There is a practice in Buddhism called raising Bodhicitta.
It may involve a particular mudra or hand posture. It may be done sitting or standing. Eyes open or closed.
Raising Bodhicitta involves cultivating compassion and a desire to benefit all beings.
It’s a heart-felt intention often made at the beginning of meditation practice. The key (as with many practices) is to feel it.
Lama Tsultrim Allione said something recently about raising Bodhicitta which changed my daily life.
During our foundation courses, she commented on this practice and how it is beneficial to do this practice at the start of any venture. If you’re starting a business or perhaps even writing a blog post…
Instead of limiting this cultivation to the start of meditation practice, this compassionate pursuit can inform your day — all day.
Think of how charged up your cells will be as you pause several times throughout your day to generate Bodhicitta and feel all of that compassion!
Lama Tsultrim said something else that changed my day and made me laugh.
She spoke about dedicating the merits of our practice — usually done at the end of meditation when we offer the merits of our efforts to benefit all beings.
She said that you could spend your morning meditating and gathering merit and then get angry in the afternoon and lose all of that merit. So, the trick (my word, not hers) is to dedicate that merit as soon as you finish your practice so that it can’t be overturned by any issues arising later in the day.
Basically, if I spend my morning in glorious heart-felt meditation, I can invest that merit immediately and then when the cat pisses me off later by howling for hours to go outside and I end up losing my cool and raising my voice… the merit has already been banked 🙂
So, like Bodhicitta, I pause to dedicate merit throughout my day. In case the cat (one of my greatest teachers) hands me a lesson in patience.
As I grow older, I think more and more about how to be of benefit in this lifetime. For me, it’s often the small, seemingly insignificant practices that are in fact the most significant. And they make me smile, like I know a little secret I hold in my heart and don’t let on about. I’ve now shared it with you…. so we can both smile a little knowing smile as we practice. I’m all about the stealth practice, the secret blessings, the quiet cultivation of compassion. Perhaps, it keeps the ego at bay and tends the heart-fire.
I wrote a book on the Householder Yogini. There is so much we can practice and enjoy and learn from in our daily life: while washing the dishes or talking to our kids or building our business. We can sew benefit into the seams of our work and world all day long. What a beautiful garden to tend while we go about our day.
Where can you cultivate compassion in the course of your day?
In the spirit of Bodhicitta,
Much love,
Stephanie
Stephanie Hrehirchuk - Author 