Bodhicitta

In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhicitta ("aspiration to enlightenment" or "the thought of awakening") is the mind (citta) that is aimed at awakening (bodhi) through wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Bodhicitta is the defining quality of the Mahayana bodhisattva (a being striving towards Buddhahood) and the act of giving rise to bodhicitta (bodhicittotpāda) is what makes a bodhisattva a bodhisattva. Bodhicitta is the generative cause of a bodhisattva's eventual Buddhahood. The Daśabhūmika Sūtra explains that the arising of bodhicitta is the first step in the bodhisattva's career.

Etymologically, the word is a combination of the Sanskrit words bodhi and citta. Bodhi means "awakening" or "enlightenment". Citta derives from the Sanskrit root cit, and means "that which is conscious" (i.e., mind or consciousness). Bodhicitta may be translated as "awakening mind" or "mind of enlightenment". It is also sometimes translated as "the thought of enlightenment."

The term bodhicitta is defined and explained in different ways by different Mahayana Buddhist sources. According to Paul Williams, the basic meaning of bodhicitta in Indian sources (such as Atisha's Bodhipathapradipa) is the lofty motivation to "strive to bring a complete end to all the sufferings of others along with their own suffering...This bodhicitta results from deep compassion (karuna) for the suffering of others."

According to the Bodhisattvabhumi, the bodhisattva who gives rise to bodhicitta thinks thus:

O may I obtain supreme and perfect Enlightenment, promote the good of all beings, and establish them in the final and complete nirvana and in the Buddha-knowledge!

Thus, according to the Bodhisattvabhumi, bodhicitta has two objects of thought or themes (alambana): bodhi and the good of the living beings (sattv-ārtha).

Similarly, in the Ornament of Realization (Abhisamayālaṁkāra), bodhicitta is defined as follows: