The Excellence of the Meditation Upon the Bodhimind, by the Seventh Dalai Lama

Honor to Buddha, the supreme sage,
the cosmic overlord who awakens
all beings from drunken ignorance
by manifesting the hundredfold light
of truth’s brilliant door.

Even should the earth be covered
with a layer of lesser jewels,
their radiance would be far surpassed
by one fragment of a sparkling diamond;
similarly does one with bodhimind
outshine Hinayana followers.

Of this thing called bodhimind,
source of all spiritual qualities,
the supremely significant,
the psyche of a High One,
the force producing all Buddhas,
I now sing this praise.

The expanded mind which thinks
only of that which benefits others
is a tree of endless fruit;
one touch of its divine sap
quenches even the word ‘suffering’.

Merely looking at hunger and deprivation
turns one’s stomach with horror;
bodhimind is the only medicine able to cure
all forms of need;
just as the naga king’s jewel
fulfills the wants of even hungry ghosts.
Animal passion which clouds the mind,
animal stupidity blind to spiritual potential:
the one sun to dispel them
is bodhimind, torch of infinite rays.

For destitute beggars at the door
of the treasury of higher delights,
bodhimind is the gatekeeper;
and he fulfills mundane needs as well.

Only bodhimind, the thought
to be a Buddha,
totally purges the ugliest of sins –
sins which result in suffering,
a fraction of which would break a man.

It is a magic thing
to destroy misery now and forever,
a fabled potion to open
the passage of a mother in labor.

The sole thought on everyone’s side,
the precious mind aiming at enlightenment
as a way to further the world,
was seen by Buddha to be
the highest of spiritual means.

For the sake of both yourself and others,
plant the fertile seed of bodhimind,
which quickly produces the state of Buddha,
freedom from every limitation;
and make it firm as a mountain.

Buddha said, ‘By cultivating the seeds of bodhimind
all spiritual qualities are born;’
those who have developed it
He called kings of doctors.

It can be read in both the sutras and shastras
that the bodhimind is the door to the Mahayana,
and that the supreme practitioner who attains it
becomes a Bodhisattva, a son of the Buddhas.

Whether or not one is a Bodhisattva
is decided by whether or not one has bodhimind;
he anointed with its sandalwood fragrance
is adorned with the richest of good qualities.

Even the eagle, king of birds, cannot fly
if he is missing a wing.
Many find the wing ‘perception of emptiness’
but only those with the wing of bodhimind
fly to the omniscient state of Buddhahood.

Were the advantages of bodhimind to take form,
the universe could not contain them.
Generating it but for a moment produces
more goodness than offering
a world filled with the seven jewels
to the Buddhas of the ten directions.

This is but a drop from the ocean of the
beneficial effects of bodhimind,
all of which even Buddha could not describe.
Therefore wrap closely around your shoulders
the cloak of love and enthusiasm
for this one path all Buddhas have trod,
and become a living legend of one attained
to freedom and knowledge.

By virtue of this song
on the elixir which transforms gross beings
into beautiful, golden Buddhas,
may all living beings attain
to a state of expanded mind.