Boddhicitta - about Being a Heart-Warrior

Boddhicitta is a sanskrit word which means “heart-mind” In Chinese, the written character for the word 'heart' is the same as for the word 'mind'. That's why some scholars use the expression 'heart-mind'.

Boddhi means being awake, enlightened or “completely open” Chitta means mind, heart or attitude.

So practicing Boddhicitta means we make a commitment to ourselves to living with an open heart and mind, and with compassion and kindness. Towards ourselves as well as others. It’s not always easy to practice - especially when we’re in the middle of “stuff” and using anger, opinions, judgments, strategies, to protect ourselves - because we are afraid to be vulnerable. But what I always find amazing - and sometimes it seems difficult even to imagine - that living with an open heart is our natural condition and underneath all the layers of hang ups our natural condition is Boddhicitta. That's why it feels so good when we are living with an open heart. Because it is our natural state.

As meditators, we make a commitment to living with an open heart. A commitment to practicing Boddhicitta. And when we make a commitment to this practice, we undertake to generate this quality of fearlessness and we become a Boddhisattva. That’s why Boddhisattvas are sometimes called Warriors. Not because we go out an fight in the traditional sense, like a ninja :) but because we fight ignorance, we fight our own tendency to wrap things up and build those walls, we fight our fears, we move into those vulnerable spots with courage. Like a warrior.

We might think people who are fearless have no fear. But I don't think that’s fearless. We all have fear. Fearless in this context means courageous - it means we might be afraid, but we'll do it anyway. Because we're Boddhisattvas. We're heart-warriors. In our practice, being a Boddhisattva, being fearless, means we take a step (maybe baby-steps first) into the unknown. We don’t avoid or try to get rid of uncertainty and fear – it’s about how we relate to it. Even in any ordinary day: How do we relate to the unpredictable things we experience in any ordinary day: where do we close our heart-mind: with difficult emotions? Where are we holding back? worrying about what others think, or looking stupid? Or because we know it will be a struggle: and struggle can feel like failure.

We all have different things that we tuck away into those vulnerable corners. Different things we need to learn to open up to and soften around. For me, being a heart-warrior often means I have to soften around letting things flow and open up to trust. Trusting myself that I will be able to handle anything that comes into my space, and it will be fine. Not needing to have certainty about what will happen - later or tomorrow. Or at all. Knowing that I don't need to second-guess or control, because whatever happens, I know I can deal with it. That's Boddhicitta too: living with an open heart.

I used to read a story to my son when he was little called “The best nest”, so I really like Pema Chödrön 's analogy to going out into the world with a fearless heart: I quote from her book "The Places that Scare You":

“... All too frequently we relate like timid birds who don’t dare to leave the nest. Here we sit in a nest that’s getting pretty smelly and that hasn’t served its function for a very long time. No one is arriving to feed us. No one is protecting us and keeping us warm. And yet we keep hoping mother bird will arrive.

We could do ourselves the ultimate favour and finally get out of that nest. That this takes courage is obvious. That we could use some helpful hints is also clear.

We may doubt that we are up to being a warrior-in-training. But we can ask ourselves this question: “do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly? Or do I choose to live and die in fear?”

With my own experience of practicing Boddhicitta, I noticed to practice fearlessness we need faith. What philosophy, ability or quality do you have in which you can place your faith?

We’ll meditate on this … and think about the concept of finding our own faith in one of the other classes.

Thank you for sitting with me this morning. Have a wonderful day.

Metta to you all

_/\_