Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
Cultivating Bodhicitta
To generate bodhicitta — the heartfelt wish to benefit all beings — by dissolving the felt boundary between self and other: first recognising all beings as equal in wanting happiness, then exchanging the priority of self for the welfare of others.
Cultivating bodhicitta in 5 lines: First equalize — reflect until felt that you and all beings are exactly alike in wanting happiness and freedom from suffering. Then exchange — reverse the me-first default, holding others’ welfare as you hold your own (enacted on the breath via tonglen). If that’s too steep, use the gentle seven-fold route: all beings as kind mothers → repay → love → compassion → resolve → bodhicitta. Seal with the four immeasurables. You are included; this dissolves self-cherishing, not self-care.
What it is
Bodhicitta — the “awakening heart,” the wish to benefit all beings — is the goal the whole lojong system serves. This entry covers the contemplative methods for generating it, the heart of Point Two (“the actual practice”) of mind training.
Two classical methods are taught: the seven-fold cause-and-effect sequence, and the more radical equalizing and exchanging self and other, drawn from Śāntideva and central to Atiśa’s lineage.
Both work to dissolve self-cherishing — the reflexive ranking of “my” welfare first — and replace it with genuine, even-handed care. Tonglen is the breath expression of the exchange; this is the contemplative cultivation behind it.
The Method
Practised as progressive contemplation. The two methods, as transmitted: A. Equalizing self and other (the foundation).
- See the fundamental equality. Reflect, over and over, that you and every other being are exactly alike in one basic respect: all want to be happy and to be free of suffering, and none more deservingly than another. “There is not the slightest difference between yourself and others in wanting to be happy and to be free from suffering.”
- Level the bias. Notice how arbitrarily the mind privileges “me.” Hold all beings as equally worthy of happiness — neutral parties, loved ones, and difficult people alike — until the felt hierarchy softens. B. Exchanging self and other (the radical step, built on A).
- Reflect on the faults of self-cherishing and the value of cherishing others. Contemplate how putting oneself first has produced anxiety and conflict, while caring for others produces connection and peace.
- Exchange the priority. Deliberately put others’ welfare in the place you normally reserve for your own — not self-erasure, but reversing the default ranking so that another’s wellbeing matters as your own does.
- Express it on the breath (tonglen). Take in others’ suffering on the in-breath, send out your happiness on the out-breath — the active enactment of the exchange. C. (Alternative on-ramp) The seven-fold cause-and-effect, when the exchange is too steep:
recognising all beings as having been your mother → recalling their kindness → wishing to repay it → love → compassion → the special resolve to act → generating bodhicitta itself. A gentler, graduated route to the same heart.
- Seal with the four immeasurables. Many traditions frame the whole cultivation with the four immeasurable wishes — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity — radiated to all beings. (Sourcing note: the two methods, the seven causal steps, and the equality reflection are the standard lamrim/lojong presentation drawn from Śāntideva and Atiśa’s lineage. Faithful summary of the traditional contemplations.)
Source & Lineage
Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982–1054) placed bodhicitta cultivation at the centre of the path he brought to Tibet, founding the Kadam lineage’s compassion emphasis. The exchanging self and other method derives from Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra (8th c.); the seven-fold cause-and-effect is the alternative classical method.
Both flow through the lojong transmission systematised by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175). The Dalai Lama and the Lamrim tradition continue to teach both methods as the two doors to bodhicitta.
The Traditions' versions
Loving-kindness / mettā (Theravāda) — radiating goodwill to self, loved ones, neutral, difficult, all beings; structurally close to equalizing + the four immeasurables.
- The Golden Rule / “love your neighbour as yourself” — the ethical core of the exchange, across traditions.
- Tonglen — the breath enactment of “exchanging self and other.”
- Common-humanity self-compassion (Neff) — the secular “we are all alike in suffering and wanting happiness” recognition.
- Perspective-taking / empathy training — modern interventions that deliberately adopt another’s standpoint.
Common refinements
Exchanging before equalizing. Jumping to “others first” without the equality groundwork breeds either guilt or fake selflessness. Equalize first — it is the stable base.
- Confusing it with self-neglect. The exchange dissolves self-cherishing (the anxious ranking of me-first), not self-care. You are included in “all beings”; healthy boundaries remain.
- Forcing the feeling. Bodhicitta is cultivated, not commanded. If the exchange feels false, drop to the gentler seven-fold cause-and-effect, or to plain loving-kindness.
- Staying abstract. “All beings” is too vast to feel; begin with specific people and widen, as with tonglen.
- Skipping the motivation (preliminaries). Without the four reminders grounding why, the cultivation floats.