Part 5 - As for meditation on joy

Now that we have aroused bodhicitta:

From now on we are the sustenance^[1] of beings.
We have a bodhisattva name as the Buddha’s child.
Within samsara we fearlessly benefit sentient beings.
We are always concerned with their benefit alone.
Thus there is a meaning to samsaric human life.

From the instant bodhicitta is attained, those who have this mind unimpaired are known in the samsaric world as bodhisattvas. The goodness of this, our family, should not be impaired, but increased. We meditate in immeasurable joy. Directly or indirectly, we should benefit sentient beings. Even when we cannot, still we aspire to do so. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

Thus by those who are intelligent,
Having grasped this excellent bodhicitta,
Because they enter into and increase it,
Mind will be ennobled and uplifted.

Today I have the fruition of my life,
I have gained the meaning of human existence,
I am born in the family of the Buddha,
I have become a child of the Buddha.

Whatever I may do from this time onward,
I will try to act in accord with my family.
I will try to act so as not to trouble
This family which is so faultless and noble.

Like a blind man finding a precious jewel
In a heap of filth and discarded rubbish,
Just like that, and seemingly by chance,
Bodhicitta has been born in me.

How many terms are there for bodhisattvas? There are sixteen. The Mahayanasutralankara says:

They are known as bodhisattvas, and mahasattvas,
Wise ones, and the excellent luminous ones,
The Buddha’s children, the ground of victorious ones,
Buddha producers, and the buddha sprouts,
Skillful ones, and excellent noble ones,
Ship-captain guides, as well as supremely renowned,
Compassionate ones, and those who have great merit,
Noble lords, and possessors of the Dharma.

As soon as bodhicitta is aroused the benefits of bodhicitta spread. The forty-fourth chapter of the Gandavyuha Sutra^[2] tells how Sudhana, after Mañjushri aroused in him the wish for enlightenment, went ever southward to seek these precepts. At the bank of the southern ocean, in a tower called “Having a center Adorned by Vairochana” surrounded by a retinue of many hundreds of thousands

of bodhisattvas, Maitreya was teaching the Dharma. Sudhana saw him from a distance of five hundred pagtse. He was glad and rejoiced, and did ecstatic prostrations. Having seen him, Maitreya extended his right hand,^[3] and placed it on Sudhana’s head. To the retinue he contentedly expressed Sudhana’s praises:

Look now, how, with thoughts that are completely pure,
This Sudhana, who is born of stable, enduring riches,
Seeking true practice of supreme enlightenment,
This knowing and capable one, has come before me now.^[4]

Also he said:^[5]

Welcome, you who are kind as well as compassionate.
Welcome to the vast mandala which is that of Maitreya^[6]
Welcome, you who are very peaceful to behold,
At the time of practice, do not become fatigued.

He said this and so forth. Sudhana joined his palms and requested. “Noble one, if I am truly to enter into unsurpassable enlightenment, please teach how I should diligently perform or seek the practice of a bodhisattva?^[7]

The answer was, “O son of noble family, You have been completely accepted by the spiritual friend.^[8] Why so?

Son of noble family, bodhicitta is like the seed of all buddha dharmas. It is like the field where the white dharmas of all beings grow.^[9]”

After two hundred and fifty examples had been fully and explicitly taught, From there up to the examples of elixirs and jewels,^[10] Sudhana had these benefits and immeasurable others. What is taught here is more extensively presented in the sutra.