Notes on the Absolute Bodhichitta Aphorisms

February 26, 2026

KCC is currently offering an ongoing series on Lojong, or Mind Training, reviewing the Seven Points of Mind Training and examining how they can be applied in our daily lives and practice. The notes below were shared by Lama Eric as a reflection on absolute and relative bodhicitta and on how to engage the tradition’s well‑known aphorisms connected with these points. For upcoming Mind Training classes, click here.

The aphorisms in the first part of the second of the Seven Points of Mind Training belong to absolute bodhichitta. So what is bodhichitta? Bodhi means awakened. Chitta means mind. Bodhichitta is sometimes translated as “the mind of awakening.”

There are two types of the mind of awakening: absolute and relative, but they need some unpacking.

Absolute Bodhichitta
Absolute/ultimate/fundamental mind of awakening is the most basic reality itself. As we are not separate from ultimate reality, our most basic nature is that fundamental mind of awakening. In The Practice of Lojong, Traleg Rinpoche says:

“Absolute bodhichitta is our authentic and original state of being, and therefore relates to the wisdom aspect of enlightenment. Despite the fact that sentient beings experience a multitude of delusions and obscurations, an element of the mind remains uncorrupted. There is an open, empty, clear, spacious, and luminous clarity of mind that is beyond concepts, ideas, or sensations… Alternative terms for this supreme aspect of bodhichitta are emptiness, the natural state, buddha-nature, the nature of the mind, the ground of being, ultimate reality, and the primordial state, depending on the context.”

Absolute bodhichitta is nondual wisdom, complete insight into the nature of reality, or awakened mind itself. Easy, right?!

Relative Bodhichitta
Relative/provisional/conventional bodhichitta or the relative mind of awakening is the wish to realize awakened mind itself in order to help all others do so as well. It is also all of the dualistic, provisional, conventional, or relative tools that we implement to gain insight into this ultimate truth. It’s all the skillful means of the Dharma, all the views, terms, metaphors, and practices, that allow us to remove the misconceptions or veils or assumptions or patterning that keeps us from realizing the absolute truth or absolute bodhichitta. Often it is glossed as compassion, in all of its subtlety.

Relative bodhichitta has two aspects: aspiration bodhichitta and application bodhichitta. Aspiration mind of awakening is the wish to realize the mind of awakening to be able to help all others to do so. Application mind of awakening is our work—all of the things we do to manifest this. It comprises all of our accumulations of virtue through study, contemplating, and meditating; through embracing loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; through our practice of the six paramitas of generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom; and so forth.

Mind Training is most well-known for its relative bodhichitta slogans—pithy aphorisms of views and practices for us to apply in the relative world to enhance our compassion and prepare the ground for insight into wisdom. After these slogans, the majority of the rest of the book is about relative bodhichitta. But as we know, the absolute and relative (or wisdom and compassion) need to be applied in tandem—we need both of these wings of the Mahayana. Therefore, these absolute bodhichitta aphorisms must be included for the practice to be complete.

Why place them here, at the beginning of the text?
Perhaps they are placed here to remind us of why we practice. What is the most profound insight that we can achieve via the buddhadharma? These meditation instructions are a very direct way to access this wisdom. But they are self-secret—at first, the words are not enough for us to grasp their promise.

However, our first approach to the absolute is through our shamatha (calm abiding) meditation practice of being aware of the body, aware of the breath, aware of sound, or just resting with awareness itself. Meditation begins to gift us the space between stimulus and reaction in which we can apply these tools of the relative practices. Again, from Traleg Rinpoche:

“We must learn to temporarily rest in our natural state through the tranquility meditation before
we practice relative bodhichitta. It is essential to understand this point, for even though we can’t
permanently access absolute bodhichitta, we can learn to temporarily rest in it during
meditation. If we were to begin the mind training practices of relative bodhichitta before
learning to rest in this open, empty, free, spacious, luminous clarity of mind, we would only
increase our mental agitation.”

We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that we can fully appreciate the depth of these absolute aphorisms right away, but we need not feel wholly incapable. The essence of being is buddha nature. Practice is about aiming our intention in this direction and continuing to take steps in this direction.

So we meditate as regularly as we can to keep working the absolute bodhichitta angle, and in between meditation sessions, we employ all of the views, tools, and practices of relative bodhichitta, which are critical for deepening our meditation. Traleg Rinpoche once more:

“It is the practice of compassion (relative bodhichitta) that leads to the actualization of the wisdom mind (absolute bodhichitta), for while the practice of relative bodhichitta does not cause enlightenment, it does help to lift the veils and remove the afflictions that create obstacles to permanently actualizing the ever-present condition of absolute bodhichitta… Compassion is not just about alleviating the suffering of others; it is also a powerful tool for effecting our own spiritual transformation.”

How to Work with Each Aphorism
Do the meditations that Norman Fischer offers in his writings. Or…

See everything as a dream / Regard all phenomena as dream-like
This is meant to reduce our fixation on phenomena as being truly existent, permanent, and fixed. Contemplate that all compounded phenomena are impermanent. Consider how everything arises due to causes and conditions and is therefore interdependently arisen.

And/or, know that in a dream, there is a sense of duality between self and other, but really, since we and all that appears in the dream are equally the play of the dreaming mind, that sense of duality, though thoroughly convincing in the dream, is an illusion. Consider that if you were dreaming now, you would be sure that there was this duality between self and other, but that it would be mistaken perception. This might give rise to a sense of spaciousness, wonder, curiosity, or just a bit of respite from oppressive fixation. This makes for a more open mind, more conducive to insight.

Examine the nature of unborn awareness
There is a knowing to your being; a sense of being, presence or awareness. It is that which is present now and in which the perception of these words is arising. Be with this knowing and be curious about it. Does this knowing—that which knows or is aware—have color, shape, size, location, an inside or outside? Let the awareness be curious about its qualities.

Don’t get stuck on peace / Even the remedy is free to self liberate
The remedy to not knowing the nature of unborn awareness is a careful and persistent investigation of it. Over time, these examinations undermine our misconceptions about awareness, not just in a conceptual way (which is also good and important), but more importantly, in an experiential manner. We investigate in short stints, but then, we need to stop and allow. Insights come after the searching has stopped. So use the antidotes of the investigation, but allow the investigation to stop…let it self-liberate.

Rest in the openness of mind / Rest in the natural state, the basis of all
So then what? 1) We investigate the nature of unborn awareness. 2) Then, regardless of what our investigation turns up, we let go of the examination. And 3) We then just rest in the space that remains. It is in that space of resting that experience, insight, or realization will unfold. Whether we utilize the three aphorisms listed in the previous paragraph in our meditation or just rest in open awareness meditation (just being with the awareness itself and not directing it to anything
in particular) we are working with the absolute bodhichitta aphorisms.

In post-meditation, be a child of illusion
When rising out of meditation, we don’t want to slip back into habitual, mistaken fixation on relative phenomena being the whole picture. Carry forward some sense of the view. Just be more mindful in between sessions. Continue to reflect on impermanence, interdependence, and emptiness. Try to be like a baby taking in a cathedral, just being present with experience without names and concepts for everything. See the phenomena of the world and interact skillfully with them but maintain a sense of openness, wonder, and curiosity.

Musings on the absolute bodhichitta aphorisms by Eric Trinle Thaye for the Mind Training Study Group. February 2026