“6. Virtue, thus, is weak; and always
Evil is of great and overwhelming strength.
Except for perfect bodhichitta,
What other virtue is there that can lay it low?”
Compared to the myriad ways we have invented to distract ourselves from life, virtue seems weak, a tad bland compared to the technicolor fantasy realms in which we dream ourselves in books and film. And with the surgical precision of our mastermind marketing firms, there seems to be no end to all that we need. Carefulness, patience, simplicity, concentration- these things seem to contradict the ideas that we are taught to believe are normal by the media which surrounds us. With all the daily sources we have that teach us to ignore these virtues and the fewer and fewer sources to which we have access, which teach us these virtues, virtue itself seems to be becoming weaker and evil seems to indeed be growing stronger.
Enter bodhichitta, the “awakened mind” that is dedicated to helping everyone. Without this essential tool, our virtues take a back seat to temporary pleasure and every glossy-two-page-spread desire we come across. But once we open up to our essential awakened mind, once we allow it to have a voice within us, it seems to bolster our awareness of virtue, it allows us to fully realize, for instance, just how powerful our patience can be in quelling adversity. And working from a place where the intention is to help everyone allows us to drop our hang ups, our fears and our egos.
Bodhichitta permeates through all the virtues and binds them together into a complete and powerful whole. And by rooting our virtue in an awakened mind, we are simultaneously deepening it and widening it. In patience, for instance, without an awakened mind, we can practice a patience which can lead to a sort of just trudge through it sort of patience, as if life were something that we are just trying to get through, rather than fully experience. To people around a person with this frame of mind, the person may very well seem to be an extremely patient person. But inside, the aversion to life and the need for distraction grows exponentially.
Whereas once we are able to tap into bodhichitta, we can see that we don’t need to suffer through life, that it isn’t a contest of strength and will to get through to some unknown goal or prize. Rather we can find ways of living and doing that help us and help others. Seeing the full extent of our lives and the ripples that our actions send out in every direction from our center, provides a much more powerful sense of patience that could be had without it.
*All quoted text is from The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva from Shambala Classics