Aemilius wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:12 pm
By gathering the collections of merit and wisdom (punya sambhara and jñana sambhara) for innumerable lifetimes and for several or many kalpas (world cycles).
This is how you attain enlightenment - however you also purify the mind and purify karma as Shakyamuni Buddha did over three kalpas.
So a briefer answer is purify the mind and karma and accumulate incalculable heaps of merit and wisdom.
As it is said in Dharmapada 14:183 "Do good, don't do evil, purify your mind."
And as Vimalikirti says in the VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
'What is meant by "seat of enlightenment"?' He then spoke the following words to me, 'Noble son, the seat of enlightenment is the seat of positive thought because it is without artificiality. It is the seat of effort, because it releases energetic activities. It is the seat of high resolve, because its insight is superior. It is the seat of the great spirit of enlightenment, because it does not neglect anything.
"'It is the seat of generosity, because it has no expectation of reward. It is the seat of morality, because it fulfills all commitments. It is the seat of tolerance, because it is free of anger toward any living being. It is the seat of effort, because it does not turn back. It is the seat of meditation, because it generates fitness of mind. It is the seat of wisdom, because it sees everything directly.
"'It is the seat of love, because it is equal to all living beings. It is the seat of compassion, because it tolerates all injuries. It is the seat of joy, because it is joyfully devoted to the bliss of the Dharma. It is the seat of equanimity, because it abandons affection and aversion.
"'It is the seat of paranormal perception, because it has the six superknowledges. It is the seat of liberation, because it does not intellectualize. It is the seat of liberative technique, because it develops living beings. It is the seat of the means of unification, because it brings together living beings. It is the seat of learning, because it makes practice of the essence. It is the seat of decisiveness, because of its precise discrimination. It is the seat of the aids to enlightenment, because it eliminates the duality of the compounded and the uncompounded. It is the seat of truth, because it does not deceive anyone.
"'It is the seat of interdependent origination, because it proceeds from the exhaustion of ignorance to the exhaustion of old age and death. It is the seat of eradication of all passions, because it is perfectly enlightened about the nature of reality. It is the seat of all living beings, because all living beings are without intrinsic identity. It is the seat of all things, because it is perfectly enlightened with regard to voidness.
'It is the seat of the conquest of all devils, because it never flinches. It is the seat of the triple world, because it is free of involvement. It is the seat of the heroism that sounds the lion's roar, because it is free of fear and trembling. It is the seat of the strengths, the fearlessnesses, and all the special qualities of the Buddha, because it is irreproachable in all respects. It is the seat of the three knowledges, because in it no passions remain. It is the seat of instantaneous, total understanding of all things, because it realizes fully the gnosis of omniscience.
"'Noble son, when bodhisattvas are thus endowed with the transcendences, the roots of virtue, the ability to develop living beings, and the incorporation of the holy Dharma, whether they lift up their feet or put them down, they all come from the seat of enlightenment. They come from the qualities of the Buddha, and stand on the qualities of the Buddha.'
"Lord, when Vimalakirti had explained this teaching, five hundred gods and men conceived the spirit of enlightenment, and I became speechless.
So the above passage can be too much at once, but the gist is that during the accumulation (or development) of wisdom, one has to abandon all negative actions and perform positive actions (for example, it is the seat of generosity).
As Mirror and others said: through the development of Bodhicitta, the mind of Enlightenment, which is also in the Mahayana the dedication to attain Enlightenment for oneself and all beings, thus becoming a Bodhisattva and training in the path of the Bodhisattva. The path of the Bodhisattva is summarized as a being dedicated to attaining Enlightenment for all beings (so to be able to lead all beings to Enlightenment) , abandoning all negative actions, performing positive actions esp. to help other beings (accumulate merit) and to dedicate that merit for all beings to attain Enlightenment, and to develop wisdom which is more specifically the full understanding of Emptiness. There are several Bodhisattvas who delineated their actual practices. One of the several is Samantabhadra and his ten vows :
to pay homage to all the buddhas;
to glorify the qualities of all the tathāgatas;
to make ample offerings to all the buddhas;
to confess and repent of all one's misdeeds;
to rejoice in the merits of others;
always to request the preaching of the dharma;
to entreat enlightened beings to remain in the world;
to always to study the teachings of the buddha;
to always to respond to sentient beings according to their various needs;
to dedicate all merits to sentient beings that they may achieve buddhahood.
Kirt's Tibetan Translation Notes
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
"Most all-knowing Mañjuśrī, ...
Please illuminate the radiant wisdom spirit
Of my precious Buddha nature."
HH Thinley Norbu Rinpoche