After the Buddha asked Mahakashyapa about the Bodhicitta, he said: “The awakened mind and the mind that aspires to awaken others first are indistinguishable. But the mind that aspires to awaken others is more difficult to find. I bow before the mind that aspires to awaken others first.”
The Bodhicitta, the mind that aspires to awaken others first
Kashyapa is speaking about what in Sanskrit is called the Bodhicitta, and in Japanese Bodaishin: the mind that aspires to awaken others before oneself. As the Buddha teaches in the Lotus Sutra, developing and nurturing this Bodhicitta is fundamental to complete awakening, and indispensable if we are to free ourselves from the very root of all suffering.
If we only strive to practise for our own personal benefit and well-being, no matter how much effort we make, no matter how much we purify our body and mind, we will simply be nourishing the idea of an illusory self, as though there were a self that could awaken alone, that could enjoy happiness all by itself. But believing in this illusory self, and maintaining a selfish way of functioning in our mind, is precisely the obstacle that prevents us from awakening completely; it is the root of all our suffering.
Bodaishin in the Zen tradition
This is why all the great masters of our Zen tradition have made such great efforts to teach us to develop and nurture bodaishin, the spirit of awakening others first, because this is the way to transcend the self and awaken completely together with all beings.
And how can we develop the bodhicitta? What concrete things can we do? To develop bodaishin there is no need to recite any magical mantra or acquire any secret knowledge. It is very simple: all we need to do is practise with others.
Practising with others
Practising with others, as we do at the dojo seven days a week. Or practising in sesshin, the Zen retreat, as we will do in June and August. This is how bodhicitta develops. It involves things as seemingly insignificant as having to set aside something personal in order to come and meditate with others; or accepting other people’s imperfections and our own, and sitting together. It is these small things that allow the bodhicitta to grow.
The Zen path, the path of meditation, is a path that we can only walk together. Although each of us has our own life, our occupations and our family, we can only fully realise this Way if we realise it together.
It is the Great Vehicle, the community of meditators of which we are part. Protecting this community, helping to move this Great Vehicle forward, is also a way of developing and nurturing the bodhicitta.
Protecting the community means protecting the dojo and its activities, supporting it financially through our monthly contribution, and continuing that support even when we do not come for a few months, or when we live far away and can only come occasionally. Maintaining this support with others in mind, so that they may find a place to meditate just as we ourselves have found one, is also a way of developing and nurturing the bodhicitta.
Ultimately, everything we can give to support the practice of others, especially when what we give is ourselves, greatly strengthens this spirit of awakening that we share with all beings.
Lluís Nansen
Author of Dharma Zen, l’ull de la joiosa revelació, edicions viena