Buddhist practice is not about working for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and then obtaining a “certificate of Buddhahood”
In Buddhist practice, a situation sometimes arises. Whether we are cultivating bodhicitta, contemplating emptiness, or engaging in meditative concentration (samādhi), we may unconsciously turn practice into a task. As a result, we fail to experience the joy of the Dharma and the happiness that genuine practice should bring.
Some people think, "The five preliminary practices! When will I ever finish these one hundred thousand prostrations? When will I finally complete the mandala offerings?" It is as if, once everything is completed, a ‘certificate of Buddhahood’ will be issued. Approaching Buddhist practice with such a checklist mentality is clearly unacceptable.
Buddhist practice is not about completing tasks imposed upon you by others, but about genuinely changing your own heart
No matter which virtuous practice one engages in, faith and strong motivation are essential for positive results—especially when engaging in the Five Preliminary Practices. Many people reduce these practices to merely accumulating numbers of recitations or mechanically completing prescribed actions. While this approach may not be entirely inappropriate for beginners, we must clearly understand that practice is not about fulfilling externally imposed requirements. Its purpose is genuine inner transformation. Therefore, practice should not be treated as labor or obligation. Instead, one should cultivate a mind that gives rise to a deep sense of Dharma joy and delight during practice. Only then can practice exert its proper effect.
How can this be achieved? Through perseverance and long-term, consistent familiarization with the path. Haste leads nowhere. The joy of spiritual practice is not easily attained, but if one persists steadily and regularly, it will certainly arise.
A Decisive Factor in Generating Dharma Joy: Bodhicitta
There is a decisive factor in generating Dharma joy: genuine bodhicitta. Bodhicitta functions almost like a determining key—it can swiftly give rise to joy in practice. Without it, Dharma joy is very difficult to experience.
There is a well-known story about Bodhisattva Asaṅga. In his aspiration to realize the Mahāyāna path, he practiced the teachings of Maitreya on Mount Kukkutapāda for twelve years, yet saw no signs of attainment. Disheartened, he left his retreat and descended the mountain. On the way, he encountered a dog whose hindquarters were infested with maggots. Moved by compassion, he attempted to remove the maggots with his tongue, fearing that using his hands might cause them pain. At the very moment his tongue touched the dog, the animal vanished, and Maitreya Bodhisattva appeared.
Was the act of licking itself extraordinary? Not at all. The essence lay in bodhicitta. In that moment, Asaṅga’s mind was filled with profound compassion and the willingness to sacrifice himself to relieve suffering. On the Mahāyāna path, especially in the early stages, cultivating bodhicitta is even more crucial than meditating on emptiness. We often speak eloquently about emptiness, using expressions such as freedom from the four extremes, the union of clarity and emptiness, or the collapse of subject and object. Yet these easily become empty phrases. In reality, a mind dominated by strong clinging to a personal self cannot genuinely realize the selfless nature of reality.
What defines a Bodhisattva of the First Bhūmi, known as the Ground of Great Joy (Pramuditā-bhūmi)? The criterion is the elimination of conceptually imputed clinging, including both imputed clinging to a personal self and imputed clinging to phenomena. Innate clinging only begins to be gradually relinquished after reaching this stage.
If the coarse manifestations of conceptually imputed clinging to a personal self have not yet been eliminated from one’s mental continuum, how could one possibly attain the First Bhūmi? Therefore, one must initially exert great effort to weaken clinging to the personal self. When this reaches a certain level, supported by the blessings of the guru, sublime methods, and the lineage, one can gradually begin to glimpse the nature of reality (dharmatā).
To truly abide in the realization of the Ground of Great Joy—completely free from conceptually imputed clinging—remains a demanding path. This difficulty does not lie in generating some extraordinary meditative experience, but in genuinely letting go of self-attachment.
The first and most effective weapon for relinquishing self-clinging is bodhicitta; only then does the practice of emptiness follow. Without bodhicitta, it is extremely difficult for practice to bear fruit, because bodhicitta directly counteracts and undermines clinging to a personal self. Such clinging differs from physical form. Through analysis, we can understand the emptiness of material phenomena (clinging to the self of phenomena) and gradually experience them as dreamlike and illusory. Clinging to a personal self, however, is far more subtle. Although we may intellectually understand that it binds us to saṃsāra and experientially recognize that it gives rise to suffering, many practitioners at the beginning stage do not even clearly recognize what it is. Regardless of whether one can precisely identify the characteristics or essence of clinging to a personal self, bodhicitta remains a powerful and effective antidote, capable of directly countering and diminishing it.
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
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