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(Chitta, meaning “mind” or “attitude”, and Bodhi, meaning “awake” or “enlightened”); mind that seeks enlightenment. The two aspects of bodhichitta are linked together: Relative bodhichitta and ultimate or unconditional bodhichitta. Relative bodhichitta is our ability to open our hearts and minds to the world with ongoing and limitless compassion; ultimate or unconditional bodhichitta is the experience of wisdom and innate understanding of the ultimate truth, the reality of existence, without judgment or opinion. The two forms are linked together, for without one the other could not fully exist. In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, opening one’s mind to awakening is the first step on the path to bodhisattva.
From: Bodhichitta: The Excellence of Awakened Heart By Pema Chödrön
The compassion and wisdom aspects of bodhichitta, also termed relative and ultimate bodhichitta, need to be developed more or less simultaneously – they are like the two wings of a bird that are needed to fly. Relative bodhichitta can be described in terms of a great compassion which is limitless – a wish that all the sufferings of all sentient beings throughout existence be extinguished forever.
Ultimate bodhichitta , is wisdom - the experience of ultimate truth, the realization of emptiness and the way things really exist. Wisdom and compassion are closely linked, and as long as we are lacking wisdom our compassion will be incomplete.
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