Bodhicitta and Enlightenment

The Bodhicitta starts as a methodology to karmically connect you with your own enlightenment. The mind absorbs what it comes into contact with and most people forget to even think about giving rise to enlightenment. When a teacher says, “Give rise to Bodhicitta,” that means to give rise to the enlightened precepts within your mind. By doing this you arouse enlightenment within your system and connect your personal identity to this enlightenment.

The Bodhicitta gives you the ability to come into contact fearlessly with both the positive and negative sides of yourself. As the karma unfolds, there will be a lot of negative stuff that comes out of you—lust, greed, jealousy, anger, envy. As these dark angels of past karmas are released they will haunt you. It's important not to recatch that virus as they are released. It's so easy to become lost in the maelstrom of your own unfoldment.

You must keep the idea of the Bodhicitta high in your heart and bright in your mind. It is the rising sun, the flag of victory going up on the hill, a point of rally. It is one of the tricks to staying on the path with unwavering attention as your karmas unfold.

Bodhicitta

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Waking up inside this world is a very strange experience. The first thing you see is the unbelievable amount of suffering that takes place here. You think, “Oh yes, the world is a terrible place and there's an enormous amount of suffering,” but most of you still just know this theoretically.

There's an aspect to the process of awakening that puts you in touch with suffering in such a way that it cannot be avoided: the suffering of yourself; the suffering of those around you; the cruel actions that are generated by yourself and those around you; watching this suffering compound itself and generate false understanding and false actions that lead to more suffering. All this must be confronted.
 
This is one of the things that tends to throw travelers on the path. The only thing I've been able to find that is capable of dealing with the vibration of suffering and pain is the bodhicitta.

Why Do We Offer a Dedication at the End of a Meditation?

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

listen to this quote as you read:

And in this way we also always generate a dedication; we offer the merit of the event to all sentient beings. When samadhi is present when the formless nirvikalpa samadhi the pure speech of the creation is present it is boundless and on one level it is present in this room but when we offer it in dedication to the world system it traverses the world and produces an expression of total unity in truth, a total unity in dharma. Uplifting all beings and uplifting ourselves.

If we try to hold it within ourselves we haven’t understood and we think that we have something, we’ve gained something and we don’t want to lose it or if we give it to another person that we are that much diminished but in truth it is much more like a flame lighting another flame.

You can take a flame and light another flame and the original flame is undiminished. This is its nature.

Inside this dedication is a constant idea of generosity and it comes from where we are coming from. If we perceive ourselves as a bound afflicted being then we will see ourselves as being under such and such a situation and having so much. And if we give it away we are diminished by that much. We have lost.

But if we understand ourselves from the absolute sense, experience ourselves from the absolute sense there is no separation no diminishment and all beings are uplifted.

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Excerpt from the Mahasamadhi Retreat - Intersection With The Guru, October 2, 2009

The Self

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

The idea inherent in mysticism is that one uses the substance and constituents of one's own being as a pathway through the creation to connect with the innermost state of the Self.

The idea of the Self is very profound and subtle, and is one of the most recent ideas to have arisen in the scriptures; it refers to that point of union wherein individual identity and universal consciousness meet.

It is the very fabric of your own consciousness and all the qualities of your being that are the vehicle through which you travel for this conversation to occur. Nothing is transcended, nothing is left behind, everything is used.

Swift Water

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

It's the nature of the Guru's grace to keep you in swift water. Thus you must learn to navigate swift water, and this is where the Bodhicitta comes into play. What we consider our lives are the assembly of our perceptions, and the first nexus point of perception is in the Bodhicitta.

The heart and the mind need each other to operate correctly. This is the essence of the Bodhicitta—they are joined together. The mind alone is an imperfect perceiver. The heart alone is an imperfect perceiver. Knit together they begin to function as they were intended to function.

Bodhicitta is the deep, abiding relaxation of heart and mind which doesn't try to control everything but sits open—without fear, without judgment, and deeply accepting. You find yourself at the right spot, at the right time, vividly present as you become excruciatingly awake to every fiber of consciousness.

What's the meaning of Om Swaha?

The Om Swaha: remember how we were talking about the triangle at the crown of the head, and I said that the three points of the triangle represent the power of the guru – one corner represents the Om, one represents the So, one represents the Ham; in other words, those reflect the three psychic nerves of ida, pingala and sushumna.  At the center of that triangle is infinite jet-black consciousness, pure consciousness.  The Om Swaha is the signature of the three psychic nerves, of sushumna, ida and pingala.  In other words, you are resonating the essence of your being when you say Om Swaha; you go, Om, Swa, Ha, and your entire spinal cord, brain, sushumna, ida and pingala vibrate.  It carries the point of a signifier of, 'Yes, this is complete.', it is completed in an auspicious way, well done, complete – Om Swaha – it's done, it's over, it's sealed, it's packaged, it's got a bow on it, and you can go on to the next thing

Life is the fountain from which all blessings flow

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING
Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Life is the fountain from which all blessings flow. Everything that is meant for you by God, Guru, and Self will appear by virtue of life. How you get to it is the great mystery that lies between destiny and fate.

Destiny is irresistible; it cannot be changed even by God. But fate flows swift and fickle. How quickly you see the truth of a situation, the cost of a moment of hesitation, the cost of a mistake, the rush of victory when you make all the right choices – this is your fate.

Your destiny is to awaken in the ocean of consciousness. The rivers and paths that you take to get there is your fate.