being without exception out of samsara’s ocean of suffering and establish them all at the level of Buddha.” That resolve is called aspiring towards enlightenment, the bodhichitta of aspiration.
Just by forming that resolve, you will accomplish the benefit of oneself and others, all personal flaws will be eliminated, and all the virtuous qualities will be gathered, and so forth. In this way, the benefits are inconceivable.
As taught in the sutra requested by Shridana, Resplendent Generosity:
If the merit of bodhichitta were to have a physical form, it would fill the entirety of space and be even larger.
Once you have given rise to this bodhichitta of aspiration, you must train in its precepts. The root precepts are to never forsake sentient beings, to abandon the four negative dharmas, to train in the four positive qualities, and to exert yourself day and night in the skillful means for increasing the two accumulations further and further.
The meaning of forsaking sentient beings is as follows: One may think, for example, “I am unable to attain enlightenment” and then turn away from the Mahayana teachings and revert to pursuing solely one’s own benefit. Since this is completely abandoning the cause for attaining buddhahood, the repercussions are extremely negative. In addition, you may have an angry thought towards just one or two sentient beings, thinking, “May I never meet you again, I will not help you, and the like.” Or you might beat, hurt, or wish to harm someone, whether it be an animal, such as a dog; a thief; a rat; or even a louse. Such actions and attitudes are all included within the category of forsaking sentient beings.
The first of the four negative dharmas is to deceive a guru, meaning someone who is a recipient of offerings and worthy of respect. Here, deceive means “to lie to them verbally and thus trick them.” The second is to cause someone to regret what is not to be regretted; to commit an evil action is a cause of regret, not something virtuous. The third is to disparage someone who has generated bodhichitta. In other words, to either directly or indirectly defame or criticize a bodhisattva, meaning anyone who has just recited the words of bodhichitta on up. Fourth is to deceive a sentient being, either by manipulation or direct lies for selfish purposes. This even includes fooling others with weights and scales in business.
All of these have very negative repercussions. Therefore, you should turn away from them and train in their opposites, the four virtuous qualities. These are, first of all, to be truthful and avoid deceiving others, even at the cost of one’s life. Second is to establish all beings in virtue and especially establish them in the virtuous roots of the Mahayana, such as in the bodhichitta resolve. The third is to regard everyone who has engendered bodhichitta as the teacher in person and to praise his or her excellent qualities. The fourth is to never deceive a single sentient being, but to be honest towards them all and to always uphold the noble intention of taking the burden of benefiting others upon yourself.
You must also, to the best of your ability, train in the accumulation of merit through virtue in your thoughts, words, and deeds and through study, reflection, and meditation on the sacred dharma. According to your ability, you must also train in the accumulation of wisdom.
Training in the bodhichitta of application
Here there are two aspects: the general training in the bodhichitta of application and the specific trainings.
It is not enough to just wish to attain complete enlightenment; it is necessary to actually train in the activities that are the causes for this attainment. Even though these activities are vast and extensive, their very essence is the six paramitas and the four means of magnetizing. Therefore, you should think, “I will embark upon the activities of the bodhisattva in order to attain complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.” Thus, abide by the four means of magnetizing. These are mentioned in the scripture called the Lotus Mound:
Agreeably beckon sentient beings with the fan of generosity,
Welcome them with pleasantly spoken words,
Make them at ease with meaningful action,
And give them consistent advice.