..续本文上一页the food or clothing are used up, the problem returns. What the bodhisattva aims for is a very great and lasting benefit. So when a bodhisattva helps someone, he or she tries always to give that person the very best, which is to establish them on the very best path. If we can show someone how to enter the supreme path, then the benefit is great and will increase not just immediately, but throughout all time. This doesn”t harm others and helps the person develop in every aspect. So the love, compassion, and care that the bodhisattva has brings everyone to the supreme path and is really what is meant by true love, compassion, and the activity of the bodhisattva.
The bodhisattva”s pure motivation is extremely powerful and skillful. For instance, communism also has a view or philosophy, but spreading that philosophy involved great armies, vast amounts of wealth, and a great deal of fighting and violence. Even all those armies and military equipment didn”t really convince people of the truth of communism. In contrast, the Buddha didn”t spend millions to propagate his ideas or employ vast armies with sophisticated weapons to convince people of the validity of what he was saying. He just had a begging bowl and taught. Because of his powerful and pure motivation, his ideas touched millions and millions of people and his teachings are still spreading. When the Buddha taught the dharma, he did it with the greatest love for everyone without any bias. He did it without wishing to bring harm to a single sentient being. He did it with a very pure compassion and wisdom. After 2,500 years all of his teachings are still perfectly intact and are still spreading and touching others without any effort on the Buddha”s part showing the power of his pure motivation.
The bodhisattva”s motivation of the Mahayana is vast, far-reaching, and extremely powerful. Of all the things that one tries to awaken in the Mahayana this motivation is really the key. From the very beginning one tries to develop this very vast and powerful attitude in which one develops love and compassion along with wisdom that is unbiased and a genuine desire to free everyone from suffering. This approach is the very core of bodhicitta, the driving force or motivation. The opposite of this is to have a biased mind and this selfish attitude poisons the environment.
Bodhicitta, on the other hand, is very beneficial for oneself and for all others. So, when someone has bodhicitta, whatever he or she does, is like medicine or healing nectar (Skt. amrita) which brings calmness, peace, and the coolness discussed before. It is very beneficial and is like a great and powerful medicine. It just flows out quite spontaneously and naturally from the presence of one”s bodhicitta. Take the supreme example of bodhicitta: when the Buddha taught, he led a very simple life and everything happened spontaneously around him. These far-reaching effects were a completely natural outflow of this very therapeutic healing, coming from the very pure motivation which he had. This is very special.
If one looks, for instance, at the Catholic church, one can see that it is a very powerful organization and a great deal of effort goes into spreading the doctrine as an organized business. There are missionaries and a definite effort to spread the philosophy and view. Even though there is all that effort and organization, it does not necessarily spread the view of Catholicism. With the Buddhist dharma, in contrast, there is the natural radiance of bodhicitta and the activity of the Buddha which through his very pure mind allows the dharma and its meaning to spread from one person to another in a very spontaneous and natural way.
The two main characteristics of the Buddha”s activity are its spontaneity and its eternity…
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