| abstract
| - Etymologically, the word is a combination of the Sanskrit words bodhi and citta. Bodhi means "awakening" or "enlightenment". Citta is derived from the Sanskrit root cit, and denotes "that which is conscious" – mind or consciousness. Bodhicitta may be translated as "awakening mind" or "mind of enlightenment". Bodhicitta may also be defined as the union of compassion and wisdom. This is a development of the concept of luminous mind in the Pali Canon. While the compassion and wisdom aspects of bodhicitta are actually highly dependent on each other, in the Mahāyanā tradition (the school of Buddhism within which the terminology relating to bodhicitta is most fully developed) they are often referred to as:
* Relative bodhicitta, which refers to a state of mind in which the practitioner works for the good of all beings as if it were his own.
* Absolute, or ultimate, bodhicitta, which refers to the wisdom of shunyata (śunyatā, a Sanskrit term often translated as "emptiness", though the alternatives "openness" or "spaciousness" probably convey the idea better to Westerners) . The concept of śunyatā in Buddhist thought does not refer to nothingness, but to freedom from attachments (particularly attachment to the idea of a static or essential self) and from fixed ideas about the world and how it should be. The classic text on śunyatā is the Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra, a discourse of the Buddha commonly referred to as the "Heart Sūtra." So, the term bodhicitta in its most complete sense would combine both:
* the arising of spontaneous and limitless compassion for all sentient beings, and
* the falling away of the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existent self. Some bodhicitta practices emphasize the absolute (e.g. vipaśyanā); others emphasize the relative (e.g. metta), but both aspects are seen in all Mahāyāna practice as essential to enlightenment, especially in the Tibetan practices of tonglen and lojong. Without the absolute, the relative can degenerate into pity and sentimentality, whereas the absolute without the relative can lead to nihilism and lack of desire to engage other sentient beings for their benefit. Bodhicitta may be viewed as having different levels: one useful classification is that given by Patrul Rinpoche in his Words of My Perfect Teacher. He states that the lowest level is the way of the King, who primarily seeks his own benefit but who recognizes that his benefit depends crucially on that of his kingdom and his subjects. The middle level is the path of the boatman, who ferries his passengers across the river and simultaneously, of course, ferries himself as well. The highest level is that of the shepherd, who makes sure that all his sheep arrive safely ahead of him and places their welfare above his own. Although classification systems do vary (some schools even denying any conceptualizing of the path to Buddhahood) e.g. yellow hats argue that with bodhicitta one enters the path of accumulation
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