Bodhicitta: Higher Truth

Bodhicitta: Higher Truth from Satipatthana Sutta
This is a new book that presumes A: that there are people who have an interest in and need to improve their lives, and B: that the author can actually convey something useful on this subject in a meaningful way.
Definition of Bodhicitta: the mind/heart aspiring to achieve enlightenment for others.

“Buddhist teachers often describe [Bodhicitta] as limitless loving kindness, an active orientation toward seeking the betterment of everyone instead of one's own selfish benefit alone. Practicing Bodhicitta involves bringing our Buddha nature out into the world with our intention and with each one of our thoughts, words, and deeds. The Dalai Lama says, 'The highest perfection of altruism, the ultimate altruism, is Bodhicitta complemented by wisdom. Bodhicitta –the aspiration to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings and to attain Buddhahood for their sake –is really the distilled essence, the squeezed juice of all the Buddha's teachings.' Wisdom and compassion, truth and love in action, are actually inseparable.”
(Surya Das, pg. 15)

Chapter 1: Purification of beings

The Main Idea:
The main thrust of this book is to discuss the way in which the Satipatthana meditation scheme can be used to convey the experienced practitioner of Buddhism along a path of purification to Nirvana. Each of the chapters discusses some portion of these essential teachings and processes with the goal of enabling the reader to become proficient in using this technique, and capable of understanding why it is important to do so. The first chapters are identified in the closing words of Satipatthana: “This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow & lamentation, for the disappearance of pain & distress, for the attainment of the right method, & for the realization of Unbinding — in other words, the four frames of reference.” The remaining chapters elaborate topics, guide the practices that follow from these, or seemed compelling and useful.
In Chapter 1 I want to also firmly establish the existence of Higher Truth and what that means. For a long time skeptic and atheist, this understanding was slow coming and resisted, until I finally "got it" in the way that I convey in this book. An entire book is required because sound bites and slogans won’t work to convey this understanding to most freethinkers; these quick phrases never worked for me. Those who come to this book to learn “super-natural truths” will likely be disappointed, but those for whom natural truths still hold mystery and offer the excitement of learning new secrets; they will be rewarded. Dhamma is defined as the “the secret of nature that must be understood in order to develop life for the highest possible benefit.” (Buddhadasa, 1988, pg. 1) Even electricity holds many mysteries and if I were to study the secrets of electricity and electro-magnetism more, I would surely be excited by learning some mystifying natural truths. Likewise for the task of studying and learning by practicing Satipatthana; the natural truths of Dhamma, which at first seem mystifying, are the Higher Truths referred to in the title of this book.
For those for whom no convincing is required, knowing the why of doing Buddhism in particular is a liberation itself. For the rest of us, the answer to “why” is connected to the non-physical meaning of the word Buddha. Historically speaking we accept that there was a mortal man who practiced what he preached for some forty-five years about 2500 years ago. He was given the title “Buddha” but we want to understand beyond that prosaic way, to internalize “…the Truth which the historical Buddha realized and taught, namely the Dhamma itself… The Dhamma is something intangible [an abstraction.] …One who sees the Dhamma sees the Tathagata [One gone to thusness.] …So in Dhamma language, the Buddha is one and the same as that Truth by virtue of which he became the Buddha, and anyone who sees that Truth can be said to have seen the true Buddha… ‘The Dhamma and the Vinaya (Discipline)… shall be your teacher when I have passed away.’ Thus the real Buddha has not… ceased to exist… The real Teacher, that is, the Dhamma-Vinaya, is still with us.” (Buddhadasa, 1999, pp. 18-19) Thus it is obvious for those who already accept Buddhism as a guide for their lives that they are in an important way connected to this Higher Truth. For the rest of us, gaining this understanding will hopefully be a rewarding awakening.
Each chapter will touch on the “wider and deeper meaning” of the particular content under consideration. This is how purification enters the picture; to be thought of as a gradual process of awakening, practicing with awareness, following the precepts and becoming a compassionate, calm, wise and ethical person, thus becoming enlightened. “With that acceptance, we shall be able to know that what we have obtained from Buddhism is twofold, the first being the texts or scriptures and the second the exemplary persons in the form of both monks and lay disciples.” (Nyanasamvara, pg. XXX) And we should feel a personal affinity to these two aspects, as we repeatedly take Refuge each time more wholeheartedly.
So how does one get from a state of questioning and skeptical rationality to pursuing purification? And if we achieve that, what is our reward? These questions will remain at least partially open as we proceed. This book is intended as a sequel to the Buddhist Sutras, Thirty Lessons, so many of the assumptions and explanations for most Sanskrit (and Pali) words are discussed there. Even though we start with the basics – it is also a good review – the teachings very quickly become a complicated story; but the rewards are worth the effort.