What does it mean to be compassionate? And how can we find compassion for those in our life that may be more difficult to love? Through the lens of Bodhicitta, I believe it is possibly to find compassion for all beings – even the ones that hurt us and/or hurt others. The power of the practice is to see people’s nature beyond the actions they bring into the world and recognize the goodness that lies in each and every sentient being.
According to the 14th Dalai Lama, bodhicitta is:
the aspiration to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake - is really the distilled essence, the squeeze juice, of all the Buddha's teachings, because ultimately, the Buddha's intention is to lead all sentient beings to perfect enlightenment.[11]
In meditation teacher training this past weekend, we talked about Bodhicitta as we learned how to teach a loving kindness meditation. This practice is one that I have been doing unconsciously for many years but as I deepen my study of Buddhism, I feel as if I am being led by the way of being motivated by this practice.
Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could love every being? If we were able to stretch the capacity of our hearts to encompass all sentient beings? What would a world look like if everyone was doing that?