enlightenment,wisdom and merit
Posted by Clarity on 03 Jan 2008 at 05:29 pm | Tagged as: Buddhism
Shambhala Sun - Approaching the Guru
To cut a long story short, if you want enlightenment you need wisdom. If you want wisdom, you must have merit. And to have merit, according to mahayana, you must have compassion and bodhichitta, the wish to establish beings in the state of freedom.
Bodhichitta means far more than the wish to establish beings in the state of freedom. It also means that you must understand, deeply and clearly, the source of your own suffering. As the Buddha said, you cannot have true compassion for another until you have compassion for yourself. This means to see and accept yourself, warts and all. Out of this springs wisdom, and ultimately, with a lot of work, enlightenment.