The mind of bodhicitta, which is called the most supreme and profound mental state, is the key to our achieving both our own ultimate and everlasting happiness and is essential to our achieving a state of being and ability that allows us to be of ultimate benefit to others. Through its development we naturally purify grasping to a self, which acts to counteract negative thoughts and afflicted emotions. Furthermore, embracing bodhicitta while holding the wisdom of the view of the emptiness of the three spheres - individuals and phenomena and actions- we then traverse the stages of the bodhisattva bhumis and will gain abilities to bring ease and benefit, happiness– and bring an end to suffering. And we can do this, this is not a far fetched goal! We need a path and we need effort, meaning we need to practice that path. So we learn, train and habituate to sincere altruistic intention and continue to read and study and analyze to come to certainty in regards to the wisdom of the view- thus gathering the accumulations of merit and wisdom.
From Geshe Jinpa Sonam’s August 25th teaching on Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva, translated by Dianne Mckinnon