byang chub sems

bodhicitta, pure & total presence, primordial state, total presence, enlightened attitude, life-force, energy, ethical impulse, bodhisattva vow, seed of compassion, semen, as lived experience (myself and my milieu), as creativity (khu ba as semen and rdul as blood), as indivisibility (of stong nyid (e) the intended and snying rje (vam), mind principle of illumination, pure perfected nature of mind, ka dag lhun grub dbyer med, enlightened mind, awakened mind, awakening mind, bodhichitta. (JV)

• Enlightened Mind [GD]

bodhicitta [a mind directed towards primordial] pure and total presence, a mind set on enlightenment, awakened heart, enlightened mind, enlightened attitude. (IW)

bodhicitta [IW]

a mind directed towards pure and total presence, a mind set on enlightenment, bodhichitta, awakened heart, enlightened mind, attitude, the primordial state of pure and total presence; enlightened mind. byang meaning - pure of obscurations and chub meaning perfect in enlightened attributes. (RY)

Skt. bodhicitta, 'Enlightenment Mind' or 'Awakening Mind'. On the conventional level of Relative Bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the wish to attain the state of complete Enlightenment or Awakening, Buddhahood, for the sake of all sentient beings, in order to benefit them generally, and also to bring them to the state of Enlightenment in particular; as well as the determination to practice of the Bodhisattva Path of love, compassion, the Six Transcendental Perfections (pāramitā-s), etc., necessary for achieving that goal of Buddhahood. On the absolute level of Ultimate Bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the direct insight into the ultimate nature of phenomena and the true nature of mind.

Notoriously difficult to translate into English and thus often simply left in Sanskrit, bodhicitta has been rendered numerous ways, some of which are more accurate that others, including “awakened mind” (inaccurate), “awakened heart” (inaccurate), “enlightened mind” (inaccurate), “enlightened heart” (inaccurate), “thought of enlightenment/awakening” (somewhat accurate), “altruistic aspiration to enlightenment/awakening” (accurate), “awakening mind” (accurate), “will to enlightenment/awakening” (accurate), “bodhi mind” (accurate), “bodhi heart” (accurate), and “spirit of enlightenment/awakening” (accurate). “Enlightenment Mind” (or “Mind of Enlightenment”), is the most literal standard translation of the term, and in many contexts may also be the most appropriate for capturing the nuances of the term bodhicitta in English, although “Awakening Mind” amounts to the same thing and is a bit shorter. Care must be made not to wrongly indicate that this mind is one which has already attained Enlightenment, which is why “enlightened/awakened mind” is inaccurate. See also byang sems and byang chub kyi sems [Erick Tsiknopoulos]